Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-12-30

No iuea % haAihg such a comfo,.at,u
sum. Three times by sheer ecciden
which he was not to blame, he bsd -i'' lot
pretty little fortune and he BELLE ,ost
his own experience could be mato tu mat
very many of the spectators ae oy
street. OF course, he exnectaa the
great operators who, from Their oo ,uose
OF immense amounts of cash. fror. '. =,
ownership of controlling interes.,. nelr
large properties, and their abilitr ts n
troll the market, We're placed beyona IN u
power of lucky or unluckv ac,i4a, 'le
affect greatly their wealth. 70
z perhaps the most remarkalt.
that ever came under my observa.iee''s s
the broker went on to say, "was fbat,
one of the most conservative men ~
the street. He Is now simply Mo-
and since Black Friday has never srl'l'
lated one dollars worth. You rensr,t1-
that three or four men brou0bt ~, u
panic now known as Black Fridar - ''o
nering gold and running the pries ~ 0 s.n
many were ruined, the street was IA
wild panic, and universal smash go
Imminent. These men relied ON ~
they believed to be good assurance 4 tIat
the government would put no gold on M
market that day, and they had locked M,
pretty much all the rest Of the gold IN NJ
country that was available. Right in tbo
midst of the panic, when the street way r0
like mad house, and many men who !,
the morning supposed themselves rob
were almost stark, staring mad over H.
ruin which had befallen them in II faa,
hours, and when almost the biobo..
figures had been touched and nobodp w.
selling short, this broker to whom rae@s
suddenly lost his head. He had cove.o5
early in the morning at a comparativoII
small loss, and had been looking in M
ing the day without any personal aDyiefv
except that caused by the fear ne
panic that would knock the bottom ont ~
everything. Suddenly, he never knew
why, nor has he any but the most varna
recollections of the transaction, he rushed
into the bawling, bowling pit, and sold
right and left at their highest fgures
He probably might have avoided his con.
tracts or his friends invalidated them %,
him for he was undoubtedly insane when
he did this. At all events, he was selline
when suddenly there came that tttIe
message from Secretary Bomwen that
knocked the bottom out OF the corner n
the twinlling of an eye, sell five millions
of gold"
"In half an hour more my friend woud
have been lunatic pauper, and. AS r.
was, his brother, / think, or some near
relative, found him utterly irresponsible
and with a good deal Of difficulty led
him away to his office. There
when he was told of the or
der of Bontwellis, and that the bottom
had dropped out of the panic, he did mot
seem to comprehend the truth at all but
mumbled something which nobody under.
stood. His contracts, however, were
found, and taken care of by his clerks
and rapid estimate showed that he
stood good not far from quarter of
a million. When they told him he did
not seem to comprehend. He had not
been drinking for he wa te etotaller
Suddenly they missed him.
"Ihere was another case that I'm al
ways reminded of when l see young
man in the street who is very bright
chap, and win be heard from some day
His father was the president of a savings
bank somewhere down east, and some
time in 1870 took a lot of southern Min
nosota seconds at 80. He intended to
buy them for the bank, but thinking he
had good thing kept them himself.
The panic of "A knocked southern Mn
ncsotas down to nothing, and the presi-
dent threw the bonds into a box in his
library at his house. He was afterward
obliged so compromise with his creditors
and threw in lot of stuff, among it as
he supposed, the southern Minnesatas
The whole lot at that time would not have
brought over 5000. Later this man
came to New York and went on the street
He made money at first, but either in the
summer of 1880 or early in 1881 he was
badly bitten in oil, and was, as he sup
posed, ruined man again. The very
evening that he had made up his mind to
ask the next day for an accommodation
from his creditors, his boy, who was then
about II, came to him to ask if he might
have piece of paper with pictures on it
to paste in his scrap book.
THE father was about to say yes with
out looking, when he recognized the crisp
rustling of parchment paper such as is
usually used for lbonds He snatched the
bond from the boys hand, and it was
Southern Minnesota, worth about par
"Where on earth did you get thisf he
asked.
"'Why, up in the attic in a chest where
some of your old books and papers are
and there are a good many more Of
them
IL don't think the father was long in
making tracks to the attic, and there he
found his long forgotten southern Mime
sofas. They were worthless when he put
them away, but were worth their face now
something like $4,000, think at all
events, enough to put our friend on his feet
and he hasn't touched thing since that
hasn't turned to gold. He has just taken
the boy into his Office and mighty
bright lad he is, ana his father thinks ne
Is n genuine mascot.
Il could tell you of a number of othsr
remarkable pieces of pr g luck that nave
made made some of our operators mia'
ding rich, and doubt whether the Thou,
and and one Nights would be regarded !
as a more marvellous narrative than the
story of the ups and downs of the street
would be if some man like Cammack' or
Travers. or Wash Common would only Wrl'e
ii.
InU.ilIinfr ia promofp Murder