Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-07-06

and d~isinteIested advice, not always
however, in such cases given, viz.
Keep out of the street, or if yoJ
UW speculate, do it on your oWE
hook" He embraced the latter al
tentative, and joinedth public board
His personal appearance and man
ners made en- odd impression on
Change. Tall, bulky and ungainly,
his face and voice reminded one of q
gigantic bullfrog when in o of its
happiest moods of a May evening,
and the way in which it beloved Out
on the call set the whole room in hys.
terics. In an evil hour he caught a
virulent epidemic, which prevailed
extensively in the market about that
time. The name Of this disease was
Harlem on the brain. He bought and
sold nothing but Harlem; he talked
and thought nothing but Harlem.
" 1t was bound TO go up to two hun
dred, of course, and no one could stop
it. The Commodore was bulling il,
Jerome was bulling it, the street
was all bulling it, So he railways was
saying and acting conformabIy-buy-
ing it. In four months he made out
Of his 5000 margin 100000 on his pet
stock during its rise from 30 to I58.
In the course ofsiXty days from the
time when ne might, by selling, have
realized his profit to that amount, the
stock had dropped to ninety. During
this decline he chung o~bstinately 20
his stock, and borrowed largely from
his friends 70 keep his margins good,
but long before the price had touched
ninety he was Obliged to sueeumb,
with the loss of all he had, besides
$4,000 of borrowed money. Within
a week he sailed for California, and
was last heard from while keeping
sheep on the hills of one of the grazing
counties of that State, calculating the
amount of the next wool crop, as he
watched his nibbling flock.
CHARACTERS OF WALL STREET..
One of these was DIR. s., some
times known as "Ursa Minor and
sometimes known as the Retired
Physician" the golden sands of whose
life are not yet by any means run out.
He was then and still is a veteran and
a daring SPECTATOR, whose fortunes
swing between zero and a million
almost in the course of one m0en.
During 1863 and the first three months
of 1864 he sat watching his pile as it
dWindled away under that process of
attrition peculiar to the stock market,
until it contained only 10000. But
that Oaken and sniileless face and still
tongue told no tales of waxing or
waning fortune, but in grim silence
waited for the wheel to come round
full circle. 1t came in good time. In
the spring of 1865 he rOs the master
of three-quarters of a million.
They who lOiter in the reading room
of the Fifth Avenue Hotel will have,
doubtless, often remarked a tall, atra-
bilious, silent man sauntering in a
purpOseiess way through that apart
ment, or coming the financial col
umns of the various papers strewed
about. This is c., a man who has
tasted the fierce extremes" of Wall
street life between a plump million
and hungry impecuniOsity. He is
and always wa a bear by his very
constitution and habit of body. His
hillary system causes him to look at
stocks through the most cerulean of
sp~ectacles.
Who can tell how much that useful
but exceedingly troublesome organ
the liver, has had to do with success
in anything? Napoleon lost the bat
tie OF Waterloo through a fit of indi-
geStion, and C lost the battle in
Wall street because his liver is chron-
ically deranged. He is a Pennsylva-
MAN, and came into the street with a
half million or so, which a few sue
cessful operations on the short side in
the early part Of the war swelled to
twice the amount. But selling
stocks short between 1863 and 1864
proved a losing business, and April
of the latter year found our friend
among the small figures. When
Fort Wayne sold from 153 to 80, how
ever, he forgot his programme and
bought largely of that stock, selling
it again at 1z5 and pocketing a quar-
ter of a million, it is said. En-
couraged by this success, he went
back on himself and his bear procliYi-
ties, became unconscious that he had
a liver, and for a few months was a
rampant bull; too late! too late!
The spring of 1865 found him high
and dry on the beach. But it was
deemed by some of the magnates of
Wall street that so valuable a Gus
ought to be keptin the market,
and so Daniel Drew's bowels warmed
with compassion; he sent for our
and told him in his peculiar |
vernacular that a " few sheers of Eyre
wouldn't hurt him." But" said
81 have no money to buy
Never mind that" replied
Daniel, +" send in five thousand shares
TO me, I'll take care of them" c.
was in a few days on his legs again,
$780, 600 in his pocket.
Joseph G.. Ms, a tall, buriy man,
with a small, unWinking eye, early
connected with the public board, was
another bold bear in 1868, though he
occasionally went in strong as a bull.
He, too, retrieved his fortunes during
the gold panic of 1865, and has since
been a prominent operator of the open
oftener on the bear side.
Up to the passage of the Legal Ten
der act VIM. r. Travers, another
leading operator, known among his
friends as Bill Travers, was to be
counted among the bear brigade. He
was formerly n of the firm of Je-
rome & Travers, Leonard w. Jerome, /
who has already been described, be-
.ng his partner, and a likely span of
bold, shrewd ~inanciers they made.
Some years before the commence
nent Of the war this firm made great
nit in Old Southern, at the time when
t was selling at from 100 to 140. 1t
vas done in this wise: The stock was
| favorite one then, and was viewed
Is safe as a government bond. Nearly
everybody in the street had a little, and
he outside public spectators, as well
Is investors, were long oft. This ere
tied a favorable condition forthe form
ltiOn of a ring to depreSs the stock.
lust now Jerome q Travers discov-
red, either by their native shreWd-
less or by accident, that there had
)een a considerable Over-issue, fraud
or at least irregularly. Act
ng on this with the utmost secrecy
md dispatch, they put out all the
hort contracts they could arrange for,
md then sprung the mine. When the
Jews of the over-iSsue had been COM
n~uDicated to the street, the stock fell
heavily, from fifty TO sixty per cent,
nd the profits of the sharp operators
we're enormous-rated by some as high
S a million and a hall.
The portrait of Travers is familiar
0 the stock-dealing public. A tall,
man, with a rubicund face
nd a jolly nose, never smiles, and
peaks with a pronounced stutter.
Iong since l saw him while standing
the curbstone, buying some stock
f a dealer whose -countenance be-
poke his descent from Shem. "What
j your n-n-name?" inquired T. of the
Hebrew. "Jacobs," replied the seller.
But what is your C-c-christian
amer" asked T., whereat the crowd
,as convulsed. But It's head is as
as a quill. He is constantly fig |