The New York herald., 1872-11-24
Moral. from wall street.

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Black Friday has had its worthy successor in
Northwest Friday, and the genial gentlemen
who fight under the standards of Taurus and
Ursus on the pavements of the Stock Exchange
or the Gold Room have met with woful defeat
to the latter. Most animals when driven to
a corner, fight with mad desperation, and if
they cannot, like the cat in the fable, get
safely ''up tree" try as many tricks as the
fox, who had a hundred of them jay Gould,
with the bulls skin on his shoulders, had
Henry N. Smith, Daniel Drew and host
OF stock -jobbing cubs in the bears hide
tightly pinned in s'corner' on Friday. His
horns were driven through the financial dia-
phragms of the two bruins. Henry in agony
yelled to the law courts for help, and induced
Sheriff s officer to put the bull into ''pound,'
saying he had gored the Erie OK to the tune of
nine million dollars. Before, however, the
boys could ''get out" the bull gave whisk to
his tail, jumped out of the pound and again
pinned the miserable bears to the corner-this
time with increased effect. He held them
there all Friday night, bleeding them all the
"~~~~S, unsAA JCctCAudy uAUCIAOOA, WucA DohASA
paid nearly a million to be let go. AS he
drew the horns out of his bank account he
doubtless envied his ancient namesake, who
was more fortunate in his little trouble with
the lions of Nebuchadnezzar
In all these wars among the Titans of the
street. with Jupiter Boutwell, looking down
for chance to hurl his golden thunderbolts
among them, there is fine irony on the
civilization we boast. This time Jupiter could
not Interfere, and the battle continues with
every shade of stock -jobbing deviltry, comical
to behold. Now it is the fat kline of Pharaoh
against attenuated bears who have sucked
their paws for months in the Micawberish
hope that something better would turn up,
but did not. "Prairie Dog" Harlem"
Crock Island" or sErie," it is all the same.
The bear of yesterday is the bull of to-day,
and would be rhinoceros tomorrow if that
pachyderm was in the metempsychosis of the
''street" In the thick of the fight the calves
and the cubs are trampled out ruthlessly, and
nobody suffers or cares but themselves They
have as many lives as cat, and when
ruined" in the morning go into bankruptcy
at noon, and having ''got that off their mind"
like the debts of Micawber, appear on the
curbstone before dusk as lively, rs tricky and
INSCRIPTIONS as ever.
While occasional appearances of magnanim-
ity in small doses give their comic side to the
war, it is entertaining to note the ferocity with
which the great among the vanquished are
tre1tsd No medieval Jew ever had his teeth
drawn with rS-r- refinement of cruelty than the
way in which an adroit bull draws checks from
the 'shorts.
But the story of Jay Gould is the most
curious in the category. Here is a man
charged by his old partner with misapplying
STEALING is it?) about nine millions. He is
arrested with the utmost obsequiousness, con-
veyed tenderly to the Sheriff's Office, and in
three minutes and four and half seconds
is on his triumphal way back to the
fight, and all the next day receives the
submission of his accusers. Now, if
he is really the terrible defalcator they charge
him to be, why not break with him and try
him in earnest? He, however, holds them in
the financial wise SO tightly that they are fan
to relax the legal screws on him. The miser-
able wretch who grabs ten-dollar bill to buy
bread for his family is treated with
all the severity that such fero-
cous criminal deserves. If it were
a bagatelle of nine millions he would not be
collared and dubbed, but arrested with an
apology, and shown out Of Court with gen.
tlemanly celerity. Let those who are aston
ished at this difference between criminals of
such opposite responsibilities cast their eyes
over the graduated table of theft and its
present ratio Of punishment which we sub
john