Banks are not ordinarily prepared to pay out all accounts; they rely on depositors( 存款人 ) not to demand payment all at the same time. If depositors should come to fear that a bank is not sound, that it cannot pay off all its depositors, then that fear might cause all the depositors to appear on the same day. If they did, the bank could not pay all accounts. However, if they did not all appear at once, then there would always be funds to pay those who wanted their money when they wanted it. Mrs. Elsie Vaught has told us of a terrifying bank run that she experience. One day in December of 1925 several banks failed to open in a city where Mrs. Vaught worked as a teller had enough funds on hand to pay off as many depositors as might apply. The officers simply instructed the tellers to pay on demand. Next morning a crowd gathered in the bank and on the sidewalk outside. The length of the line convinced many that the bank could not possibly pay off everyone. People began to push and then to fight for places near the tellers’ windows. Clothing was torn and limbs broken, but the jam continued for hours. The power of the panic( 恐慌 ) atmosphere is evident in the fact that two tellers, though they knew that the bank was sound and could pay out all depositors, nevertheless withdrew the funds in their own accounts. Mrs. Vaught says that she had difficulty restraining herself from doing the same.