Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-03-30
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
Stock Speculation - Erie and Wall
Street-FOrfunes Made and LOst-A Bit
of HistOry-Mr. stephens and the Gin
cinnaft COnyentiOn-Odds and Ends.

NEW York, March q, 1872.
The apparently simple process of max
| ing money by speculation in stocks has
| found numberless admirers within the past
month. Wall street has suddenly become
a Mecca for all ambitious, mOney-loving
pilgrims, and the daily transactions there
are positively almost frightful from their
magnitude. Men who were wont to shun
the Stock Exchange as they would the
plague and who would declaim most elo-
| quently against the inherent evils of
fashionable gambling are now found
daily haunting brokers' offices and taking
their chances with the rest. Fortunes
| have been made on the street within q
| fortnight by men who before that time
could not have defined the meaning of the
word stocks" and money enough to have
purchased this entire continent in the sew
enteenth century, has been the fruit of an
hours speculation for many an "Opera-
tori Stories of bOOtblaCks, pOrteTs, gro
GERS, nay even of clergymen and deacOns,
who have made thousands in Erie" are
as rienty as blackberrieS in summer, and
the only difficulty is to find any one
who has been loser The telegraph has
undoubtedly kept you well posted rs to
the leading features in the upward rise of
Erie shares. So we'll supported has the
movement been, SO steady the advance, 50
great the increase that the brokers them
selves are astounded. And | will venture
to say that the men who are usually the
leading spectators have realized the least.
And yet Erie has steadily advanced until
to-day sales were made at 81, all advance
of over 80 per cent. since the 18th instant.
OF course the stock is not worth anything
like this amount Of money, and sooner or
later q reaction must come, but the triumph
nf al l1nr1 mud n
fall of the ring have given the movement
an upward tendency carefully fOstered and
stimulated by those interested. On all
sides you hear of men who have made for
tunes but nothing is said of those who
have lost. Yet their number must be
great, and many will carry the scars of
this last "bulr' fight for the rest of their
lives. 1t is impossible to say where the
rise will end, nor should | be surprised to
see Erie at % before the week ends, but
end it will sometime, and the only fear is
that 1T will end i'll general panic.
A SCRAP OF HISTORY.
Now / want to give your readers leaf
of unWritten history of purely political
nature. To some it may be interesting, as
tending to show to what desperate straits
the ultra-DemoCrats are driven in their at
tempt to secure a victory in the next ma
prove so interesting, but that | can't help.
And in the first place, [ take y. H. Ste
phenS, us representative man of the
Bourbon Democracy, as a true exponent of
the principles and beliefs of Southern
Democrats. [ find in the Atlanta SIN,
over Mr.. Stephens own signature, an en-
dOrsement of recent speech by Gov.
Brown, of Missouri, one of the leaders in
the sO-called Liberal Republican " move
ment. In this article Mr.. Stephens gives
in his adherence to the "new departure. "
This seems strange enough, that at his
time of life, so earnest an advocate of GER
tain well-defined principles, should turn
his coat inside out, but it will seem strang-
er still when taken in connection with Mr..
stephens own professions year ago. At
that time Mr.. S. declared that nothing but
a declaration that the XINth and XVIII
were null and void would en-
able any party to carry the next election. |
If the Democrats made this declaration as
part of their platform, said Mr.. Stephens, |
the following tWenty-siX States (naming |
them) will be as certain to be carried by |
them, as that single one of the remain |
ing eight will go with them without it. |
And saying that he had never been mis- |
taken in predicting the result of an cleo |
ton since 1913, he stalIed his head on the |
accuracy of that prediction. Among the |
eight States last named were Texas, Ken |
lucky, Maryland and New York. Mr.. |
Stephens seems to have changed his views. |
If he keeps on he will become leader, a |
captain among the Republican hosts. |
- Anything to beat Grant, A" that is the |
Democratic war-cry now, as it was in 1861 |
90, and by about the same class of men. |
The lion and the lamb will lie down togeth-
er, and the New York Tribune will cIasd |
hands with the New York World. Every |
man to his taste, promises cost nothing |
according to the "reformersn we shall be-
hold Arcadia, if we will only let them
have the offices
\ TOUR OF INSPECTION.
1t is probable that the best information
that our people will obtain, as to how
we stand i'll matters, military and naval,
will come from across the water. When
we heard that England had attached an
of the navy to her Lega-
ton in theis country, we were some
what fattered and no more attention
was given to the matter. But now we
find that the worthy Admiral has been
making pretty thorough examination OF
our offensive and defensive condition, has
inspected our forts and navy yards, visited
our army posts and familiarized himself
with the secrets of our ordinance depart
SSCAcoSNbONA |
our harbor defences and having obtained
all the information he required has folded
up his tent and silently stolen away" Il
should not like to vOuch for the accuracy
of that quotatiOn). Meanwhile the Ala
bama claims are as far from being settled
as ever, and even Denmark can boast of a
better and larger navy than our own. l
nope the Admiral has obtained some SER
information. England has adopt
ed our "turret SYSTEM" what would she
like next?
ODDS AND ENDS,
scientific men are interested in the
of the remains of a mastodon in
Orange county, in this State. According to
all accounts this animal is not another
Cardiff giant, but the "real article and
no mistake" Mr.. Mitchell, on whose
farm the FOSSIL remains were found, is IA !
NOUS and happy, and having arranged the
bones in his barn, is ready to receive his
neighbOrs at twenty-five cents a piece.