received deposits. It was known to other banking houses in the city that
the bank would be obliged to close as it did. The word had got out, and
some of the depositors became alarmed, and a number withdrew their
deposits, notwithstanding Mr. King's assurance that the bank was solvent
and solid. Others took his word for it, allowed their deposits to
remain, and lost all they had in the bank. There was some mysterious
handling of the large amount of money known to be in the bank at the
time of the failure. The parties in charge refused to allow Mr. King any
part in their transactions as to the disposition of this money -
reported to be considerably more than $100,000 in gold coin. He demanded
$20,000 as his share. This was refused. He then published a statement
reflecting upon the persons in charge. This was responded to by a
scathing statement, published in the Alta, in which Mr. King was held up
for public condemnation as a dishonest man, guilty of faithlessness and
fraud. He was also accused of having swindled Page, Bacon & Co. of
$400,000, by the sale of bogus gold dust as genuine.

The popular sentiment at the time was that the charges were sustained,
and the feeling was strong against him. He was without means and out of
business. He conceived the project of going into the newspaper business,
of starting a daily evening paper, and obtained a loan of $250 for that
purpose from R. D. Sinton, of the real estate and auctioneer firm of
Selover & Sinton, then the leading firm in that line in the city. He
started the Evening Bulletin, a small sheet, and rented the small brick
building in Merchant street for the publication office. The Daily
Chronicle, published by Frank Soule and William H. Newall, had taken
side against the Committee, and soon afterwards ceased publication.
Employed on it as a writer was James Nesbitt, an Englishman, of superior
journalistic ability. King employed Nesbitt to assist him on the
Bulletin. It was made the medium of attack and animadversion upon State