Dreadful Thing

In Rhode Island bank deposits go to the State if they have been unclaimed for 15 years. In most States, deposits cease to earn interest after 20 years, must be left inviolate by the bank. Dormant accounts are a nuisance, an expense, since they require constant tracing, frequent publication. In New York State unclaimed deposits come to about $1,500,000 out of five billions.

Last week an enterprising reporter for the New York Evening Post scoured the lists of unclaimed deposits in an effort to find news. He discovered that a Down & Out Club of Brooklyn has made no effort to claim its bank deposit for 22 years. He found a wine & liquor company that has not claimed its money since the year before Prohibition went into effect. And in the Union Dime Savings Bank, Manhattan, list he found: Laurette Taylor, $590, deposited 1916.

To Actress Taylor (Peg o' My Heart, Out There, The National Anthem) he telephoned the information. Miss Taylor (now Mrs. J. Hartley Manners) remembered a brother had opened an account for her with $590. Compound interest had brought the amount to about $1,000. Said she:

"Lots of people call me up, but no one has ever done it before in order to tell me that I own money. . . . Isn't that a dreadful thing to do, forgetting money like that?"

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