The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-09-14

STocK OPERATORS AND THEIR GAME-About
six weeks ago, Erie Railroad stock sold at fifty
dollars the share. 1t had tumbled from eight,
to fifty in few weeks, and somebody lost by
that decline some three millions of dollars
The loss fell heavily on Wall street, and several
broken hearte bulls were obliged to repndate
Their contracts, and retire to spend life OF
penury on their beggarly ssvings-some
ten or twelve thousand year secured
on their wives Their friends were still
plunged in mourning on their account
the unhappy sufferers were still sym
pathisiDg with their creditors over iced hook
and woodcock suppers-when that wretched
craft. Erie, took another lurch, and never
stopped falling till it reached twenty niue.
There was then fresh batch of sufferers; and
he bull who had been slaughtered on Erie at
fifty could afford to condole with the calf who
had bled on the same stall at twenty nine. More
champagne, and more woodcock to enable the
poor animals to bear up against the affection
So nObly had some of them acted, that when
their contracts were "not met'-to use the gen.
tie language of the street-it was found that
several had actually left their wives and families
to starve on five or six thousand a year. 1t is
true that such samples Of the Aristides are rare
Ten thousand per annum is the proper allow
ance Of o broken SPECTATORS wife.
Time went on. Somebody shaved the Erie
notes; and the boys" having more money in
their pockets than they ever saw before, sold
rather more stock than even the Erie board ever
ssued. Then the old heads in the street fell a
ouying; and the squeeze among the bears was
dreadful The poor animals couldn't get an
Erie certificate in their paws for love or money.
What tn y had sold at thirty they were glad to
buy in at forty; losing ten dollars share
Erie went to forty-six and the bears resolved
to take leaf ont of the bull book. They paid
back fair per centage of the money they hai
gained when the stock was falling; but the res
they invested in lands and houses. 1t couldn't
be expected that a man would sell house
which he had only bought few weeks before.
to Salty contracts so the bears politely
declined delivering any more stock. 1t Ia to
be feared that their wives are furnishing on
some miserable pittance of three or four
thousand year; and that this winter, they will
be actually reduced to take not more than
three friends. to the opera at five dollars o
head. Talk Of the sufferings Of the working
classesi Find, If you can, in the Five Points
OF any where else, distress SO acute as that
which the bankrupt bulls and bears endure
when their means do not allow them to have
their usual dinner party, with covers for
thirteen, on Wednesdays.
We propose to the geographical and mis-
sionary societies, when their next batch of
agents return from the interior OF Africa, or
the deserts Of Bokhara, to send trusty and
vigilant man to the unexplored wiIds lying
between the north side Of Wall street and the
routh side Of Beaver, including the great
Zahara known "a the Merchants Exchange.
Let him be instructed to inquire into the co.,
dition Of the natives Of those unknown regions,
their habits, usages and language; and let
him above all try to find ont whether any
stray notions Of religion or morality have ever
found their way into those parts, as the rare
travellers who have touched there report
singular absence Of those conditions of whole
some social existence. A faithful account of
he curious tribes which are said to iuhabit
that terra incognisa would be quite rs inte-
resting as narration Of travel in the wilds of
Tartary, or the most distant island in the
Pacific.
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