The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-05-17
BLACK FRIDAY SECRETS.
Some Inside History Of the Panic Of
1874 Never before Revealed.

/
1874 Never before Revealed.
From the New York Star.
| Old and experienced Wall street op-
orators who have breasted successive
! PAINTS for over quarter Of a century
claim that the true inwardness OF the
renowned and terribly disastrous "Black
Friday" has never been told, and that in
stead Of Jay Gould being the only actor
III That dreadful crisis who escaped with
! profit, lie lost many millions of dollars
and nearly went to the wall. The crops
| Of. the country in 1869, so the story runs,
! were unusually abundant--tar in excess
of home lemands-and there was an al
most universal desire that the admins
tration should devise some means to
stimulate exports. Letters by the score
| poured into Washington by each mail
addressed To President Grant and Sec.
| and prominent merchants urging the
| treasury department to abstain from SELL
! ing gold. SO that the premium might adj
vance to {, figure that Wotld send our
! products ont Of the country. 1t was ar
glied with great force that it was best to
| export our cheapest articles III, place Of
coin. which at its artiticially depressed
price was the cheapest, and the only
| one Indispensable, to pant with. The
government finally decided to suspend
gold sales for an indefinite period. Jay
Gould and associates becoming apprised
of this decision at once began buying
large amounts Of gold, and succeeded
in acri,ml,latihg a vast Quantity, cover
ing period Of three months, at 1875 to
l40. During this time jim Fisk was OPP
posed to the. movement, regarding
it as too Venturesome, and he had no
connection with the Gould syndicate,
which consisted Of Jay Gould, Ar.
Brothers, of London, and w. s. Wood
ward, OF the Rock Island notoriety. The
latter two, however, sold ont their in.
terest to Gould, who ran his big deal
alone, through his firm of Smith, Gould
! 4 Martin, in their office onBroadstreet,
near Wall, and where the Drexel build
ing now stands. Kimber, after going out
OF the syndicate, sold largely short, and
was forged to cover at Il los of over ST.
DOC, 600 to the London firm whom he rep
pesented. kimber was then recalled,
aud the London firm closed up the New
York branch.
Black Friday, it is now asserted, was
really caused by the erratic conduct Of
James Fisk who joined the movement
on the day before the grand crash, and
grew wild With enthusiasm OH the SUBJ
pet Of high gold. FIe commenced to
buy large bio. KS of gold Oh the fatal Fri
day through his brokers, William Bel
den and Albert Speyer, running the
price up very rapidly from l40,
element in the yold-room never be fore
equaled in any New York exchange or
in Wall street. Conservative bankers
and brokers became alarmed. panic
seized the masses, and q general feeling
Of alarm existed. At this juucture Hen
~ Clews sent a telegram to Secretary
Boutwell, and President Grant repre-
senting fully the actual condition of af-
fairs and Urging the sale of gold with
out delay. He also prevailed upon Gen.
eral Gnttcriicld, the New York Sub
Treasurer, and Moses II. Grinnell, Col.
lector of the port, 10 send similar dis
patches. Timely action was at once talk
Ell in Washington bv an order to sell
S. 200, 600 in gold. The moral effect of
this act was to strike terror to the hold
crs Of gold, and a general rush was made
to sell out. The premium was driven
to 1872. The down grade produced
earlier in the day. ~ Albert
Speyer, who zelda verbal carte blanche
order from Jim Fisk to buy in million
lots all the gold he conld secure at 100,
kept on buying millions upon millions at
this figure, and at the saline time in 9TH
err sections on the opposite side of the
gold.room sales were being freely made
in derates amounts at 40, l45, and
$50; and even when 1875 ives reached,
Speyer still kept OH bidding 100 for one
million dollars at a time, making one OF
the widest and most ludicrous specta-
cles ever witnessed among sensible bus
mess men.
Fisk afterward repudated the con-
tract made for his account by Speyer, by
simply denying that he gave either
they we're not in writing, they ronlu not
be proven. The result of thus trick was
that both brokers failed, throwing i'm
merse losses upon large number of
other dealers. A noted firm sold Speyer
some OF the Mathematician lots, which
they bought back at 40, being satisfied
with the profit Of ~ per cent. When
they finished buying, the price instant
ly broke to l;'2, ard Speyer's failure also
carried this firm down, as we'll as half
the members Ofthe euId-room.
ut was Il dark season in Wall street,"
remarked Mr.. Ciew, as he finished the
above recital, land very many Of the
wrecks on that awful Black Friday were
never raised. Jay Gould lost, it is said,
over 1000, 600 in that gold venture, and
for Il long time was believed! to be seri-
ously crippled financially. He recovered
however, and was one OF a very few who
is in a position now to smile over the
dreadful dOingS of that terrible. crisis y