Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-12-30
FORTUNES BY LUCK.
WALL STREET MEN FREQUENTLY
GET RICH BY PURE ACCIDENT.

A Broker Tells the Story of a Remark
able Case-How a Crazy Freak Made n
Fortune for q Observation-Disclosures
Case.
A well known broker of Wall street was
chatting g few days ago with some friends,
and somewhat surprised them by asserting
that luck has had more TO do with the max
ing Of sudden and immense fortunes IN the
street than IS commonly supposed He re-
fe7Ted for one example TO his own experience,
and said that twice he had found himself
$4,000 or more better of at night than he
was In the morning, and had at once realized,
although when he went down TO the street
that day he had no idea of making such
comfortable sum Three times by sheer ac-
cident. for which he was MOTTO blame, he had
lost a pretty little fortune, and he believed
that his own experience could be matched by
very many of the spectators Of the street.
Of course he excepted those great operators
who. from their control of immense amounts
of cash. from their ownership of controlling
interests in large properties, and their ability
to manipulate the market, We're placed be-
yond the power Of lucky c. unlucky accident
to affect greatly their wealth.
'sPerhaps the most remarkable case that
ever came under my observation the broker
went on TO saw. @was that of one of the most
conservative men now on the street He Is
now simply broker, and since Black Friday
has never speculated one dollars worth You
remember that three or four men brought on
the panic now known as Black Friday by
cornering gold and running the price up til
many operators were ruined, the street was
in a wild panic, and universal smash seemed
imminent These men relied on what they
believed to be good assurance that the gov
ernmeRt would put no gold on the market
that day, end they had locked up pretty
much all the rest of the gold in the country
that was available.
LOST HIS HEAD.
HRight n the midst of the panic, when the
street WIS like a madhouse, and many men
who in the morning, supposed themselves
rich werr. almost stark staring mad over the
ruin which had befallen them in few hours,
and when almost the highest figures had been
touched and nobody was selling short, this
broker to whom l refer suddenly lost his
head. He had covered early in the morning
at a comparatively small loss, and had been
looking in dSring the day without any per-
sonal anxiety except that caused by the fear
of a panic that would knock the bottom out
of everything. Suddenly, he never knew
why, nor has he any but the most vague rec
objection of the transaction, he rushed into
the bawling, bowling pit and sold right and
left at their highest figures. He probably
might have avoided his contracts or his
friends have invalidated them for him, for he
was undoubtedly insane when he did this.
AT ali events he was still selling when sud
denly there came that little message from
%I,of
out of the corner in the twinkling Of an eye,
Sell 100000 Of gold
iIn half an hour more my friend would
have been lunatic pauper, and, as it was,
his brother, 1 think, or some near relative,
found him utterly irresponsible, and with
good deal of difficulty led him away to his
Office. There, when he was told of the order
of Boutwell, and that the bottom had dropped
out of the panic, he did not seem to compre-
hend the truth at all, but mumbled some
thing which nobody understood. His con-
tracts, however, were found and taken care
of by his clerks, and rapid estimate showed
that he stood to the good not far from $780,,
OOO When they told him he did not seem to
comprehend. He had not been drinking, for
he was a teetotaler. Suddenly they missed
him They could not find him in the street,
nor in the gold room, nor in any Of the other
brokers' offices he was accustomed to visit.
Nobody had seen him. He had not gone to
his home, and his family at midnight, beconn-
ing thoroughly alarmed, notified the police
that he was missing and temporarily de-
ranged. He was found wandering up Broad
way long past midnight, muttering his calls
and recognizing no one. Nor did he know
any one for nearly two weeks. He was on
the verge of paralysis of the brain, and bare
" pulled through When after two weeks
illness he woke one morning rational his first
thought was that he was on Change Here
membered nothing of his operations, but re-
called very vividly so much Of the panic as
he had witnessed before he began to operate
himself 1t was long time before his physi-
clan permitted him to be told that he had by
his crazy freak made fortune He has kept
it, too, for from that day to this, as 1 said, he
has never bought a stock except for invest
meRt.
ANOTHER CASE.
GThere was another case that Pm always
reminded of when see a young man in the
street, who is very bright chap, and will be
heard from some day. His father was the
president of savings bank somewhere down
east, and somewhere in 1870 took lot Of
Southern Minnesota seconds at 80. He in
tended to buy them for the bank, but think
ing he had good thing kept them for him
self. The panic of 1878 knocked Southern
Minnesotas down to nothing, and the presi-
dent threw the bonds into box in his library
at his house. He was afterward obliged to
compromise with his creditors and threw in
lot of stuff, among it being, as he supposed,
the Southern Minnesotas. The whole lot at
that time would not have brought over $500.
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
supposed, a 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 Il,
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 without
looking, when he recognized the crisp rustling
of parchment paper, such as is usually used
for bonds He snatched the bond from the
BOYS hand, and it was a Southern Minnesota,
worth about par.
@'Where on earth did you get thisP he
asked.
- why, up in the attic in chest, where
some of your old books and papers are, and
there are a good many more Of Them
II don't think the father was long in max
ing tracks to the attic, and there he found
his long forgotten Southern Minnesotas.
They were worthless when he put them away,
but they were worth their face now-some-
thing like $4,000, 1 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 be is,
and his father thinks he is genuine Mascot.
New York Sun.
Imposing on an Expert.
An old California miner told me of an ex-
pert assayer who had avoided every snare.
He had the habit of taking into the mine he
was to test, bags, in which he carefully de-
posted the specimens he found, tying, label
ing and sealing, then carrying them in the
cars to his own home His reports gained