The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-04-04
The Ride Unhorsed--waIl stree,
Ffads alFoeman worthy or ftssfeel.

The Rider Uniiorsed---WaIl stree,
Ffnds alFoenan Worthy or ftsHfeel.
Correspondence of the Cincinnati Commercial.
.sza HOT AND HEAVY SPECULATION.
NEW York, March 29.-The extraordinar,
speculation in Erie railroad stock during the
last week or two, and the rapid rise In It.
price, which carried it up for a time to neari,
twice Its ordinary value, have not only KEPT
Wall street in the highest state of feYerish.
ness, but have excited thousands of what art
called outsiders" so az to cause them tc
rush there to try their luck in the way Of
" making fortune" You hear numberless
stories of great operators who have cleared
million or two con the rise" of lesser dealer
who have made anything under hundred
thousand. and of small fry, down even t
walters, coach-dripers, clerks, women, and
cute boys, who have made their few thousands
in the course of day or two. Not since the
speculative times of the war have I seer
so many outsiders in and around Wall
street. Merchants leave their business, put
check for thousand or five thousand in their
pocket, and 60 down to take "1yer" in
Erie. People come in from Jersey and ali
the places about to take turn at the wheei
of chance Brokers' offices are crowded:
groups Of men stand around every stock in.
dicator, and clerks and call-boys are figuring
and running with reckless haste. Inside the
Stock Exchange the scene has been one
which the reporters can only describe by
likening it to Pandemonium, with its yelling
and struggling mob Of half-frenzied wretches.
The rise in Erie was steady from 81 fort
night ago, till yesterday it gave way at IS
and began to recede; but the fluctuations
have been very violent, frequently ten per
cent. day, and sometimes as high as five
per cent. in the course of an hour or two.
The orders for other cities have been
very great. They have been pouring in
from Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, St.
Louis, and all the other cities, great and
small. Some brokers tell me they have been
kept busy the whole time with country :"
orders, buying and selling in hot haste. ]
hear of great many local spectators who
have made largely by their operations, and it
is hard to hear of any who have lost, though,
of course, there are thousands with small
"margins /" who have been "cIeaned out"
/ fear that the losses have fallen heaviest on
the operators In other cities with orders here,
who were not prepared for the extravagant
fluctuations, and who were not on the spot
to take advantage of the momentarily chang
ing market.
THE GREAT LONDON STRUGGLE.
But of course by far the largest operations
here have been for the account of the great
London houses, who have been struggling
with each other to obtain control of Erie.
The daily Geographic orders from London to
their houses and agents here have been enor-
mous-measured by millions Of dollars a
day, and some days reaching over ten mil
lions. The cable has been kept constantly
busy with orders, and every change of price
in the London or New York market has
been instantly cabled from one to the other.
The New York market, however, has been
constantly governed by the quotations from
London. There the majority of the one hun.
dred and twenty millions of Erie stock Is
held, and there are the headquarters of the
struggling operators. We have seen, as we
have never before seen, the supremacy OF
London over New York, of Lombard street
over Wall street, in the control of the money
market. London has hundreds of millions
of capital unemployed or unproftably en-
ployed at three or four per cent. and if the
great money kings there choose to turn ii
hitharward, they can do what they please
with the stocks and bonds current in OH
market.
THE GREAT LONDON MOVEMENT.
would like, however, to call attention to
one result which will very likely flow from
recent events.
There is reason to believe that the immense
speculation so successfully and probably
carried OH here during the past fortnight
from London, will be followed by other
gigantic speculations from the same quarter
which will have an effect on Wall street nc
less startling than that produced by the re.
cent movement.
In the first place, there are, as everybody
knows, vast amounts of capital in London
which cannot be safely or proiitably en-
ployed.
In the second place, some of the great
operators Of Lombard street, who contro
| this capital, have for some time been looking
to America as the most promising field fol
| its use.
In the third place, the immense speculation
in Erie carried on here from London has
been very profitable TO the English specu.
latoIs. This is the first great venture Of the
kind they have ever undertaken here, and it
| has turned ont in such way as to Whet their
appetitcs. London has not merely been buy
ing Erie, but has been selling it az well on
the rise, and by having control of the stocks
has been able to take advantage Of every
change in the market. An advance of five OF
ten per cent. in single day, a doubling OF
| the value of the stock in the course of a fort
night, are things almost unknown in the
London markct-things which have not been
known there for thirty years, or since the
DAYS Of Hudson the "rairoad king" Lon.
don, in carrying Oh such movements here,
can turn them to her own account.
In the fourth place, London operators have
found out, during the past fortnight, how
Systematically and promptly speculation car
be carried OH here through the Atlantic cable
The cable has for years been used, to limited
extent, by London spectators in Wall street;
but never before has it been used as it ha:
been during the Erie speculation, when every
change at either point was instantly indicated
at the other, so that it could be INSTANTLY
acted upon. The broker of Lombard stree
has seen, as he never saw before, how con
yeniently he can sit in his office there ant
direct or take part in n financial campaign il
Wall street.
In the fifth place, the confidence of Lon
don in American operations has been vastl!
increased since the recent overthrow OF TIT
corrupt political, judicial, and financial ring
which dominated New York. The villainou
proceedings of these rings introduced an ele
ment of uncertainty concerning American
operations into the London head; and this