Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-12-23
AImosT A PANIC

Laveiy Times Among the Bulls and p.,,.
on the New York Stock Exchange. in
Which tine bulls Get Badly Floored-On.
treatment Firm Gives Way tn tn p.aIe
e-Narious Opinions and Comments.
NV I DIRK, Dec. 16.-Wall street barely
Soapeu general financial panic vester-
-. 1. was day of unusual excitement
on' IN the morning hours, Threatened
20 emu In the collapse of manv hanEino
lrms and banks. Rumors of disaster foi'
.oweo close on one another, and the davs
0 =. 'ne memorable panic of May, 1888. when
urahG q Ward, the Marine Bank and other
;upposeo soiid firms and banks went under
IN Iue general failure, were recalled
Ahefe was, in fact. but one complete fail
ure on the floor of the Stock Excbanga
ana tnat was of firm, which for nearly
twenty years has stood the brunt of eyerv
financial crisis. When this suspension
was announced in the stock board. il
was quickly followed by reports of
other like brushes. and If
dlhcult to describe the scene
Witnessed from the spectators gallery
Oh brokers nearly frantic from the
increased excitement and strain. No
more failures came, however, although
there were several individuals and firms
which barely saved themselves. At ten
O'CLOCK the floor of the Stock Exchange
was crowded with brokers. SO great was
the rush OF business that brokers were
unable to attend to the wants Of their Gus
toners, and the official reporters of the
exchange found it extremely difficult to
record the quotations as they We're made
There was no reaction from the depres-
sion OF the previous day. but the market
prices were taken exactly where they had
peen LETT, and were pounded steadily.
1t was few minutes after eleven
O'Clock when the announcement was made
that l.. Marx & Co, 81 Exchange place,
were unable to meet their liabilities. Lud-
wig Marx is the sole member of the firm,
and has been doing business under the
above title for years. His firm has always
done safe business, and has been known
as one of the most reliable houses in the
street His liabilities aggregate in the
neighboI nood of 100000 He settled his
liabilities in the Exchange, and his pres
ent indebtedness is to outsiders.
The announcement of the failures added
to the excitement, and rumors of other
suspensions'were numerous. 1t was said.
indeed, that prominent bank was in
volved, and was likely to break at any
moment. This rumor was denied at the
Clearing house later in the afternoon. 1t
was said there that the half-past one
O'Clock settlement of the banks showed no
indication of weakness in a single one,
anu OH lLC Dduh DttldHtcS " cIS SitllS-
factory. Even those institutions which
were essentially brokers' banks, and
would be most likely to succumb in a finan-
cial crisis, were sound beyond doubt.
The next incident of the day, which
served to increase the excitement, was the
sale under the rule of 900 shares of stock
to the account of Broker j. Riiinelander
Dillon. Mr.. Dillon is the representative
of the Boston house of Clark, Ward & Co,
Of IN NJ <lat
the sale of the 900 shares, which included
700 shares of Reading and 200 of Louisville
& Nashville, was due to a mistake. He
said that he had bought the above shares
from Boston parties, and that as he was
not on hand at 2:10 p. m. to accept the de-
livery of them, the Boston people became
frightened and sold him out. He settled
his Indebtedness satisfactorily and avoided
suspension.
Between the hours of two and three
o'clock the transactions amounted to 1872
COO shares, showing a total of the days
business of 1,1060OO shares, by far the
largest amount of business ever done in
the history of the exchange. The largest
previous transactions in one day was 920,-
coo shares.
There were two theories expressed
among Wall street men as to the cause of
the recent break in the stock market. One
was that there had been so much wildcat
speculation that prices had been put up
to an unhealthy figure, and that this break
was the natural reaction. The other |
theory advanced was that it was the direct !
result of an onslaught of bears, headed !
by Gould and Addison Cammack.
In speaking of the matter to-day Henry |
Clews says: ''The semi-panic was caused |
by the stringent state of the money mar /
ket, and by Jay Gould. 1t has been no |
to me, as foresaw the state of !
affairs some days since"
Mr.. Jesse Seligman said: 1T has been
brought about by general want of conf
dence, which has resulted from the enor-
nous recent speculation in wildcat |
securities. The banks had become eau
tiOus in making loans on doubtful securi-
ties, and caused the feeling eyinCed to
day. it was in reality measure of safety
and to my mind has been the means
avertng still more disastrous state OF
AFFAIRS
Another well known operator said: ''The
general opinion is that the Gould and the
Vanderbilt brokers had distributed buy
ing orders, and that they pro posed to hold
the market at any cost. The difficulty was
that there had been too m UGH buying. and
that every one was loaded with stock after
the late unprecedented bull campaign"
The committee clique denied that they
had been instrumental in brlnging about
the financial crisis. They said the trouble
as due to the unhealthftIl state of the
market in the unnatural imitation of cheap
stocks.
Mr.. Gould denied that he was in the
market, and said that he had not sold a
share of stock for over year.
No one could venture an opinion as to
the state of affairs to-day. 1t was, how
ever, the belief that the worst had already
passed, and that feeling of confidence
would be shown.
The excitement on the Stock Exchange !
was repeated in the operations on the aoor
of the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum
Exchange, where the transactions were
exceedingly numerous. There were two
partial suspensions, but as the firms af-
fected have twenty-four hours in which to !
settle their liabilities their names will not
be posted.
Exports of Provisions.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16.-The exports on
the principal articles of provisions during
November last were valued at SC. 962, 091
against S5,965,670 during November, 1885:
and for the eleven months ended Novem-
ber 30 last ST105O04S, against SS5 us 24 |