, 1864-06-20
THE RISE m GoLD-HOIv IT Is DONE.

Many of our readers are ignorant OF thu
cause of the high price of gold, and th'
correspondingly low rate Of legal tendeI
notes. Just now no article of trade fuc
tuates as do gold and paper; none eve1
experienced such rapid transitions, or will
so little real cause. A Philadelphia cor
respondent lately described one of the modes
by which this is done in the following ac
count of a successful scheme of some sharps
of that city:
The recent great advance and tumble il
gold, and consequent excitement at the Stock
Exchange of this and other cities, was long
since telegraphed to your city; but doubt
if you have been favored with statement
of the cause of the eadvance and subsequent
panic. Hence will give it, prefacing my
erpose with the remark that the parties en-.
gagged in the "operation" are well known
and that their "scheme" is susceptible Of
the clearest proof.
Ten of our Third street spectators bought
early on the morning of the 18th, all the
gold they could get hold of, paying an av.
erage rate of 70! per cent. premium. AT
about 10 o'clock, as per previous agreement
they simultaneously telegraphcd to their
ten correspondents in New York to purchase
each fifty thousand dollars of gold, $780,
000) without limit as to price, but limiting
the time to ten minutes after receipt of in-
structions. The effect was instantaneous.
The ten correspondents in the New York
market, each eager to obey instructions, and
earn a handsome commission, without limit
as to price, and all bidding against each
other, were unable to purchase any amount
of gold; but the price, Of course. went up
like rocket, and only stopped when 80 per
cent. premium was reached So far the
scheme had worked to a charm; and now
commenced the other partof the programme.
Our Third street operators sold out all the
gold they had purchased in the morning at
a splendid profit, CSC premium) and then
sold short" enormous amounts Of gold,
ranging from 81 to S8 premium, deliverable
in 48 hours; knowing that when the mar
ket was relieved of their "bull" operations,
gold would fall much below these figures
1t did fall, and they were able to deliver at
not far from II premium. They also sold
short large amounts of gold in New York,
through private parties. The net amount
realized by these Third street manipulators
was just about 500, 900 each, or say ST.
100000 in all.
OF course, this amount was swindled-
beg pardon-made out of parties who, to
say the least, would have done the same
thing under like or any other circumstances.
Probably most of them were and are as
"smart" as the smart ten;" only this time
they have got "wrung out" and are natu-
rally very savage about it. One Market
street merchant (and probably there are
many others who have been caught) is
known to have lost $4,000 on the 18th,
in gold Opcrations--and it served him
right; he had no business to bc in bad
company.
Now all these stock mancuvers may be
honest, legitimate business movements, done
in fair and above-bOard way. Still, l con-
fess /" / can't sec IT, II, however, no one
suffered but the regular stock gamblers, no
great harm (aside from the question Of
morals would result to the community. II
would be very much like a congregation Of
thieves, each one Of whom was either try
ing, alone, to steal something from his CON-
panions, or, by combinations, to do it on a
larger scale than he could individually.
However, there is no help for stock, and,
for the present, none for gold specplations.
We must submit to the movements Of the
honorable u members of the Stock Ex.
change, and pray that they will not too
often cross the line that divides honesty
from swindlingj nor sail always so close to
it as to make it difficult to say which side
they are on.