Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-05-22
The Great Financial Squeeze.

''OUTIS,' the New DIX correspondent
of the ST Louis Globe, writes az follows
concerning the recent great financial
squeeze in Wall street.
Never has money been so stringent for
so long time as ii has been here for the
| last six months. The rates have been
| simply ruinous-often One-half, three
| tourths, and one per cent. per day-one
hundred and eighty-two and onehalf, two
hundred and seventythree and three
fourths, and three hundred and siyty-fiye
per cent per annum! What business
| under the sun can stand that beyond a
week or two? A fellow who steals money
could not afford to take it at such price
| Imagine yourself borrowing 100000 and
compelled to pay 100000 interest on your
principal in little more than three months,
Do you call that usury? Usury is a mild
name for it. Commercial hroatcuttine
is a filter phrase to express such enormi,
ties Generally, one-tourth per cent per
diem is the extreme figure which the Shy
locks of the banking quarter charge; and
that is quite enough to carry any one down
who is obliged to rest under the squeeze
for any length Of time. Every season
spectators grow bolder, more unprinci-
pied, more merciless The greater their
success, the heavier their demand. Get
ting a few drops of blood they suck the
heart dry. Within few months, poor
devils caught between two mill-stones
have been ground to powder. If they did
not pay One-half, three-fourths, one per
cent per diem, they were crNshed like
egg-shells, and their slender remains swept
into the gutter.
Jacob Little was considered, only eight
or ten years ago, desperate Spectator on
the Stock Exchange. He was the Great
Bear and small bears and little bulls were
atfrighted at his extraordinary ferocity,
his ravenous appetite. What remarkable
changes brief period brings! If Jacob
Little were to rise from his grave, to which
shattered nerves and subverted brain car
ried him, he would be laughed at for a
milksop in the very quarter which he once
controlled A desperate speculator, in
deed! An old fogy the youngest member
of the Board would pronounce him, and
They would patronize the once Great
Bear and style him the Great Bore in
stead. They would advise him to quit
the Exchange, and take charge of the
apple-stand at the corner of Broad and
Wall streets, for which his fossilism pre-
cisely fitted him.
How they who have been "long" on
stocks have suffered in the recent and
everrecurring pinches! How the lot
pincers of usury have been applied to
their quivering financial flesh, and vast
pieces clipped out! To every species of
torture they have been and are subjected
They have been boiled, roasted, thumb
screwed, racked, lacerated with knives,
broken on the wheel. No pity has been
shown; little has been asked. The sole
cry has been Your money or your blood;
your last dollar or your life"
Brokers and operators never grow moral
except when they are down When they
are up, they declare Cuisines is bust
ness" and deprecate WY faces over
spilled milk. Just now, the fellows who
are long" they are short" likewise)
are in the cthic vein. They aver that
even gambling has its limits; that the
present condition of things ought TO be
put a stop to; that Jay Gould, Henry n
Smith, Rufus Hatch and few others, who
are engaged in the locking up, are infer
nal scoundrcls, and deserve hanging
This may be true enough. But if the
hanging begin, where is it to end? That
is the question. The men dcclaiming
against Gould, Smith and the rest will do
exactly what these have done when they
get the opportunity. Virtue and repent
ance, at least in Wall street, are born of
ill-luch, of large losses. Entire unscrupu-
lousncss and derision Of commercial de
cencics accompany good fortune, liberal
gains. To be moral, in the region of the
Exchange, you must be lame duck
The noise of preaching is the sound of
the "quack."
A lively interest is felt at present in the
length Of the reign of Jay Gould and
Henry n. Smith. 1T can't be much
longer affirm the -dOgs-fOrebCder
always Of i'll to the dogs on top.
The street longs for the Gould and
Smith scalps. 1t won't be content until it
sees the bloody trophies hung up in the
wigwam Of the Exchange. Old Drew and
Vanderbilt smile Ominously when asked
their opisiOn. They make no predictions
openly; but privately they have been
heard to say that the two cronies are
bound to go under after while
Uncle Daniel Drew is reported to have
delivered himself after this fashion:
Now, jays q kind o. sharp boy. He's
bin to the Synagogue; and they gets their
cye-teeth cut there afore they's out Of their
bibs and fuckers. Yes, he's sharp
mighty sharp; but he's a-rushin' things q
leetle too fast. He can't buck agin the
whole street; he had ought to know he
couldn't do nOthin' of the sort. There's
bin chaps as smart as Jay what's tried it,
and they got scooped all in heap like.
They'll ketch Jay on turn one Of these
fine mornin's, and away he'll go like a
kite. Mind my word, boys! I've been on
the street long time; I've saw lots O the
boys busted, and there's goin' to be some
more Dem busted right soon. Mark me,
if there be n'tw
Touching Smith, Drew is mentioned as
equally explicit. Hen. Smith is big
toad; so he is; so he is. But then Wall
streets a mighty big puddle; big enough
to drown him. He's smart boy, but he
can't hold out. New York isn't Togy
Tioga, Pennsylvania, is said to be the
town where Smith was born and reared
Cor. and Hen. hasn't found out the differ
ence yet. When Smith first come on the
street. ! sized i'm; | took i'm in. He's
quarter horse; he's a tarnation buster for
a lettle way; but when it comes to good,
squahr mile, his tails too short-too short.
| tell We, boys, he's run his best now; he's
lOsin' his wind; he's ginnIn' out. I'm an
old man. I've done some wrong things
nobody what knows it better than me-
but lean on the Lord, COS he knows our
hearts, boys you needn't laff, for he does,
sure) and he knows | mean what | say
when | say Hen. Smith hasn't got the bot
tom for this ere race in Broad street, I'm
an old man, but | spec to live to see Hen
turned out to grass like an old stage boss