The Panic of 1907, 2nd Edition

Prologue

These are troublous times.

—Charles T. BarneyKnickerbocker Trust CompanyOctober 21, 1907

Around 10 a.m. on November 14, 1907, Lily Barney and a friend were chatting in the Barneys’ second‐story bedroom overlooking Park Avenue when they heard the crack of a gunshot echo through the house. The women bolted toward the other bedroom across the hall. Stepping inside, they saw Lily’s husband, Charles, lying on the floor near his bed in his pajamas. Beside him was a revolver containing three loaded cartridges and one empty shell. The Barneys had kept pistols on every floor of the house for protection, and this one clearly belonged to Charles.¹

As Lily Barney came near, her husband raised himself slightly but slumped in pain to the floor. She knelt beside him, cradled his head in her lap, and attempted to ease his discomfort. Ashbel Barney, one of the Barneys’ two sons, had been downstairs and had also heard the shot. Running to the bedroom and seeing his mother and her friend bending over his wounded father, he raced to telephone George Dixon, the Barneys’ family physician. Then, with the help of his mother and servants the 20‐year‐old Ashbel lifted his father to his large, brass, canopy‐covered bed. Charles T. Barney remained conscious, but silent.

Dr. Dixon reached the Barney house in Manhattan’s fashionable Murray Hill neighborhood 10 minutes after receiving the call. After administering an anesthetic, he began an operation in which he discovered that a .38‐caliber bullet ...