The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-28 00:00:00

T E SUN, LONDON, TfIUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 28, 1869

JAMES FISK (Jun.) v. THE "SPRINGFIELD

REPUBLICAN."

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

The libel case of Mr James Fisk, jun., against
the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican excites in-
terest in the United States, as it involves the press
in the story of the struggle of the speculators in
Wall-street. Indeed, the facts transpiring would
quickly fill more than a three-volume sensational ro-
mance, and we recommend them to Miss Braddon
and other writers of that class. How many of the
" lame ducks" committed suicide they might ascer-
tain on inquiry in the United States, as well as the
number that turned burglars or adopted other des-
perate measures to retrieve their ruined fortunes.
The struggle itself was a grand episode in Wall-
stre-A, actually shaking the whole commercial fabric
of the United States, and bringing forward men
hitherto obscure irito the light of a great publicity.
The most prominent of these was Mr. Fisk,
whose biography was given by the Republican,
Nov. 22. As a public man we may be permitted to
reproduce this record excluding that portion to
which he objects, and as it relates to a member of his
family, and not to himself, it ought perhaps never
to have been written. But our main reason is that
on this publication is grounded the action for libel.
" THE NEW HERO OF WALL-STREET.

"It is time the biographers began to deal with Mr.
James Fisk, jun., the new Wall-street hero. His
connection with the Erie Railroad's history for a
year has made him notorious through the country,
has placed him, in fact, in a niche above Robert
Schuyler, Daniel Drew, Cornelius Vanderbilt, pos-
sibly Morton Peto. He has improved on all their
inventions in stock gambling, and, by bold and
reckless daring in manipulating the affairs of a
gigantic corporation and the finances of Wall-
street, entitled himself to a place in the gallery
of noted lives. The appellation of " fat fair
and forty," so often given to well-preserved
women, belongs peculiarly to him ; he is almost
as broad as he is high, and so round that he rolls
rather than walks. But his nervous energy is sti-
mulated rather than deadened by his fat, which
gives a momentum to his mental movement and his
personal influence. Yankee of course, and Ver-
mont at that, and a peddlar to boot—do we not
thus tell the whole secret of his life and character ?
Brattleboro' was his home, and his father, James
Fisk, sen., a hale, hearty, successful peddlar of dry
goods among the country towns of Vermont and
New Hampshire. The son joined his energy to the
business, which grew into an amount and obtained
a character unprecedented in the history of peddling.
They devoted themselves to choice dry goods for
the ladies -silks, velvets, ribbons, poplins, &c. ;
drove elegant four horse teams ; made their regular
rounds through Western Massachusetts, Vermont,
New Hampshire, and Eastern New York, esta-
blished a settled first-class trade, and furnished
their customers, the best ladies of all the country
towns, with a higher quality of goods and at fairer
prices than they could get without going to New
York or Boston. There was a great titillation
among the village belles and mesdames when the
Fisks came to town with their elegant turnout and
their magnificent goods. Their sales were measured
by the hundred thousand yearly, and they were
larger customers of the city jobbers than a dozen
ordinary country merchants. Such quality could
not long be confined to selling silks by the yard,
and young Fisk's acquaintance with the houses he
bought goods of in Boston sonic five or six years
ago took him to that city as a member of the firm
of Jordan, Marsh, and Co. To their operations he
at once gave new breath ; it soon became the first
wholesale and retail house in Boston ; controlling
the markets ; running mills—making money. But
this did not long satisfy ; ambition and audacity
grewßostob w
ny
firhmatwtihte fed
with
a$
70 ;
o,oaonod
fllr.
olrtuFneis,kanledft
ethhe_
terel upon cotton and other speculations iu the
South and in New York. Losing and winning, two
or more years drifted away, when we find him
in the beginning of the career now culminating.
With other Bostonians, John S. Eldredge, Josiah
Bardwell, and General Whitney among others, he
surprised New York on a fine morning
of
86
capturing the Erie Railroad. Two objects re
view, a grand stock speculation, and a loan of its
Iwe7 by
credit to the Hartford and Erie Railroad, in which
Eldredge and other Bostonians were greatly inte-
rested—these accomplished, after the fight with
Vanderbilt, most of the Boston party went out,
though Eldredge is supposed to have had large in-
terests with Fisk in his recent operations. But
Fisk remained, and with Mr. Drew, the old Erie
manager, has been makini* a series of grand " cor.
ners" in Erie stock and in the money market dur-
ing the past season. Their audacious schemes
and operations have been at the bottom of most
of the Wall-street disturbances for nearly a year.
Drew and Fisk have now quarrelled ; the young
worldling has learned all the nicks of the old
Methodist, and invented some new ones, and no
longer needs either his counsel or his credit.
The principal means for their speculations have
been the issue of new stock of the Erie Railroad,
and locking up currency ; English capitalists
have been in league with them in one or both
of these performances ; and twice, thrice, half a
dozen times, perhaps, they have thus controlled
and swept the marker, ruining all who were bold
enough or weak enough to stand in their way,
and putting fabulous profits into their own pockets.
[But Fisk has probably destroyed the credit of the
railroad, while piling up a fortune for himself. The
multiplication of its stock has been fearful ; from
30 millions of nominal capital a year ago, it has
now been raised to 60 or 70 millions ; and what
there is to show for the difference, beyond some
worthless securitii s of the Hartford and Erie Road,
and a million or two of real estate, it is now impos-
sible to say. The issue of new shares seems to
have been wanton, and with no purpose, in great
part, but to gamble in Wall-street with. Nothing
so audacious, nothing more gigantic in the way of
real swindling has ever been perpetrated in this
country; and yet it may be that Mr. Fisk and his
associates have done nothing that they cannot
legally justify, at least in the New York
courts, several of which they seem wholly to
own. Fisk's operations are said to be under the
legal guidance of both David Dudley Field and
Charles O'Connor, and now both Judge Barnard
of the State, and Judge Blatc::ford of the United
States Court, back up and help on his proceedings.]
Mr. Fisk married a handsome Springfield girl, Miss
Lucy D. Moore, 12 or 15 years ago, and has a fine
residence in Franklin-square, B iston. But he also
owns houses and a theatre in New York, and deals
with life everywhere on a magnificent scale. What
will become of him and his operations remains to be
seen. The Eric Railroad complication must appa-
rently have an early issue. As an instrument of
travel and commerce it cannot for ever remain the
foot-ball of gamblers, the prey of speculators. The
value of its shares is probably gone • but its rails,
certainly its bed, must be of value and of use.
Its hero of the hour stands in a precarious position ;
he has great capacity, now great wealth, certainly
great notoriety ; all these he can make most useful
to himself and to his country ; it is a pity they should
he wasted in destruction, alike of character and of
values, when the country needs them all, and will re-
warl them all so generously in measuresof construc-
tion."

