n advance in prices. Capital was attracted into this
speculation by the prospect of large gains, and so great was the
demand for money that there was a remarkable advance in the rates of
interest. In the West, where the speculative fever was at its highest,
the common rates of interest were from 2 to 5 per cent. a month.
Everything was apparently in the most prosperous condition, real
estate going up steadily, the demand for money constant, and its
manufacture by the banks progressing successfully, when the failure
of the "Ohio Life and Trust Company," came, August 24, 1857, like
a thunderbolt from a clear sky. This was followed by the portentous
mutterings of a terrible coming storm. One by one small banks in
Illinois, Ohio, and everywhere throughout the West and South went
down. September 25-26 the banks of Philadelphia suspended payment, and
thus wrecked hundreds of banks in Pennsylvania, Maryland and adjoining
States. October 13-14, after a terrible run on them by thousands of
depositors, the banks of New York suspended payment. October 14 all
the banks of Massachusetts went down, followed by a general wreckage
of credit throughout New England. The distress which followed
these calamities was very great, tens of thousands of workmen being
unemployed for months. The New York banks resumed payment again
December 12, and were soon followed by the banks in other cities. The
darkest period of the crisis now seemed past, although there was
much heart rending suffering among the poor during the winter which
followed. The commercial reports for the year 1857 showed 5,123
commercial failures, with liabilities amounting to $291,750,000.

THE HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH ROCK.--A flat rock near the vicinity of New
Plymouth is said to have been the one on which the great, body of the
Pilgrims landed from the Mayflower. The many members of the colony,
who died in the winter of 1620-21, were buried near this rock. About
1738 it was proposed to build a wharf along the shore there. At this
time there lived in New Plymouth an old man over 90 years of ago named
Thomas Faunce, who had known some of the Mayflower's passengers when a
lad, and by them had been shown the rock on which they had landed. On
hearing that it was to be covered with a wharf the old man wept, and
it has been said that his tears probably saved Plymouth Rock from
oblivion. After the Revolution it was found that the rock was quite
hidden by the sand washed upon it by the s