River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-10-14

suspensions of banks-the European
Bank, the Bank of London, three of
the newly. created Indian banks. The
discounting houses fell down like nine
pins. What at that time seemed
strange to me was to see an unusual
number OF Quakers in Lombard street,
dressed as they were in their stiff.
stolid dresses. Their appearance only
added more to the general apprehen'
sion of something awful going on. BY
twelve o'clock news came that the bank
act was suspended. But calmly speaking
now, / feel quite certain that no real
relief was felt by this announcement.
Events later proved it. However, to
compare a New York panic with a
London panic is about as good as
comparing an evening at the Mabille
with prayer meeting. The solemnity,
| the gloom, and actual mental
distress of London panic Is
the extreme painful. No one
thinks of eating, drinking or smoking.
Stolen whispers pass about, and no
one would consider it propriety to
speak above his breath, while in New
York the hvellest times, the gayest
lunches, the most spicy jokes, are the
order of the day. In fact great disap-
pointment is felt by New York crowd
if the panic for ten minutes slackens.
The panic IN London really only lasted
that is to say, the excitement--dur4
ing Friday. On Saturday the usual
quiet appearance in the streets was
restored, although more than EGO, 000,.
900 in firms and banks went bankrupt
after the excitement. In London the
shock of Black Friday. was enough to
search out the most tender spots in
financial weakness, and it took five
long years to restore or rather rebuild
the structure anew.
BLACK FRIDAY.
While the other great commercial
crisi which at different epochs have
held the credit of the country in the
balance have been brought about more
by the laundering of fnanciers than
through the systematic effolts on the
part of one man to effect such results,
Black Friday was solely aud entirely
the work of a clique, OF which JAY
Gould was the head. During the crash
of failures on that dismal day the cry
was that "some one had Numbered, !"
but that great crime was being com.
mitted. The history of this crime is
the history of Black Friday, which was
a massacre in the midst OF financial
peace. In August, 1869, there was
from $150,000,000 to 5000, 900, 900 of
floating gold, and gold was weak at
131. There was $80,000,000 in
the ub-Treasury, but somebody had
promised that the government would
not sell. The clique, therefore, could
buy gold without fear. In the middle
of September it bought $4,000, 600 at
1881 @134 in one batch. On the morn
/ ing of Wednesday, the Odd. it held
/ several millions more than there were
in the city of New York outside the
Sub-Treasury, and yet the price had
been forced no higher than 141. The
clique settled its plans on Thursday
evening. 1t had loaned gold in immense
sums at 13S The plan at first was to
call in all of this, lock it up and force
the bears to settle by buying in under
the rule. The Tenth National Bank was
to have been used to shift the immense
sums, but the appearance of the bank
examiners unsettled this plan, and the
programme was to put gold up swiftly
and brighten the bears into direct set
I Elements. As il was, the officials of
the bank agreed to certify to an unlim-
tied extent night and day. Oh Thurs
day it did certify checks amounting to
| S25, 900, 900, and on Friday, spite of
/ the presence of the examiners, $14,-
/ 600, 900 more. All this time an army
of holders in the pay of the clique,
and under the leadership of one Albert
4 Speyers, was buying up all the gold
/ that was offered, and endeavorlng to
bring il us to 300. Their efforts were
more than successful. Gold reached
leo, and for an instant touched 165.
This was the harvest time for the
clique, and while some of his agents
were thus keeping the price by bawl-
ng bids for millions at 100, Gould was
unloading through a dozen different
brokers at far lower figures, but yet at
an immense profit to himself. He had,
however. pushed the price too far, and
when news came that Secretary Bout
well would sell 100000 of gold the
price fell even more suddenly than
it had risen, and general ruin and
utter confusion fell upon Wall street,
to a certain extent even involving those
vino had been chiefly instrumental in
producing it. Down, down went the
falsely bolstered price. The day was
the blacklist that ever set on Wall
street. Men knew not where they
stood. The confusion and madness
was so great that it was supposed that
all the clique had gone down. OF the
times that followed it is impossible to
give an idea. There was a run on the
Tenth National Bank the next day, and
a million was drawn out. The Gold
Clearing House kept $4,000, 900 mex
tricably loc ked up. The $500, 900, 900
of elearings demanded IN one day of
the bank dizzied its incapacity. Gould
had not yet done his work.
When it was publicly known that
only the account of his firm was
needed TO finish the clearances for
Black Friday, and when upon that
account fortunes were spending, hourly
Gould telegraphed from his barracks
at the Grand Opera House, where he