The animus b'tween the Republican and Mr. Fisk
was increased by the episode which followed the
late visit of Mr. Bowles, the editor, to New York,
which must 133 too fresh in the recollection of our
readers to be reproduced here. The Republican,
however, says that Mr. Ben. F. Butler, who is irate
with the paper for its opposition to his re-election
to Congress, had been retained as counsel against
it. It alleges that Judge M'Cunn held a special
evening session to accommodate the conspiracy
that Sheriff O'Brien and Mr. Fisk were in attend-
ance at the Fifth Avenue Hotel to see the arrest
made; that Mr. George Butler, a nephew of Gen.
B. F. Butler, engaged to decoy Mr. Bowles into a
convenient place for sudden and secret arrest. It adds
that Geo. Butler is connected with the Spirit of the
Times, and it certainly is true that the Spirit is a
rare exception among the press in the view it takes.
Mr. Fisk has written to the Boston Gazette to give
his version, and his letter is fair. Ile picks to
pieces the biography we have given above, which he
terms " a bitter, abusive, untruthful, and unpro-
voked attack on my origin, vocation, habits, perso-
nal appearance, and family afflictions. As for the
sympathy of the sycophantic horde of office seekers
and small beer editors, who clamoured around the
gaol gates for their comrade's release, their abuse I
expected and am indifferent to. Mr. Bow!es pro-
posed the game himself, and I bowled him over the
first innings. I think it will be generally conceded
that I have as much right to defend my personal
character as any newspaper has to attack it." Mr.
Fisk never loses an opportunity of making a pun or
playing upon words. Ire replied to the charge of
" stealing" by stating that the only stealing on the
Erie was the steel rails he bad laid down. The
attack on him was unfairly personal, and we will
watch with interest the further development of this
quarrel,

FOREIGN NOTES.