Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-07-07
Black Friday Secrets.

oPS."0o.S WIZ A"ve breasted Successes.
panics for over q quarter of a centns9
claim that the true inwardness of ay
renowned and terribly disastroua'
"Black Friday has never been to'l
and that instead of Jay Gould h .4la
the only actor in that dreadful o on;
who escaped with profit, he LOST; m n.ss
millions of dollars and nearly went y
the wall. The crops of the countrv . Y
1869, SO the story runs, were unusnsn y
abundant-far in excess of home ~
mands-and there was an almost ~, Vt
versal desire that the Administers
should devise some means to stimnlo.l
exports. Letters by the score ponras
into Washington by every mail aiIl0 ny
dressed to President Grant and Soo as
tary Boutwell,, from leading bankae1
and prominent merchants, urging tbs
Treasury Department to abstain from
selling gold, so that the premium mic5t
advance to q figure that would se .
our products ..out of The country. y
was argued with great force that 5y e,]
porting u cheapest articles in place ~
coin, which at its artiticially depressaS
price was the cheapest, and the only
indispensable, to part with. M,
Government finally decided to suspend
gold sales for an indefinite period
Jay Gould and associates becoming an
prised of this decision at once BEGAN
buying large amounts of gold, and s1c.
ceeded in accumulating a vast quantitv
covering q period of three months. =,
1876 to 40. During this time Jim Fiji
was opposed to the movement, regard.
ing it as too venturesome, and he had
no connection with the Gould syndicate.
which consisted of Jay Gould, Arthur
Kimber, representing Stern Brothers, Of
London, and w. S. Woodward, of the
Rock Island notoriety. The latter
two, however, sold out their Interest
to Gould, who ran the big deal alona
through his firm of Smith, Gould X
Martin, in their office in Broad street,
near Wall, and where the Drexel build.
ing now stands. Kimber, after going
out of the syndicate, sold largely Short
and was forced to cover at a loss Of
over 100000 to the London firm
whom he represented. Kimber was
then recalled. and the London firm
closed up the New York branch.
Black Friday, 1T is now asserted, was
really caused by the cratic conduct d
James Fisk, who joined the movement
on the day before the great crash and
grew wild with enthusiasm on the sub
ject o thigh gold. He commenced to bud
large blocks of gold on the fatal FridaA
through his brokers, William Belden and
Albert Speyer, running the price uu
very rapidly from 40, at which |
opened, to 165, during an excitement ID
the gold-room never before equaled il
any New York Exchange or in Wall
street. Conservative bankers and brok1
ers became alarmed, panic siezed th@
masses, and a general feeling of alarm
existed. At this juncture Henry Clew}
sent a telegram to Secretary Boutwell,
and President Grant representing full5
the actual condition of affairs, and urgl
ing the sale of gold without delay. Hl
also prevailed upon General Butterfield|
the New York Sub-Treasurer, and
Moses HI. Grinnell, Collector of the Port
to send similar dispatches. Timely ad
ton was at once taken in Washingtoj
by an order to sell $4,000, 900 in gold
The moral effect of this actwas to STRIKE
terror to the holders of gold, and a gen3
eral rush was made to sell out. Tho
premium was driven down from 165 in
less than two hours to 1872. The down
grade produced an excitement equal to|
the up twist earlier in the day. Albert
Speyer, who held a carte blanche order
from Jim Fisk to buy in million lots ALL
the gold he could cur at 100, kept on|
buying millions upon millions at this|
figure, and at the same time in other
sections on the opposite side of the room
sales were being freely made in moder-|
ate amounts at 14O, 145, 147 and $50,
and even when 1876 was reached, Speyer|
still kept on bidding 100 for S. ,000,0 O0|
at a time, making one of the widest and
most ludicrous spectacles ever witnessed
among sensible business men.
Fisk afterward repudiated the con-
tracts made for his account by Speyer|
by simply denying that he gave either
Speyer or Belden such orders, and, as
they were not in writing, they could not
be proven. The result of this trick was
that both brokers failed, throwing I'M
mense losses upon a large. number Of
other dealers. A noted firm sold Speyer
some Of the million-dollar lots, which
they bought back at 40, being satisfied
with the profit of twenty per cent,
When they finished buying the price in.
stantly broke to 1872, and Speyer's fail,
ure also carried this firm down, as well
as half the members of the gold room.
cit was a dark season in Wall
street." remarked Mr. Clew, as he fin
ished the above recital, .sand very many
of the wrecks on that awful Black Fri
day were neve raised. Jay Gould lost,
it is said, over 81, 600, 900 in that gold
venture, and for a long time was be
lieved to be seriously crippled financial.
~. He recovered, however, and is one
of a very few who is in a position now
to smile e the dreadful doings OF thai
terrible crisis."-M. Y. Star.
One of the saddest cases that ever
came before a court was that of Cath
crime Burneson, a Philadelphia woman
who recently killed a little girl. ehs
pleaded guilty, and evidence was pre-
| SantaH fn chnyu avtan1ofip1r clrGllIUs