The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-02-25
err NEW YORK LETTER
New YORK Feb. %. 1874
. WALL sTaEET-BULLS AND BEARS.

NEW YORK Feb. %, 1874.
WALL sTIEET-BULLs AND BEARS.
/ Spent day or two in Wall St.
tllis week, and learned something.
The man who learns anything ought
to lose no time before he communi-
Gates it to his fellows, hence | shall
give what | learned TO your readers
at once.
Do YOU know what "bulln is, or
u bear in Wall street? / spent two
days learning.
In Wall street 4 "buli" is an opera
tor who believes he can push the
price of any particular stock to
4 higher point. Take Toledo and
Wabash, for instance. Suppose it is
selling at As. The bull from certain
indications believes it will go up to
30, or higher. He buys at As, and
then deliberately goes to work to put
it up. He will lie like alike
-politician-he will invent bogus
dispatches--he will spread reports of
the death Of Presidents of railroads.
publish bogus reports of the business
done--in short, there is no villainv
in the range of lying, perjury and
fraud, that he will not commit to
make that stock go to figure above
As.
The bear is the man who has sold
the stock. | forgot to say that the
bull buys the stock to be delivered at
a certain date, say thirty days. Now,
if on that date Toledo and Wabash is
worth 80, the bear simply pays the
bull the odd two-if, on the other
hand it goes down to 46, the bull pays
the baer the odd two. 1t thus be-
comes a struggle between them-the
bull to toss it up, the bear to pull it
down.
The fight is deadly The bear will
get into the newspapers all sorts of
stories concerning the road. He will
have Gov. Cox, the President, dead
or stricken with paralysis, he will in
vent horrible accidents, and spread
reports of defalcations and gross mis-
management The bull practices tao
tics precisely the reverse.
The settlement is made on the ba
sis of the selling price of the stock on
the day named.
Very frequently bears turn bulls.
If bear sees it is impossible to pull
down stock, he frequently buys and
becomes a bull to cover This
he can do, if he can buy more of the
stock than he has sold.
These transactions very frequently
involve millions, and they embrace
everything under Heaven, Gold,
Railroad, and other stocks, grain,
lumber, everything in fact that is
merchantable is made the subject of
their struggle
A corner" is the buying of the
entire stock of a corporation, or at
least more than can be delivered.
Thus we will assume that there are
10000 shares of the Toledo 4 Wa
bash in all. The bears ignorant that
a corner has been made in Wabash,
sell the stock to be delivered in, say
thirty days, supposing that there is
enough Of it in the market to be had,
to make delivery at a profit possible.
The time approaches and they begin
to look about t. get the stock. They
find to their dismay that there IS not
a share to be had; for the very good
reason tha. the bulls have it all
They become frantic, but to no pur-
pose. The bulls hold, and run the
price up to any figure they choose,
to which the poor bears are compelled
to submit. But don't suppose it is
all plain sailing with the bulls! If the
bears are strong enough they buy up
one ot the bulls, which makes break
and if they get break made, Heav-
en- help the bulls. 1t is war to the
knife and no mercy is shown or ex-
pected.
Watering stock is where corpO-
ration becomes exceedingly profitable
too profitable in fact, for the pub
lie to endure quietly. Suppose
railroad having monopoly makes
money enough to declare divi-
dends Of 90 per cent. The pub
lie would clamor for reduction of
fares, so the directors double the
watering the capital. There
is no more capital than before, but
they call it more. If they double it
they declare 10 per cent. dividends
on $4,000 900, instead Of 90 per cent.
on Sl,000,000.
1t is all gambling of the most de-
plorable kind. There are legitimate
stock holders, but the rule is gam
bling.
SOCIETY
Is fermenting in this city just now.