The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-11-13
Information.
The Rzill!Onnaries Of New York.
From the London spectator. QG3bsr l6.

The RFillsonnaries Of New York.
From the London spectator. Qr9bsr ls.
Nothing strikes US so strongly mis- gold
restraining power of ue new Aud fct 3plNto-
crazy They seem 70 be rising ~ bs1 ion
which, in the extent Of TIE iphnsq at n;
aristocracics, CT is paralleled only by that OF
the few Roman families which united to
hereditary station in the republic the com.
maud of misses OF strepsure and armies OF
debtors There are men as rich in England,
and men perhaps as Inscriptions in Europe
buf for men as unrestrainet in the Use OF their
power, us defiant Of opinion, of the law, OF
their own reputation, Of all that iiniits the APP
plication of extraordinary means, we must
seek in the East or in the history 81 the old
Pagan world 4 Roman Senator would de-
stroy province to recover bis interest On n
loan, or raise civil war 10 rid himself OF his
debts, and the American "riny' leaders seem
willing to force on Il national bankruptcy, or
ruin an army of shareholders. as mere Incl
dental strokes in some grand . Operation" "
or rather game, for in many cases they seem
actuated by the determination to win, at least
as much as by any thirst for profit, What.
does Mr.. Vanderbilt il is said fl5,-
000, 900 sterling--want with the few scores OF
thousands he makes when in some huge rail-
way campaign he brushes thousand families I!
Yet he brushes them. In Europe a first-c!ass
millionaire of that sort would dread finar-
cial disturbance as he would an enrthq uake.
In America he makes one. The gssne, the ex-
citement, the notoriety seem to b. the tempta-
tiOns of these men even more than the profit,
and the whole scene suggests that in America,
as in Rome, safety comes quick to the very
rich; that for the man of millions life has few
interests; that the hunger for excitement has
reached the height where nothing will graft
fy it but battle, orgy, or huge mad gambling,
perhaps the most dangerous symptom which
q community can exhibit. The "operation''
which has recently convulsed New York and
shaken American credit throughout the world
was not in itself q very extraordinary ono.
American currency is paper; but Ill duties
must he paid in gold, and good many con-
tracts must be fulfilled in one, way or another
by transfers Of bullion. A few rich men,
therefore, thought that if they could get, pos
session of all the available gold they could get
their own price for it, and the gold in stock
being everywhere 9 very limited quantity,
they tancied themselves rich enough to do it.
Given few men sufficiently confident In one
another, and sufficiently rich to begin the
game, plcdging their gold as they gefit, and
there is nothing very extraordinary or very
farseeing in such plan, which was, indeed,
very imperfectly organized, the ring having
either forgotten or been deceived by the larg-
est bullion-holder in tue country. the Treasury
Of the United States. The really extraordi-
nary thing is that men Of such wealth and
such capacity should have been willing to
run such risk, and endanger the commercial
safety of the Union in, such spirit Of reckless
ness. Gamblers do very mad. things some
times, but in Europe vast wealth seems to
sober men, and the city could 10 more think
OF the Rothschilds or Rarings or any tirst-class
bankers playing rouge-et-noir after that fashion
than OF their trying to shut the Bank OF Eng
land for the sake OF wing the physiognomr
lcal marks OF despair on . splendid scale.
The effort to do such thing would cost any
millionaire more cash in the consequent d.
probation Of his credit than he could hope to
make by his operation. In Americap ws fear,
had Messfs.J Fisk, Ge,,ld and the Sestws.a the
game, and stood out ,viGtors ymid ttAes sur
rounding ruin, their credit would hsye been
increased. They very nearly did win. BY
steady purchases they forced gold UP. from
1870 700; tina! is, they RAISED the price by
some twenty five pcrycen ta and might, Az they
intended. have sent it up to ffty ;lhut that
the Treasury, after giving them time, to,eX-
haust themselves, poured gold ffo6. its vaults
did not suffice to buy that, tho bu6bfe burst,
and they stood with huge masses eficbntracts
to receive gold at price it did not fetch.
Though they won enormously ut first, still
with their object they must have leld on ID
, ifhaip pt~op IN . A. Al
mate differences must have beenfrigbtful.
During the fight resources had been accumu-
lated by the ring and their adversares BY
enormous sales of securities, which were fl,inSr
away at almost any price; United States
bonds, for example, being sold id largs par
cels 30 per cent. below market Iake, and one.
great railway falling siaty per cent. in forty
eight hours, and fortunes changed hands in
few minutes, The spasm was too short,to ere
ate much ruin beyond speculsting circles, but
had it lasted, as but for Mr.. Boutwells action
1t might have lasted weeks, it is not too much
to say that every dealer in the United States
would have been more or less impoverished,
and trade contracted 80 per cent. Even as It
was, every man who had contracted to deliy.
er goods out of bond on any of these three
days was fined from 20 to 80 per cent. on the
amount Of duty, that is, PROBABLY in fact ON
the throat Of every man in every part OF tile
Union. gee sslJ olnf N1'o2 ila1 samodr
The American press is already asking anx
iously where the remedy for this stats of nj.
fairs can be found, and it has reason for its
anxiety There is not the slightest security
that the experiment may not be repeated by
men much stronger than Messrs. Fisk and
Toulu, and government cannot DO always de-
Scendlng in a shower of cold IN mankind