The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-12-03
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Thursday Morning, December 9, 1863

PORT'L.ANn

| Letter from New k0sk.
| Thanksgiving and the HOiiddys-7he Erie
Var and some M0rdhziny thereon.
NEW YORK, Nov 80, 1868
10 the Editor or the Press:
| What a crowd of Gothamites would have
hlled the homes Of M@ine the past week,
could all OF us wanderers have TRANSPORTED
our persons there as easily as our hearts and
memories! To be sure Thanksgiving Dav has
| now become a national festival -onc OF the
many beneficent institutions which New Enc
land has con erred upon the land; still every
thing seems TO lose somewhat Of its distinct
| I've excellence when tranSplanted TO another
SOIL Happy those who, like your correspond
eht' were privileged to enjoy the day in a
nome true to the traditions and the spirit OF
the Ola nome! New Workers are very good
Yankees on Thanksgiving Day There is the
same fierce onslaught ou the turkey tribe. and
our old shooting matches are kent up, or at
least parodied, in the numberless target ex-
| cursions made on that day
THE HOLIDAYS
| are drawing near, as the shop windows
| plainly indicate. These are particularly At
n,
larger or smaller growth-and l confess to NC.
| ing child in that respect 1t is like a leaf
from your old copy of the Arabian Nights to
stroll through the crowded th0roug hlares and
gaze into windows here brilliant with silver
and gold and costly gems, there splendid with
rich stuffs and rainbow cOlors, or again "rang-
ed in order DUE to see choice books sumptu-
! Gus with the binders and engraver's art Per-
naps it is quite as pleasant to peep in at the
windows of the toy shops. / noticed lately
novel and effective style of advertising in
one OF these, which l must write YOU Of In
| each OF the brilliantly lighted windows was
one OF the most spirited of rocking horses,
(mounted on springs, though, and not on rock
ersl One pretty little boy of perhaps four
| years, and fancifully dressed, was bestridng
like an old trooper, while on the other was a
| sweet little lady a year or two older, In full
| riding habit, and as nonchaant or rather as
coquettish as any of our bellies who canter
| through the Park. Altogether 1t was as pref
ty sight as you often see, and if the admir-
ing crowd upon the sidewalk was to be taken
as test, that shopman will do a thriving busi-
| ness.
THE GREAT ERIE WAR
has been raging for some two weeks and no
| one knows how long it is likely 10 last 1t
strikes me that here is a chance for our rising
bards to construct new Had with modern
machinery and surroundings beftting such an
epic. Perhaps the chiefs are not quite so pic
| turesque as those who wrangled and "drank
delight on the far-off windy plains of Troy"
but the poet would say now as then
| Meanwhile the people died." Now as then it
| is the innocent many who suffer for the guilt
| OF the proud and insolent few. 1t may be
worth while to give brief sketch of this con-
test, since very few have any clear idea con-
oerning it. Let me say at the outset that any
| sympathy expended upon either side is utter
| ly wasted. 1t is simply fight between stock
| IobbeIs-and for personal ends-with as little
| regard for the interests of the community az
was wont to be displayed in European wars
| conducted tor the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of selfish
monarchs. So far as they concerned we
can afford to be as impartial as the old woman
whose husband fighting with a bear
though if she ever lived on the Fifth Avenue
and her husband was in the close hug of
Wall street bear she would perhaps look on
with less equanimity. Unfortunately, howev-
er, in society SO highly organized as that of
the present day, with so many and complex
interests, great disturbance of this kind can
not arise without seriously affecting all legtl-
| mate business as well. But to our story. The
| celebrated litigation of last spring after Occu-
| pylng the Courts for weeks, was settled by
compromise between the contending parties,
by which, it is fair to suppose hopes were
shared and the spoils divided. Daniel Drew
shortly after withdrew from the management
of the Erie, and after various changes jay
Gould, the associate of Drew in the first war,
succeeded with his friends to the control of the
company, You have not forgotten that in the
midst OF that war, Drew, in order to retain his
control of the management, issued secretly
some S5,OO0,000 of new stock of the road, un.
der somewhat vague clause in the charter
allowing the company TO issue bonds convert
ible into stock at the option of the holders
This was a proceeding sufficiently startling
but bill was lobbied through the. Legislature
legallzng the transaction, or attempting to do
| sos The new management was not slow 20
profit by the example, and soon issued fur
| ther large amount of stock, putting the pro-
ceeds into the treasury. Then taking advan.
| tage OF the stringency of the money market
during the autumn while the crops are being
moved to the sea-board-and withdrawing
from the circulation not only eight or ten
millions in the Erie treasury but also all they
could in other ways, they held on until thew
brought about the great pressure and panic OF
iew weeks since, and stocks and gold went
tumDhng down like Jack and Gill in the nur-
sery rhyme. The operators" were aiming to
affect the price of gold and succeeded so well
that they are reported to have pocketed more
than million by this scheme
So far all had gone as merry as a marriage
BELL and the poor public had been the chief
sufferer, but it now became for the interest of
the Erie clique to send prices up again. They
| had control of the most available Erie stock
and had "cornered" it. A large party-Drew
among them-has been selling the stock
short" and if the price was sent up again
must be heavy losers. Some of them, indeed,
| had sold so heavily that ruin stared them in
the face. An engineer generally objects to
peing hoist by his own petard, so not unnat-
| uraily Drew and his friends felt the full enor-
NIFTY OF new issue of stock, and a resort was
had to the Courts, to get Receiver appointed
to take possession of the road. The present
directors got wind of the movement and 60
ing before another judge obtained an iniunc-
ton against the proceedings of these parties
and an order appointing Jay Gould, to be Re-
ceiver; and these iniunctions struck at the
| same time
Law pleadings are not generally classed an
der the head of light literature, but those in
these two suits, showing their respective plain
tiffs as being moved solely by consideration
for the interests Of the stockholders and the
public good, and setting forth the unprinciplcd
Vaccinations of their opponents, are sDeci-
mems, so to speak, of gigantic humor such as
it would be hard to match anywhere in the
range OF literature. Probably it we were to
take the charges of each side against the other
we should not come far from the truth. Halt
dozen suits, at least, are now in progress,
but In whatever name commenced they are in
the interest of one the other of these parties.
Which side has the advantage thus far, it is
hard to say. Perhaps the Drew side has rath-
er the apparent advantage in the Courts, while
on the other hand the Jay Gould party are
still in possession and are reported to have
mulcted the great Daniel to the extent of n
ull million. As Erie has been for years
speculative stock, very little of the direct loss
falls on bona tide holders investment.
think have said enough to give Won some
idea OF the real merits of this matter. But
bad as it is, it is no worse than n thousand