The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-11-11
Ex-FINANclAL LIONS.
The Present Condition of -Four whilom
Autocrats of Wall Street.

The Present Condition of Four whiIom
Autocrats of Wall Street.
A small, slightly built, sandy COM
plexioned man was munching at free
lunch counter in Cedar street the other
day. The fact was of no Importance,
only it happened to be Hank" Smith.
the former Wall street millionaire.
He failed for a million or more last
year, and has never got on his feet
again. He pulled down William
Heath, the broker, who found a prema-
ture grave. Henry n. Smith was al
most as unpopular in Wall street as J.
Pierpont Morgan, and was without the
latter's skill as financier. He was
simply Light Horse Harry of specu-
lation. but he made and lost two enor-
nous fortunes. He was formerly in
the financial field as a lieutenant of
Jay Gould, and helped to engineer the
terrible black Friday gold panic in
1869. Mr.. Gould never forgave him
for showing the books at the time of
the famous Erie suits, and he let Will
liam Heath & Co., Smiths brokers, 90
to the wall, knowing they would drag
down the bear speculatOr with them.
Mr.. Smith was 4 persistent bear, and
saw the market 60 twenty points
against him. In his best days he lived
in fine style, and had quite high
position among those who esteem sue
cessful spectators for the wealth they
have won.
He had none of the generous charac-
teriStics, for example of James r.
Keene, who made some enemies by
taking too independent a course in his
daring speculative campaigns, but who
has a soul above money for mere
moneys sake, and whose nature is
graced with the chivalrous instincts of
a Knight of the Round Table. He is
one of the wounded lions of Wall
street, but may yet again shake Wall
street by his roaring.
Then there was Daniel Drew, an ig-
norrant man, who boosted that he read
nothing, not even the newspapers.
When he no longer had the Erie treas
ury at his back he was caught in the
Niagara whirl of blind speculation and
swept to his utter ruin. AS he walked
slowly along Wall street in the heyday
of his wealth, bordering apparently on
the drift of the market, he looked like
an old farmer in ''store clothes" on a
visit to the city to see the sights. He
had small cunning, which could not
save him in the financial tempests that
whistIed through Wall street.
Jacob Little had his day still earlier.
He looked as swarthy as a Cuban. and
old stagers in Wall street tell how he
embarked in enormous operations in
stocks, particularly Fort Wayne, and
how he tainted and had to be carried
out of the old William street board
room when a bull leader of the day ran
the market up on him with lightning
rapidity one morning in 1864. if l re-
member rightly, and Jacob Little,
whose sombre face is now seen on the
walls of one of the rooms in the Stock
Exchange as one of the speculative
giants, collapsed physically and finan-
cially. 1t was knock down blow in
the brutal ring of speculation, and the
victim never responded to the call of
time"
l have heard of a man who once bor-
rOwed half million easily who became
so reduced as to solicit loan of fifty
cents from the same house of which he
had formerly borrowed hundreds of
thousands.-O. W. Riggs, in PhiIacIeL-
mia Press.