New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-19

| gram from Saratoga In 1871 ordering the distri-
button Of 100000 among the striking employees
Of his roads, and promising them that the ten per
| cent lately taken from their wages should be re-
stored as soon rs improved business would justify
it, no doubt prevented repetition in this city, oil
the fearful and costly riots Of Pttsburg
| The early history Of this vast fortune is almost
romantic. The modern architects of ." corners
should read Mr. Clews's account Of the gigantic
operations of the Commodore. In the Hudson cor
ner' the fighting was forced upon him, as it seems
to have been in almost all 1t is said that he had
set out for long vacation, and was summing him
self on pile of logs the jersey side OF the llud-
son. while his yacht lay in the stream, when mes
senger brought word from Wall Street that n bear
clique were selling Hudson stock short and that
it was going down fast lie FASTENED TO Wall Street
and ordered his brokers TO take all the sellers
| options offered in Hudson. All the cash stock in
| the market was then taken rapidly possible.
" A brief calculation showed that the buyers had
secured, either cash contract stock, all
the Hudson stock in existence, with the exception
Of small number of shares which were not ex
pected TO come upon the market. The prolific
brain of the Commodore then invented q new move
in the game. number of leading bear houses
were requested to turn Hudson, which means TO
buy it for cash from the cornering party, and sell
it back to them on buyers options for periods
varying from ten TO thirty days This
able ruse Intended to impress the
buyers with the idea that the cornering
party was weak 1t seemed il they
were short of cash. SO the leading buyers
grasped at a good chance they imagined,
Of turning several thousand shares, and instantly
threw the cash stock on the market. 1t was
privately picked up by the brokers of the great
'corncrer.'" Then the trap sprung The
sellers options began to mature, and there no
Hudson stock to be had 1t rose to $50. few
mornings before, when the Commodore was basking
in the sun, it had been IL. The loss on hundred
shares So 500, and the bears under con-
tract to deliver about 80, 900 shares. Mr. Clews
continues:
But the worst part Of the deal for these poor
animals had yet TO come. The bears who had |
turned the stock were notified that they must
stand and deliver. They complained bitterly of !
the ingratitude of the bulls whom they had only
sought to oblige by turning the stock. The |
bulls were impacabe, however, and demanded |
their property. They proposed compromise which |
was most exactins. They were willing to lend
stock at five Ter cent per day. Some of the bears
paid this, thinking the q" corner" would he of short
duration, hut i continued for over two weeks,
and, after laying five per cent day Tor several
days these poor victims bought the stock at the
high rate and settled,
This double move in turning the stock was the
lblest trick that had ever been accomplished in
1t made Vanderbilt king Of stratcgsts
in that line
But the best part of the stratagem was that
wherein the bulls saved themselves from being
addled with the whole stock, and made immense
Profits out Of the deal
While some of the bears were purchasing to
over at no. Vanderbilts private brokers were
cling at 40 the clique thus craftly unloading
II good paying figures. This was one of the best
inside moves in the whole history of corners"
The bulls thus saved themselves from tic risk
f being loaded with probably the whole or at
ny rate the greater part of the capital stock, and
Trough the Commodores able management the
Dad was colnparatvely light at the end of the
eal, the property remaining good speculative
is before, which is rare exception in corners"
The Harlem corner" was in some respects the
lore remarkable, though Mr. Clews considers the ;
hudson corner" the whole, the greatest of
II. Commodore Vanderbilts first Harlem stock
bought in 500, at eight nine dollars share,
S investment Thirty years before this he
ad refused TO buy the same stock, saying: am
steamboat man. competitor Of these steam con-
rivances that you tell will run on dry land. {
70 ahead. wish you well, but never shall have
nything to do with them" lie made improve {
tents in the road, and it was predicted that 1
c would lose in railroads all he had made out
steamboats,. The stock gradually rose, however, {
0 80 Something was evidently on foot, and when +
le Common Council, in April 1868, passed c
'dinancc authorizing him to build steam railroad L
own Broadway to the Battery, the cat was out S
the bag. Harlem then advanced TO 70, and the r
ldcrmen of that day, who were keen after o
Dodle some Of their successors, began to sell Il
short The scheme was to sell short" all a
10 stock the market would take, and then repeal S
he ordinance. They expected to see the stock r
rop below so. Daniel Drew was with them in |
lis plot. The Commodore faced them with char a
'teristc courage. He called his friends to his o
d and they bought all the shorts that were 7
Tered. The Aldermen and their fellow con- 7
traitors had soon sold more Harlem stock than c.
ere was in existence, not dreaming that the d
clique had it all. When the virtuous d
wmakers thought the time was ripe they re- v
,aled the ordinance and every one looked to h
C stock fall with crash, burying Vanderbilt S
der its ruins. But to the amazcment Of every G.
e, it dropped only three points, TO ~, whereas Il
ey had looked TO see it go to so. The shorts h
gan TO buy to protect themselves The stock
mt up TO 150-17O, and finally and at last 70. hi
lie Aldermen had to settle at this figure, and are in
i'd TO have lost a million, while their friends in
st several more The Commodores share of the e
offs five or six millions. m
Not long after tho Legislature tried the same al
ok upon the Commodore, but with even more lie
sastrous results He had secured control Of the Of
Idson River Railroad by buying stock, and had Vi
positive assurance that the Legislature would tn
IS Dill cODsOIluaUng IL WIN the Harlem On a.
c strength Of this, Harlem went up from IS TO or
0. The Numbers Of the Legislature, who were a
the combination, sold Short" and then unex- pa
ctcdly defeated the bill, while the Commodore ~
Is buying stock heavily, looking for rise. 1t SO
nbled from $50 TO 90. II the members had vi
ught and delivered at 90, they would have oil
Ken millions out Of Vandcrblts pocket, but they an
re not content. The stock must 90 to 80. This BIZ
IS the gravest crisis in his But lie formed WI
other combination with five millions in cash as VI
pital TO corner" the stock and went on buying lr
ile the men at Albany had gone so crazy over ch
prospect of putting the stock down to or
ain and running the Commodore that some of
IN were mortgaging their homes for ready
ney. He went calmly, until he had bought 81
900 more shares than in existence When
man bers came into the ma rltet IN buv IN oovar