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

This drew forth severe criticism from
his associates. The making a imam
cial convenience of a wife Is an old
device of the stock market. The Wall
street mans wife is often a Lady Of
substance. She carries bags Of gold
coin under her crinoIine; certified
checks are quilted into her skirts.
She hides notes of hand and stock GER
tificates in her bosom, and sails down
Fifth avenue with gems worthy of a
duchess entangled in her hair, while
her husband, panic-smitten and
~moneyless, Eimps up and down Wall
street.
ID WOMEN SPECULATE?
On almost any bright day, when
stocks are rising, a dozen or more
snowy carriages may be seen drawn
up in front of the offices of prominent
brokerage houses waiting for the
gorgeous DANES who ride in them to
come out when they have transacted
their business with their brokers.
Most of these speculative ladies are
-doWagers with large bank accounts,
for which they, perhaps, thank their
departed husbands, or fathers, OF I'M
Giles, and which they are now using as
margins in stock speculation, almost
always for a rise, for it seems to them
an incomprehensible thing that any
money an be made by a fall in
stocks.
At Saratoga, in July, 1863, three
young ladies', possessed of a viii and
several thousand dollars of their own,
made up a " pooP' in Harlem on their
individual account, and bought two
Thousand shares in the neighborhOod
of 100. Within four weeks the rise of
181 showed them to be winners to the
amount of $4,000. This seemed to
justify them in going into the ward
robe line. Consequently, they might
have been seen every day sitting on
cushioned stools at Stewards and
Arnold, Constable & Co.'s palaces,
and making heavy investments in
moIre antique, Mechlin lace and India
shavls. But alas for the vanity of
human expectations; they did not
sell their Harlem, and six or eight
weeks from that time they received,
not a billet dOux, but a call for more
margin, for Harlem had sold down to
IS, and Instead of making $4,000,
they would. if they sold, now lose
$25,0 goo.
Fortunately all of these u Ia
dies belonged to the heroic mould.
and instead of going into Mysteries or
sitting down and having a good cry,
they went manfulIy, or rather
Womanfully, to work and raised
money, furnished the necessary mar
gin to their broker, and vowed by
Nemesis that they would hold their
Harlem till they could make their
$75, 600 once more.
Their herOism in six months was
rewarded, for in the latter part of
April, 1864, while the Commodore
hosting Harlem, they drew $780,
900 out of their brokers hands.
One of the notable female specula-
tors in Wall street is a maiden lady, |
who counts her property by the mil
hon.. She is never seen there, how
ever, except when. Stocks are falling,
and properly belongs to the class Of
panic birds before described. In these
seasons she may be seen in her Gus
tOmary suit of solemn black" trip
ping down to her brokers office, pre-
pared to buy at the lowest prices, and
when stocks go up she always sends
word to her broker to sell out. Her
profits from these investments have
sometimes risen to more than one
hundred thousand per annum.
The most remarkable case Of all is
that OF a Lady whom we will call Miss
NJ. She belongs to the class of the
strong-minded ones. Her face is that
a gOshawk, and the white dove
she wears sometimes upon her
hat seems constantly in the act
Of playfuIly sWOOping down upon the
less amiable bird beneath. In her
views on financial questions she has
taken high moral ground, dis
eOuntenanclng all attempts to raise
the price Of gold. During her ten
years experience she has made and
lost a fortune every year. In the
great rise of 1864 she stood one hun
1red and thirty thousand dollars bet
Ter than she was in 1868. Then, wo-
man ike, her hopes rose to the ambi-
hight of half a million, which
to be the goal which most spec
llatOrs propose TO themselves. But
when lovely. woman stoops to folly,
She finds, too Late, that stocks betray,"
and brokers beguilel She awoke from
her dream of fortune on the 18th Of
1864, when panic was raging,
with the residue of her fortune, about
$4,000, fast locked up in the hands OF
her broker, who had failed, and was
Unable even to pay her this small
But brokers are the most elastic Of
nortals, commercially speaking: their
a TlTIraG aFD r1n1ra1 Txv On - ~, -
md in three weeks our heroine re-
from her supposed insOlvent
5000 OF her balance. With this
commenced to operate on the short
'ide, for her losses in the panic had,
IS is usual in such cases, converted her
INTO a bear-a she.bear, now mourn
ng for her whelps, and on the Sd of
1850, she had recovered $40, 600
IF her losses. What little
bird nov whispered in her ear,
: buy Erie" cannot be told, but
he bought it at 45, and flew up with
t to 80, like a witch astride of a broom
tick. Once more she had built uD
her fortune, but she did not snatch il
,ut OF the jaws of the market, always
pen and rOvenOus. The vision of a
falf million still haunted her. She
aressed several other stock favOrites.
pittsburgh, Old Southern, Fort
Wayne, ETC., ETC., all of which conduct
Ost her dear. Her margin was rap
.ly diminishing. In May, 1866,
he ceased to buy stocks, and
commenced to operate for a tall.
Gold had dropped to 126. Every
'ody said gold would go down to 10.
Her broker told her that Government
vas selling, and so she staked her re-
naming $4,000 on a short sale of
100000 gold at 100.
When it touched 100, she descended
her pedestal, and gazing with
eariess eyes upon her losses ($50, 000),
hen proceeded coOlly to gather up the
wreck, and reconstruct her edifice.
A large number of the stock ac-
cunts, standing in the name of
on the books of brokers, rep
eSent the wives of stock operators,
7hO have had settled upon them by S
heir husbands after some lucky hit, a {
arge sum against the wet and dark {
which is almost sure to come in
he career of a Spectator. As already
oted, the wife of the heavy stock
peratOr is quite certain to be pro-
ided for, and when her husband S
Uses his all, he can fall back on his J
yife's money, and renew his fortune.
lost of the women who speculate in
JOeks conduct their speculations
! the names of male friends b
nd relatives. Hence it comes n
nat they very often make money,
II what broker would be so ungal- q
tut land all brokers are gallant to the 5