American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-12-14
About " COrners.S

previous corners We extract from
its issue of November %:
When the stupendous corner had De-
come faa accompit in Wall street yes
terday. brokers congregated together IN
familiar resorts and spoke of the corners
Of yore, when the financial world was up
heaved by others equally, and IN some
cases still more tremendous than That Oh
yesterday, They referred to the ola
- corner OF many years ago, when wan
street was yet in its infancy. of the fhiia-
delphia and Raritan Bay Rail- Dad, at the
time when the Camden and Ambey Rail
road was anxious to buy up the road.
And Il little later. the corner in Orange.
Worcester and Stonington, whefi, as we'll
as memory serves us, Morris ketchum, the
well-known banker. preferred to vacate
his seat in the Stock Exchange to
buying up the shares at an inflated
price TO meet his shorts" The famous
Morris Canal corner took place in 1888,
when a clique in Newark and New ork
bought up all the stock of the corporation
at 30 or 40 per cent below par, The clique
then went into the street and made some
enormous time purchases. On the settling
day the pool let out their stock at 15O, by
this means clearing nearly three hundred
per cent. But still more audacious cor
ner was managed during the same year in
Harlem. The total stock OF the company
consisted of 1000 shares. Within period
of a week Ga, 600 were bought by the ring.
The day for settlement happened in Sep
TENDER. Stock which was bought in July
at 123, buyer sixty, paid IN this time :.
difference of seventy-two per cent to the
pool. which held the market at 1876.
In November. 1865, the Prairie du CHEN,
better known as the Prairie Dog Corner,
one OF the most notable of the large num-
Der which have been effected in our street,
was sprung upon the brokers. This, at
! road, and only had total capital OF ST.
900 900, and the shares when the specula-
ton started We're selling at GO. The ring
lent thousands of shares and created a
very large short interest. On the last
Monday of the came month Prairie Dog
had been pu she'd up to $50. Then set
tlement began. Some settled ut ITO, and
others as high as 2lO. and it is historical
that one house paid Sl25, 900 to get clear.
The second corner in Harlem stock
happened in 1868. John NJ. Tobin con-
Quoted it when the stock was selling at
60. Tobin owned, as he had privately
purchased the entire stock of the road, it
was no very difficult matter to run the
price up to 164. This was in September.
and when settlements were made the stocks
dropped down to so. In the early part of
the following year, 1864, the State Legisla-
ture repealed the grant, and half the As
sembly entered on systematic raid against
Harlem. The stock fell. The shorts began
to increase. Several houses failed, and not
less than three million dollars were peck
eted by Tobin and his colleague. Some of
individual operators. who had agreed to the
deliver ], 1000 to 200 shares, were exceed
ingly glad to compromise by paying some
thing like 3lsO,OOO.
The Hudson corner of 1868 was also
one of the most notable of the Wall street
explosions. This was engineered by
Leonard jerome and few of his friends.
1t appears that the scheme was simply
the impulse of the moment The bears
had got the stock down to liz and even
less. jerome held large amounts of the
stock and grew irritated at this decline in
the price, and sent orders to several bro
kers to take all that was offered at the
SELLERS option. This plan was continued
for several days until the market began to
fail. Then the clique began to buy cash
stock until almost all the capital stock had
been secured. At this period many appli-
cations were made to bear houses to turn
the stock. They bought it cash of the
Ring and seld it back at ali advance upon
ten, Twenty or thirty days option. When
at length the options, given in the turns,
came to maturity, the bears found them
selves in decided - corner" No stock
could be obtained. Hudson mounted up
to $50. Then the leading operators began
TO bewaA their misfOrtunes and implO,e
mercy. They said they made the turn
simply as matter of accommodation, and
it was not at all fair that they now should
lose thousands OF dollars on every hun
dred shares. The clique was not to be in
f1uenced, however, and at most consented
to lend the stock at five per cent. per day.
There were 5000 shares due, and on Il
very large proportion OF them this eX-
IRENE interest was duly paid. At last.
not having anything better TO do, the
zl.1.. hUtr- fflx.t-
What remained was disposed of by being
sold privately. What was male on this
it is impossible to say, but it can be put at
millions.
The Milwaukee and st. Paul corner was
undertaken riskily-that is, without the
cooperation of directors. Garner was
the master mind of the affair. The stock
was selling at AZ in January and the OPP
orator bought calls at twelve months, cor
neiing the entire capital stock, paying
$3.50, 100 in premiums. He then ordered
his broker to bid it up, and in October it
quoted at Ill. The direction at this point
voted an immediate isstie of shares and
the market broke to 81.
There was a corner in Rock Island in
1861. 1t was engineered by Morse, of
Fort Wayne fame, and Thomas c. Du-
rant, the Union Pacific man. In Decem-
Der large sums of the stock were hypoth-
ecaJed on a sixty days loan. Heavy
purchases were then made. More than
fifty-six thousand five hundred shares
1.-THE entire capital stock was held or pur-
chased at short options. Some say that
10000 in excess of the capital were bought.
The price started ut 107 and went up to
149. At this state it was found out that
the pool was being betrayed. COM
promise was then made at from 14O to -.
This occurred in February. The next
day a broser sold 10000 shares, and the
corner broke.
An Erie pool took place in November.
1868. In the morning Erie sold for 36s,
and in the afternoon was as high as SIT.
1t is a singular fact that in this pool
Smith and Gould, the two who are now at
lOggerheads, were partners against Dan
icl Drew, who was left out in the cold
''shOrt."
Perhaps the best known corner of all
was the great gold corner of September,
1869, the disastrous effects of which have
given the name of Black Friday to the day
on which it happened. 1t was then that
Fisk, Gould, Belden and others united to
send up the price of gold, and did succeed
IN sending it up to 16O from small prem
ium. 1t will be remembered that the
government stepped in anu put a stop To
the speculation by putting all the gold
necessary, on the market. This so COM
pletely took the ring by surprise that
they were circumvented, and failed to pay
many of their obligations at the time,
running many of the brokers and causing
NOR, or less CRASHING of teeth through
the land. III main point OF this was
that, instead of being stocks. which only
affect few, it was gold, the price OF
which affected everybody in a greater or
less degree.