Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-09-18
GOULD SOUEALS.
The Hannibal and st. Joe Corner Too Mana
for Him.

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IN. Y. 'Star.]
1t makes vast difference in the appli-
cation of fixed rules of settlement on
Wall street, whose bear is gored by the
bull and how far man is bound in honor
to meet his contracts. In any other de-
partment of commerce the violation OF
contracts. or refusal to meet
valid demands would subject man
to the rigid rules of trade, and he
would be driven out of business in dis
grace. But in Wall street, where all the
operators are gamblers, everything is fair
and nothing is regarded as dishonest that
results in money getting. No matter how
or by what disreputable practices for
tunes are built up, to the average stock
iobber nothing succeeds like success.
The existing corner in Hannibal & St.
Joseph common stock shows in, its opera
ton to what desperate means some men
will resort to evade the payment OF a
debt. No man known to the financial
world, perhaps, has suffered more severely
at the hands of cornerers OF various
stocks than James r. Keene. VIGOROUSLY
on the short side of the market, and con-
tipuouslv a bear when all others were
bulls, he has become the victim
of every clique of operators who have
formed corners. Mr.. Keene has never yet
sssouealed,'' as they term 1t in Wall street,
but has met his losses promptly. In the
St. Paul pool he lost 81 100000; in the
northwest corner, 81, 000.0 900; in the great
wheat corner, 81, 500, 900, and IN the Han
nibal g. st. Joseph corner, $500, 900, max
inc a total in brief time OF about So
coo 900; but he never appealed to the
courts for an Injunction to cempel set
Element on any terms but those fixed by the
rules of the New Y ork Stock Exchange.
The Northwest corner, which struck Mr..
Keene such severe blow, was engineered
by Jay Gould, and when settling day ar
rived he rejected every proposition OF
Mr.. Keene for lower rate, and de-
manded and received his last pound
of flesh. Now, however, Jay Gould
is cornered, and instantly he trans
fers his field of operations from the arena
of the gamblers den on Broad street to
the courts, hoping, as he often has done
before, to worry his opponents into a
settlement such as he may dictate, under
fear of exposure of unpleasant details or
long spun litigation.
1t was Jay Gould who worked up the
corner on Western Union, when, by a
secret alliance with William H. Wander
bilt, he sold out the public, and CONSOLE
dated all the telegraph lines of the coun-
try under one stupendous monopoly; and
l. tore
inc his victims to settle. He
compelled Uncle Rufus Hatch to sell out
his bet iron steamboat stock, and even
to sacrifice his seat in the stock exchange.
Mr. Hatch appealed to the courts land Jay
Gould brought the guns of his two
morning journals to bear upon the head
of poor Uncle Rufus, charging him
with pleading the baby act and endeavor-
ing by legal blackmaIl to creep out OF a
sorry predicament. Now it is Jay Gould
who is pleading the baby act. The
poisoned chalice he has so often admin
istered to others is now held to his own
lips, and he cravenly refuses to
drain It's contents. How con-
temptible these stock gamblers appear
in their efforts to avoid the full respon-
sibility of Their deeds. They shrink at
nothing to fill their exchequers, and once
they corner luckless adventurer, they
examine his strong box, extract the last
penny it contains, and then turn the poor
victim loose upon a cold world to bemoan
his forlorn condition, and, perhaps, take
a plunge into the dark unknown. This
was what Jay Gould did to poor Groes-
beck, who, squeezed dry in the corner on
telegraph shares, drowned both his
body and his sorrows in the Klll-von-
Kull.
In the days when Gould and his side
partner, Fisk, manipulated Erie with such
high hand, they owned the judges and
directed the machinery of the courts; and
it may be that this financial
Mephistopheles expected to do
so in the Hannibal case; but the
defendants-no less gambling frater-
nifty than the Gould crowd-have bluffed
him off, for the time being, att least, by
transferring the case from the State to
the United States courts. If Gould desires
to be regarded as the greatest of modern
or ancient stock gamblers, he should not
resort to practices which would make
an Ann street faro dealer blush
foa shame; and if he will sell stocks
short, he should exhibit as much manli-
ness in meeting his losses as he exhibits
vindictive tenacity in extracting the last
dollar the victims of his plots possess.
The old adage says that there is honor
among thieves, but in the Hannibal q
st. Joseph corner, like Rip VanWinkle's
latest tipple, it doesn't count.