The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-04-10
Our New York Letter.
ihe stock Exchange Flurry--Gamblsrs
and stocks--The Jewcu Tragcdy--A
week OF sensations--Business sfaana-
tion,


have been so many since Fisk and Gould took
to gaming in shares on such gigantic scale
years ago. There was sudden fall In Panama
from 12O to IS, and for few hours il was SUD-
posed that the President of that Isthmus Rail-
way, Mr.. Trenor w. Park. had encountered
losses that would force his suspension. But
the stock rallied next day, Mr. Park met his
engagements and the excitement speedily suh-
sided.
Ii these little performances affected only the
actors in them, the public could look on with
comparative tranquility. When one sees trio
of sharpers playing three-card.monts on train
his only concern need be lest they should in
veigle some innocent dupe into the game, by
which he is sure to be heeced. Nobody cares
how much they cheat each other so with
these bolder gamesters. As long as their oper-
ations merely deplete or initiate their own pock-
cts the chief evil attending them is that they
have demoraliziDg influence upon the COM
munity and stimulate passion for gambling
that is the cause of nearly all the embezzle-
ments, frauds and breaches Of trust that occur
amongst us. This is bad enough to be sure,
but it is not so far reaching in its destructive
ness rs are the plots and stratagems which sud
denly reduce tha values of corporate property
to such an extent as to destroy the confidence
of investors in every kind of security, and
bring real suffering to innocent parties. A
man who owns a stock which he bought for
investment, depending on the dividends for
Income cannot tell what day or hour it may fall
under the ban of the tricksters in Wall Street
and be shorn of half its mark etable value.
This Panama road has. been source of enor-
nous income. Before the Union Pacific was
finished it used to pay twenty-four per cent.
annually. 1t is no doubt remunerative road
now under proper management. But in the
hands of President who is continually manip-
ulating it for speculative purposes it is danger
Gus to hold or have at any price. The same
thing may be said of number of the great
railways of the country. The gamblers are
worming themselves into the direction by OBJ
tanning control of majority of the shares, and
as fast as they get possession they use their
power to put the price up or down as their in
terests or caprices may dictate. The moral OBJ
legation of conscientious trustee seems to be
entirely lost sight of. A good or bad showing
of earnings and expenses is manufactured as
occasion may require. In short a stockholder
has no rights that the director feels bound to
respect, and is completely at the mercy Of
dicers, who not only have no scruples about
swindling him, but on the whole are rather
boastful of it, as it gives them the reputation
of being smart"
These reprehensble practices are producing
the natural effect of creating wide spread dis
trust of, and severe depreciation in, every de-
scription of corporate property. There are real.
ly no railway shares that it is any longer pru-
dent to ho'd. No matter how admirably locat-
ed, how extensively travelled upon or how free
from competition, it is impossible to guard
against their falling under the blighting grasp
Of a set of jockeys who will contrive some way
of bringing them into dscredit. 1t is a fool
hardy business to play against loaded dice.
There is no chance of winning in such game.
Consequently the only course Of safety Is to
have nothing whatever to do with stocks. If
men must needs play for stakes the faro bank
or roulette table is less hazardous, provided the
dealers play what they call in their lingo q
''square game" There you do have a chance
to win, an exceedingly slim one unquestiona-
bly,, but it is not absolutely impossible lucky
turn of fortune will befall you. But the stock
gamblers have you at such a disadvantage that
loss is simply inevitable. How much better
then to leave them severely alone. When the
outside public can no longer be enticed into
their tolls they will turn and rend each other, o
performance upon which honest people can look
with as much indifference to the result as the
woman said she felt when her husband was
fighting with the bear. There has been good
deal of that sort of thing going on of late years.
As the gudgeons decrease in number the opera
tors n the exchange find it necessary to form
conspiracies to rob their rivals. This Is Q line
of business in which Jay Gould Is popularity
supposed to have realized large profits His
later successes have so far oblitsrated the men,
ory of his earlier misdeeds that he Is able to
gain recognition from, and form alliances with,
some of the most prominent and hitherto repnt.
able managers of large corporations in the
country. The reputation of having money goes
great ways in New York towards redeeming
mans character. 1t was only eighty days be-
fore the explosion of the dynasty of Tweed,
that he was admitted to the fellowship and as
sociation of several of the most eminent mer-
chants and bankers in the city, with A. T.
Stewart in the van
The banks are the greatest promoters Of stock
jobbing. They loan money to fabulous ex-
tent to the brokers' Nine.tenths Of the shares
that are bought every day find their way into
the bank vaults before 3 o'clock. They loan
two-thirds or threequarters of the market value
on them. In the case of a collapse like that of
the other day, payment of the loans is not ex.
pected nor demanded. The borrowers are
merely required to put up additional collate-
ro1a ~ 90 l. kl...- -
and refuse to make any more on stock hypothe-
cations. we should have one of the most health
full and purifying panics that the country ever
saw. The police have just been cleaning out
lot of gambling "hells''. The proprietors of
these dens pursue their nefarious calling man.
ly by night in darkness and secrecy. They have
the grace to be ashamed of it. But the deni-
zens of Wall street carry on their wicked
trade in open day and show no signs of COM
punction about following it. If the sources
whence they derive the capital they use were
shut off as they ought to be, it would prove the
greatest of blessings to the people at large a.
well in respect to the moral as to the material
aspects of the case.
The Jewett tragedy is one of the most extra
ordinary occurrences of the century. If 30
| strange a tale had been woven into o book of
fiction, it would have been pronounced wildly
extravagant. The firm of John Jewett & Sons
| is one of the oldest and strongest in the white
lead trade. The father created and the sons
| inherited the business. They were men of sub
stance rather than of show, making very little
noise in the world, but quietly attending to
their own affairs with unfailing skill and dill
gence. 1t was the very last place in all
New York where any one would think Of look
| ing for disturbance or an act of violence. The
whole affair is yet enveloped in mystery and It
| is too early to determine positively whether the
explosion was accidental or deliberate, or
| whether there was a homicide or suicide upon
the premises. Our past experience of "crow.
| ner's quest do not encourage the belief that
the actual facts will be brought to light through
the agency of the officers Of the law, but We
can only wait and see. Meanwhile popular
sympathy will be extended fully and warmly
to the mourning households on whom this aw.
full calamity has so suddenly fallen with crush.