Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-05-09
The Great Financial Squeeze.

IHttiN I'll u f-Al NIf1WE
"OUTIs," theNew York correspondent
OF the 81. Louis Globe, writes as follows
concerning the recent great financial
squeeze in Wall street
Never has money been so stringent for
so long time as IL has been here for the
last six months. The rates have been
simply ruinous-often one-half, !, three
fourths, and one per cent. per dat-one
hundred and eighty'two and one-hdlf, two
hundred and seventy-three and three
fourths, and three hundred and sixty-fve
per cent. per annun1i What business
under the sun can stand that beyond q
week or twoY 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 usury2 Usury isa mild
name for it. Commercial throat cutting
is filter phrase to express sucli ienormi.
ties. Generally, one-fourth per cent per
diem is the extreme figure whiclrthe Shy
locks Of the banking quarter charge; and
that is quite enough 10 carry any onedown
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
ting 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-fouItlIs,i one per
cent per diem, they were crushed like
egg-shells, and their slender remains swept
into the gutter.
Jacob Little was considered, only eight
or ten years ago, a desperate speculator on
the Stock Exchange. He was the Great
Bear, and small bears and little bulls were
affrighted at his extraordinary ferocity,
his Tavenous appetite. What remarkable
changes brief period brings HaJacob
Little were to rise from his grave, to which
shattered nerves and subverted brain car
ried him, he would be laughed at for q
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
hustle him as he entered the Long Room.
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
ever-recurring pinchesl How the hot
pincers of usury have been applied to
their quivering financial flesh, and vast
pieces clipped outl 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.'' al
Brokers and operators never grow moral
except when they are down, When they
are up, they declare "business is busf-
ness" and deprecate wry faces over
spilled milk. Just now, the fellows who
are long" (they are "short," likewise)
are in the ethic vein. They aver that
even gambling has its limits; that the
present condition of things ought to be
put stop to; that Jay Gould, Henry N.
Smith, Rufus Hatch and a few others, who
are engaged in the locking up, arerinfer-
nal scoundrels, and deserve hanging
This may be true enough, But if the
hanging begin, where is it to end? That
is the question. The men declaiming
against Gould, Smith and the rest will do
exactly what these have done when they
get the opportunity. Virtue and repent
dllCt, ~ lCdSt III w dll SItCt, are DOTH OIL
illluck, of large losses. Entire unscrupu-
lousness and derision of commercial de-
cencies 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." 'f t'sFt
A lively interest is felt at present in the
length of the reign of Jay Gould and
Henry n. Smith. 1T can't be amuch
longer" affirm the Observation-Disclosures
always of ill to the dogs on top. as
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 opinion. They make no predictions
openly; but privately they have been
heard to say that the two cronies are
bound to go under after while. assa
Uncle Daniel Drew is reported to have
Now, jays kind o. sharp boy. He's
bin to the Synagogue; and they, gets their
eye-teeth cut there afore they's out of their
bibs and fuckers. Yes, he's sharp
mighty sharp; but he's a-rushin' things a
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 a heap like.
They'll ketch Jay on turn one of these
tine mornin's, and away he'll go like
kite. Mind my word, boys! I've been on
the street a long time; I've saw lots o. the
boys busted, and there's goin' to be some
more o'em busted right soon. Mark me,
if there be MT"
Touching Smith, Drew is mentioned as
equally explicit. "Hen. Smith is big
toad; so he is; so he is. But then Wall
streets mighty big puddle; big enough
to drown him. He's n smart boy, but. he
can't hold out. New York isn't Togy
lIioga, 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 tarnatiOn duster for
"A lettle way; but when it comes to a good,
squahr mile, his tails too short-too short.
l tell ye, 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 l say Hen. Smith hasn't got the bot
tom for this ere race in Broad street Pm
an old man, but spec to live to see Hen.
turned out to grass like an old stage hoss.
Mark me, boys, l mean 'zactly what L
say"