The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-01-13
THEBRlNK OF A PANIC.
A Picturesque Statement of Financial
Probabilities.
" ~. Grndv to the Aqent1 Constellation,

IT. ". Grady to the Atlanta Consultations,
New YORK, December a.
asked a prominent Wal! street man
today what he thought of the market.
"Oh. the market will move along
steady until something happens"
"Until what happens"
"Panicw he replied.
I find very general uneasiness in IL
nancial circles as to the future. The
black shadow of panic is already darIen.
ing the brightest epoch of our national
life. When the general apprehension
shall be realized is uncertaln-specula-
ton as to the coming of the storm rang
ing from one month to twelve.
The simple and only reason for evil
prophecy is that speculation has outrun
actual growth. As marvellous as has been
the expansion and progress values have
been put way up above the high-water
mark. Wall street has discounted the
farmer and mann facturer and gone alone
on its own hook. "
A glance at the stock quotations Tor
the past twelve months will give an idea
fthe desperate eagerness with which
everything has been inflated. Stocks
have doubled and trebled in Talue.
Scrip dividends have been issued, and the
watered stock has moved up to higher
point than the original ever held. On
the list are several leading stocks that
have risen from so to 70 to over 200, the
same basis being taken. We all remem-
ber that after the enormous speculation
of last winter and spring wheI everything
doomed and worthless stocks showed up
to par and above, there was general ap'
prehension that the attempt to liquldate
this vast speculation would result in pan
ic. And vet the dull summer months
went blythe Glands" closed their ac'
counts and withdrew to rural pastures
and vet stocks continued to 60 up: The
craze was on the "s.reet" no less than on
the people, and everybody looked above
the dizzy heights on which they then
stood. The fesult is that to-day We see
prices from 20 to 60 per cent. higher than
they we're even then. And they are even
yet going up. Money is easy and the
way to speculation is open. There is
hardly stock on the list that is not cred
tied with from 10 to 30 per cent. still
further rise by those who are dealing
in it. It is noticeable that they all say ::
"Ofcourse there will be break after
awhile-but think there's safe 10 or
20 per cent. in thiss in the next ten
days" And so they go unconscious
that they are marching to precipice,
and yet hurled on by the fearful facina-
ton ofthe game-picking their way with
trembling feet to the abyss of Ruin!
1t is one of the fruits of the gigantic
system of speculation fostered BY Wall
street that the country can in the midst
of unexampled prosperity be confronted
with a panic. There have never been
such crops-activity, such progress-as
We have had for the pass thre, years.
The New York Central Road with its
four tracks ofrail is literally unable to
transport the freight that is offered it.
All the other roads are busy and are
working up to.their fullest capacity. The
country is busy hive, in which there is
not discordant note. Every section re-
joices. And yet We see paralysis threat
ening these mighty energies, and ruin
skulking in our by ways-merely because
speculation has gone rioting beyond the
limit of prudence, and the energies Of
Wall street require that there shall be q
tumble in values against which mar
gins of profit may be laid.
AS to how this break will come-as 10
how long the rising pulse of the republic
will falte- under its induence-can best
bejudged by review of the panic Of
'73.
"Jay Gould holds panic in his clutch
to-day" said an observant man to me,
"and he can lose it when he willW
What stupendous figure this little
man makes in the world of finance. An
insignificant presence, standing five feet
four, with small, introverted eye-a
tired face and black lustreless whiske1s
there is no man iu America that has a
fraction of his power. The street has
never known such an operator as he
the country has never seen such baleful
and tremendous influence concentrated in
one human frame. Jay Gould has been
the prime mover in every panic that has
occurred since he became leader in the
street. He was the head.spirit of the
gold conspiracy that eliminated in "Black
Friday" having as his ally that oiled
and curled Assyrian bull, Jim Fisk, Jr.
This organization has never been cquallcd
in audacity and stubbornness. Gould
furnished the cold, devilish will, but
lacked physical courage and dash-this,
Emperor Jim, with his overfowing Vi
tally and splendid presence, supplied.
1t was the union of the Jesuit and the
libertine-of Rodin and Count Fosco.
The panic of '73 was never organized.
1t was creeping distrust that shirered
beneath the surface of 8 brilliant and
prosperous epoch. 1t was the uneasiness
that always comes with flush and over
whelming prosperity-just such uneasi-
ness as is now making Itself manifest.
There were no physical signs of it. The
granaries were bursting with garnered
harvests-the continent was almost vocal
with the hum ofspindles and the roar of
neutrality-suspicious. were peopling
the great West, and new fields were being
opened-the railroads trembled beneath
the rush of trains, busted with the inter.
change of freights-the currents of trade
and industry swept through the country
as the blood through strong mans veins
and yet the subtlespirit Of Ruin played
in the air. One or two old rats ran to
cover. William R. Travers hurried down
from Newport aud put out q line ofshorts,
but even he never dreamed that Jay
Gould was then noting with the eager
ness of q vulture the signs of danger and
distrust, and that his merciless fingers
were weaving the web of dsath and dis
grace
On the 1st of September, 1873,
Jay Gould had sSO,0OU,O00 ID money
and was then prepared to hammer
the market down-to send chilling
fear through all the list. On the 5th Of
September he appeared in the exchange
and began work. He first attacked gold.
5000 100000 were sold in one day by