National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-01-02
GAMBLING IN, WALL STREET.


One of our statisticians has taken the
trouble to compile brief table giving the
fluctuations of railroad stock during the
year which has just closed. In the TWO OF
three inches of figures in which 1t Is en-
braced may be found by the noveiis' OF the
historian the material for picture OF
phase of our life and morality which might
be extended through volume after volume.
It presents in the most forcible and effective
wsy an illustration of the commercial i'm
morality of the time, grim photograph OF
the debauchery, the depravity, the crime
and the wickedness of class of men who,
to our shame be it said, enjoy high
reputation socially and politically; who,
many Of them, are the leaders in our re-
Egious movements; the models who are
held up to our young generations as exem-
plsrs and guides in the march and battle OF
life
A glance at the figures to which we refer
discloses condition of affairs which is SIM
ply appalling. During 1873 the stock OF
the New York Central and Hudson River
rsilread fluctusted between 106 and n;
difference of twenty nine per cent. upon
every one hundred dollars. These figures
are not so bad as others, which we shall
subsequently present; but does any one be-
1ieve that there was anything in the legiti-
mate business of that thriving railroad to
igstify so great difference9 Upon the
day when it was set down as worth only
there can be very little doubt
that it was Just as fiourishing and as pros
porous as when it was quoted at its highest
figure. The truth is that it was mere
Foot ball between two cliques in the street;
that it was put up and putdown as the bulls
or the bears were in the ascendancy,
who lost or made fortunes upon their
failure or success. Take another leading
stock-Erie. At one time it was up to 90,
Of another it was downto 35. What story
of crime and rascality these figures repre-
sent The manipulations of Jay Gould,
aided by score or hundred vagabonds
as unscrupulous as himself; corners and
plots and counterplots; doc
toring of accounts, swindling of stock
holders, subornation of judges, corruption
of juries, defiance of justi these are some
of the concomitants which helped to make
one set miIlionaires and another set ofspecu-
latOrs bankrupts.
The story is the same all the way through.
Lake Shore sold as high as 81 and as low rs
81; Ohio and Mississippi went up to 40 and
down to 81; Northwestern touched its high.
est point at IS and reached its lowest depth
1t 81; St. Paul dangled between 60 and 81;
Wabash between Is and SO; Hannibal and
6t. Joseph between SO and Is; Harlem be-
tween 40 and 30; the New Jersey Central
to 1O6 and went down to s.: Paci-
&c Mail rose TO 76 and touched bottom at
ISL; Western Union went from az to 434,
and pice uersa; Union Pacific seesawed
between 39t and 14a; Panama between 100
and 771 As we said, there was no reason
IN the world why we should have had this
terrible fiuctuation in values. These stocks
are worth SO much and no more; but they
have been artifcially increased and de-
creased by set of unprincipled men,
to subserSe their own selfish
purposes. Drew is triumphant to-day
and Vanderbilt tomorrow, according as the
one or the other has stocked" the cards.
Jay Gould wins or loses, as his skill and
cunning and duplicity defeat or are de-
feated by the skill and cunning of his sd-
versarics. Not dollar is added to the in;
trinsic value ofthe stocks in which they deal
BY these people-not a single share is trans
ferrcd. The whole thing is pure gambling
from beginning to end 1t would not make
SO much difference to the world and to o.
ciety if the leaders of the street, as they are
called, were the only persons affected by
their operations. But the trouble is their
example permeates through every rank
and class in life. 1t induces the
trusted clerk to become thief,
sending him to the penitentiary or the grave
of a suicide; it tempts the honest merchant
from his legitimate trade to illegitimate and
fatal speculation; the clergyman hears the
siren voice in his pulpit and descends
among the money changers; hundreds and
thousands go down year after year, swal-
lowed up in the maelstrom Of Wall street.
Lives are shipwrecKed, homes destroyed,
fortunes scattered; here is woe and misery
and misfortune untold in the land every
day in the three hundred and sixty five be-
cause of the villainy which the Drews and
che Goulds and the Vanderbilts teach and
practice. If there be three men of the
present generation who should be pilloried
In infamy for all time they are those
whom we have named.
nPaTN TPADE mr. rHTrAn0