The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-12-18
STORIES OF WALL STREET.
A Man Who Made and Lost a Fortune
How His Luck Changed.

A Man Who Made and Lost a Fortune
How His Luck Changed.
Correspondence of the Philadelphia Times
New YORK, November 23.-There is
now in g the street, man who came
from Connecticut few years ago, and
made S900,0 900 in six months He had
81, 900 to start with, partly money that
he had saved and the rest borrowed.
In whatever direction he reached, money
seemed to answer the touch. The news
of his luck went back, and fairly bewil-
dered the town whence he came. OF
those who took the fever seven gave up
their employment and came to the city,
making here a little bunch of specula-
tors like many another that may be
found in Wall Street, drawn together
by ike causes from many parts of the
country. 1t is just as when somebody
draws prize in a lottery, straightway
half the people in the neighborhOOd 90
to buying lottery tickets. And for the
same reasons you may find in small
cities and towns remote from New York
communities who seem to have a bent for
stock speculatiOns. Ask why, and you
usually discover that somebody from
that town has gone to New York and
taken up the stock business, or at some
biAAAC Ae1S LlebNlC q B4S0 LII t1CAC
Among those who followed the man
from Connecticut was a young fellow
who had about $4,000, his share of a
fortune left by a relative. This made
him rich in a country town, but he was
dazzled by the then rapidly increasing
fortune of his successful fellOw-tOwns-
man. He began putting small bites OF
his $50, 900 into the Wall Street shark 5
mouth, and lost steadily, but not enough
to alarm him, for he had no doubt his
luck would turn, and give him as much
money as the man who had struck II
rich had made. He met the fortunate
individual in the street and said
90 You've got $500, 000-enOugh for any
body to live on. Why don't you take it
and get out and keep itP''
" Because l want to make it a round
81, 1000, 900; then I'll clear OUT
In less than two months he lost every
dollar of the 100000. Luck went as
persistently against him as it had been
for him, and in desperate endeavor to
regain his losses he stacked up his mar
gins until the whole great fortune melted
away. 1t took the man with $50, 900 a
year to lose his money; he made smaller
and more cautious operations, but he
lost it all the same He couldn't with
stand the fascination of the street, and
now he is the cashier of a small bank
ing concern, at a salary of $1,000 a
year.
The 100000 man stuck to it, too.
Sometimes he was well clad, and again
not so well. Occasionally he made a
little strike of few hundred, and speed
lily lost it all When he was particular
ly hard aground he would slip up home
and stay away awile, but he would soon
return with a small capital and try
again. On August 1 last he appeared
with 800, which he put up as a margin
with a broker who had handled hun
dreds of thousands for him in his flush
days, and began 10 buy stocks. He
struck the first of this great fiood-tide
that has inundated the country and
came in with it. As his profits in
creased he kept on buying steadily,
putting in all he had with the nerve of
a soldier; and with wisdom gained of
previous experience he stopped short
three days ago, when the market be-
came choppy and uncertain, and rested
on his oars with 100000 in bank This
safely invested in four per cents would
give him an income of S12, 200 a year,
enough for man of simple tastes to
live on comfortably; but he sticks to the
street, and is still going in to make it u
million, and in all human probability
he will keep at it until he is down again,
and will wind up by joining the small
army of cuEbstone brokers who lead a
wretched existence, and finally fade
away nobody knows whittier.