New-York tribune., 1873-05-24
THE PANIC AND ITS RELATION TO THE
EXHIBITION.

SPREAD OF THE PANIC-GENERAL SPIRIT OF sPECU-
LATION-THE PANIC FASTENED BY THE GRAsPING
SPIRIT OF THE VIENNEsE.
lFRoM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT THE TKIBUNE.l
VIENNA, May 1O.-The panic on the BOurse is far
important topic iGst now to Vienna people than
the Exhibition Indeed the latter has scarcely been
mentioned for the past three days. except as one of
the of the terrible disaster that has befaen
the dealers in stocks and that threatens to involve
many important business interests Yesterday the
panic was at its hight, and than 100 failures
were announced. Many old, respectable banking
houses have gone on the list of bankrupts along
with crowd of mushroom concerns which sprang
up under the influence of the mania for speculation
that he's prevailed during the past year. So many
insovents were never made before in Vienna by any
financial crash In the great crisis of 1869 the total loss
occasioned by the fall of the stocks quoted on the
Bourse amounted to 100000 horins. Already it
has exceeded ten times that amount and the down
ward movement has not yet been arrested. The
panic is so complete that the efforts made to check
it by a cooperative movement of the most powerful
banks have not succeeded. Universal distrust and
alarm prevail. The newspapers compare the crisis
TO South American earthquake, in which terror
sezes upon every one; and to the rOut of an army,
when the bravest think only OF saving themselves
by flight. The chief sufferers the new specula
tive banks and the numerous building companies.
They have gone under by the dozen, and their stock
holders viii have nothing but their paper certificates
to show for their money. The speculative mania
which has thus reached its natural elimination
chiefly to banking and building operations. Humid
reds of bubble companies organized, and their
stock was snatched up at prices absurdly nconsist-
ent with the prospects of profit they offered.
Almost every day saw new banks organized with
mythical capital, whose stock was palmed Off upon
the credulous public by the influence of the names
of few barons and counts upon the lists of di-
rectors, and by the putting of subsidized newspapers
| am told that almost every of these wildcat
concerns either owned newspaper or controlled
one by bribes and that this accounts for the great
number of dailies in Vienna which have no apparent
reason for existing. The building companies out
numbered the banks and were about as unworthy
Of trust They undertook everything from erecting
monster hotels to putting UP soda-water pavIhons
Cotton and wooden factories, iron works. brewerles
mills &c. were built without any regard to the de-
mand that existed for their products, and the specu
lative feter that prevailed induced people to buy
stock in these concerns not rs an investment but
| in the hope that next day somebody would give
higher price for it. Hundreds of costly buildings
have been erected in Vienna by these building COM
! panies in style of elegance before unknown here.
The facades of these structures, richly ornamented
with carvings rival tnOSe OF tne uHeSJ Dululhgs ia
| the new bouevards in Paris, and they not con-
fined to the fashionable quarter Of the CITY, where
| high rents can be obtained but to be found in
| localities where there is demand for such costly
| edifces and where they get no tenants but
small shopkeepers- The number of hotels erected
by these organizations is also much beyond the or
dinary requirements of the city, and their extOr-
tionste prices havep kept them untitled thus
far during the Exhibition, when " was
| expected they would overflow with guests
| who would pay whatever was demanded of them.
Great apprehension is felt that the catastrophe will
ultimately involve the general mercantile and man
ufactuunS interests of the Empire, and produce
serious disturbance in all kinds Of business. II the
panic goes no further than tho Stock Exchange,
although the victims will be numbered by thou
sands, and the indirect effects Of the crisis will be
seriously felt for long ime the lesson it will teach
| win perhaps be worth the cost There could be no
heathful condition Of business as long the fever
of speculation prevailed. One of the daily papers
makes good comparison when it lkens the crisis
to a thunderstorm engendered by a heated and
malariOus condition of the atmosphere. The storm
is fightful while it lasts and perhaps destructive
Of property, but it purifes the air and makes ID
wholesome for the survivors.
There is general disposition among the sufferers
by the panic TO reckon the Exhibition az the chief
cause of the evil that has befalleh them This is not
as absurd as attributlng famnes and pestilence 70
the influence OF comet in the sy, % people used to