St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-05
CALIFORNIA sPEoULArIoNs.
The Rise and Fall of "A San Fran.
cisco BOokkeeper.

The Rise and Fail of "A San Fran
cisco BOokkeeper.
San Francisco Letter.
am confident that the romance of stock
gambling will never be written. Life here
is too rapid, too pushing for men to pause
and reflect on that curious "has been'' of
San Francisco. But l never stroll down
Pine street, or linger in the shadows of
Pauper alley, but 1 meet someone who
would be entitled to a place in that unwrit-
ten romance. The tall figure face clean
cut and refined, gait slow and painful from
the effect OF an old wound is before me as
| write. James d. Walker ten wears ago
was a member of the bonanza firm.
and his check was good for $500, 900.
aye, million, at any bank in
the country. Then Flood and Fair
bought him out, and Walker opened a
brokers' Office under the Nevada bank. and
did all the business of his former partners.
In these times Flood, Fair and Mackay
were on the top notch of speculation
They were swinging the market at their
own sweet will, and making or breaking
the thousands who were battling with the
fierce tide of stock gambling. Alexander
Austin or Sandy" as his friends used to
call him, had just served his term as tax
SoliOOIol olllt NSIG III Will w dlhOI HOW
they did make things boom! The high
salaried clerks-the bookkeeper got $500
month and had sumptuous lunch served
every day in large room in the rear of the
office at the expense of the firm Their eX-
penSes were enormous, but so was their
business. Their partners were clearing
1000 month, but they were standing on
the brink of a precipice. Flood re-
marked that other and outside
spectators were manipulating GER
tain stock precisely as his own
brokers. This would never do, so he called
consultation and Informed the Walker
firm that this sort of thing would not do;
that there was traitor in the camp some
where, and that unless he was detected and
fired their relations could not continue.
Close and earnest investigation was made,
but without avail. Then came transac-
ton OF more than ordinary Importance. but
to the intense disgust of the bonanza firm it
was apparently foreseen and anticipated by
these same outside brokers, who were kept
posted, apparently, by some traitor in the
Walker-Austin camp. Then the bonanza
people changed their broker, and from that
hour the fortunes of Walker e Co. began
to decline. Matters grew worse and worse.
Austin committed suicide. Walker sold a
magnificent mansion in Oakland, which
cost him close on $500. 900, to prop up the
waning glory of the swell firm, At last it was
clean case of bust. and l don't believe Mr..
Walker to-day could put his hand on $500.
L saw him looking wistfully at the Nevada
bank building, probably comparing the
different states of Flood the member. and
Walker, the eX-member of the bonanza
firm. He discovered, when too late, that
the high-prced bookkeeper was the traitor.
He sold his employers. but no luck ever
came Of his treacheFy, and he is to-day
keeping books at $50 month for a He
brew clothes-dealer in Portland. Or.
Walker is but type of hundreds of
others who have had their chance and their
day on Pine street. With strange faulty
these wrecks still cling to the locality
where they made and lost fortunes in the
past, though nine-tenths of them have not
dime to speculate with and could not get
credit for a glass of lager, when their
names decade ago were sufficient guaran-
tee for a dozen or fifty dozen cases of
champagne. A few have pulled out with
small stake, and there are some there on
the street yet who have little money and
would speculate if they saw an opening,
and not few fanatics who await the
coming of the Messiah-the discovery of
another great bonanza.