Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-21
FERDINAND WARD.
sketch Of the Great wall Street specu.
lator.

AaIoEs
The firm Of Grant & Ward, says New
York letter, owed its success TO Gen.
Grant and its downfall TO this young fel-
low, Ward. Ward is IS years old. Fiji
teen years ago, having been brought up
in a quiet town in the northern part Of the
State. he entered q Broad street retail
furnishing goods establishment. where
his chief duty was 70 measure brokers for
their shirts. Through these customers he
obtained some knowledge Of the lingo OF
the street. and eventually got a place IN
the Produce Exchange as messenger for
Grant. the present Comptroller Of the
CITY. The Young man is a natural
speculatOr and gambler; be specu-'
lated. or, in other words, mace
bets upon not only wheat, OIL,
produce and all kinds Of stock, but IN the
seats of the Produce Exchange, which NJ
teen wears ago were only worth $1,000,
and are now worth more than 5000.
He began his operations just al the time
when Wall street brokers discovered that
they could speculate in wheat, corn or oil
with lust as much ease as in stocks, and
at far less expense. He made money out
Of everything he touched, and, having
married the daughter Of worthy bank
officer, now dead. who was for many years
cashier of the Marine Bank, he entered
Wall street with the usual eXpecta-
ton of making things lively for the old
fOgies. Most gamblers are said to have
some principle upon which they specu-
late; some of them averaged the prices OF
stock through long periods Of years, and
bet upon what they think ought TO be the
present price according to these averages.
/ have heard a queer story about young
- n7ssss ri
ing to some Of his friends. he had discOy-
cred that weather has an effect upon the
stock market, or rather upon the spirits
Of the spectators: he had often noticed
that lOng-cOntinued gloomy, dTeary
weather affected stocks unfayOTably;
in the first place, the spectators natu-
rally took a gloomy view of matters, and
the absence Of visitors and the outside
public from the street helped along the
impression Of general stagnatiOn, and
stocks went down. On the other hand, a
few days Of bright sunshine revived spir-
its all around; the men about town, the
fashionable club members who do not 90
out when it rains, reappeared in their
usual haunts IN the Wall street offices;
business became lively, the spirits of the
brokers revived. and stocks went up.
This is said to be the secret which
Ward claimed to have discovered. He
shine acts upon the human animal
in the same way that cham
payne does: he becomes sanguine and per-
haps somewhat reckless. If Ward really
acted upon this extraordinary notion. the
way TO make a fortune must be to sell
stocks when the Signal Service predicts
rain and to buy them when the shower
clears up. For several years Ward made
money in a small way, and at last found
nn r u q m
Gen. Grant. 1t seems to be pretty well
established that Gen. Grant has served in
this whole business merely as a decOy.
His chief duty was to sit in a gOrgeOusly
furnished private Office and tell acquain-
tances and callers what a magnificent
inancier his partner, Mr.. Ward, was. The
firm first consisted of Grants son and
young Ward, Gen. Grant putting in some
capital as special partner: but a
year ago the General entered the firm,
and therefore became liable for all its
debts. General Grant knows very little
of the business Of Wall street in general,
and absolutely nothing Of the business Of
Grant d Ward in particular. He knew
that he was drawing large sums of money
out Of the concern, which were handed to
him by Ward as the profits Of the bust
ness, but what this business was he now
cOnfesses to his friends that he had no
clear conception. He only knew that
money was forthcoming to a wonderful
extent, and of course, he was only too
glad to advise all his friends to share his
good fortune. And they appeared to have
done so to the extent Of several millions Of
dOllars-lost. The General seems to have
seen nothing wrong in the extrayagant
way Of life at once adopted by all the
membefs Of the firm upon the strength Of
these profits. He knew that his own sons
were buying horses, houses, pictures,
yachts and living as well as any million
aires. He knew that young Ward had
bought half a million dollars worth Of
real estate, lived at the rate Of 100000 a
year, kept thirty horses in his stable, and
thought nothing Of buying strawberries at
So a quart. There is a certain Broadway
fruit dealer who makes a specially OF
fruits which are extraordinary, by reason
Of their scarcity, beauty, and, Of course,
price. He always took his very choicest
impOrtations straight to young Ward and
found a customer who never asked the
price Of anything. Gen. Grant himself
has been drawing money from the firm at
the rate Of several thousand dollars a
month and never seems to have expected
anything wrong until the crash came.
Ward left no device untried to blind him
to the real state Of things, and even
named his own baby, who is now four
weeks old, Grant Ward, in honor of the
cTtccpcC Of tho firm