The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1880-01-30
IN AND OUT OF WALL STREET.

IN AND OUT OF WALL STREET.
New York SUM-
The stock market continues to be q
puzzle even to the most careful stu
dents. Men Of considerable expert
ence and who always have something
to say about the market have now
given up expressing opinions about it,
and content themselves with putting
out danger signals. In the face of un-
questionable unfavorable facts and
statements, the prices not merely re-
main steady, but persistently go up,
sometimes in jumps. of from to 10
points in single day. Stock like the
Canada Southern, for instance, which
was given away to w. HI. Vanderbilt,
aud which he had great trouble to
mark up to 45 last January, sold at 73
on Saturday. The road runs through
kind, has never paid cent of divi-
dend, and is not likely to pay any dur
ing the present generation. Yet Wall
street buys 1t and bulls it, as if there
We're some real value in the property.
The st. Paul road is known to be
managed by set of stock gambling
directors, who use the concern for the
exclusive purpose of making money
for themselves. They sell it short to-
day and stop paying dividends. If to-
morrow they get chance to borrow
money, they declare fictitious divi-
dend and go long of the stock. This
time last year the common stock of the
company was begging purchasers ct
"a; to-day it is selling at 70, and is said
to be cheap at. that by those who hold
the stock and try to saddle it ON the
outsiders. The condition of the COM
pany has not improved whit since
last year, and several banking houses
in Wall and Broad streets are busy
selling so.called extension bonds, the
product of which sales is probably to
be used In making fresh bait where
with to catch the simple-minded.
A still more curious instance of this
so-called ssappreciation of values'' is
exhibiting itself in the case of the
Kansas Pacific road. In January, 1879,
you could have bought any amount of
the stock at % a share. On Saturday
last it closed at $105 bid, with assur-
ances that there was ample room for a
further rise. That the business of the
road has improved during the year
cannot be denied, for everything has
improved. Even blue pills have for
some reason or other gone up. But
the condition of the company is not on
that account a bit better. There is said
to be still five millions of back inter-
est due and floating debt of over a
million. In this instance, however,
the rise of the stock has some zaiso,a
d'et,e, for Mr.. Gould has conceived the
idea of consolidating X. p. with U. p,
saddling upon the latter all his holding
in the former at the highest possible
price. The average stockholder does
not care straw whether the paper he
buys is intrinsically worth anything.
All he wants is to make a profit in
handling it, and to skip as soon as he
has secured this profit. But that is
just the reason that ought to keep in
telligent people aloof from the present
market. A Union Club wit said the
other day that the whole ornithology
of Wall street is limited to two varie-
ties, the pigeon and the hawk; that
most of the pigeons have been ..eaton
up or sore wounded, and that the
hawks will now have to go for each
other if they are to find any susten-
ance at all.
The fact is that the old distinction of
bulls and bears has been actually blot
ted out. Everybody it a bull now,
and the vital point Is to quit tho herd
at the proper time. Everybody makes
a resolution to do this, but good din
ner and few brandy-and-sodas in the
evening make man forget all he has
been thinking about in the afternoon.
Heavily loaded, about 10 O'Clock in the
evening he drops into his club, or into
Delmonico's or the Windsor, gets stuff
ed with points, and, after another dose
of brandy and soda, sends out night
message to his brokers to double up his
holdings instead of selling them out.
AS cases of this nature are very num-
erous, and as it is we'll known that
Providence takes care of drunken men,
the conflict of purchasing orders Gre
ates a strong market at the opening,
up goes the whole list, and the sobered
bear is pleasantly surprised to find him
self making money on the bull side.
1t seems to be a positive fact that the
whole of Wall street is now in a state
of permanent intoxication. Certainly
Arn 30