The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-22
CoNGREssMEN WITH TIPS.
thousands of Dollars Made I'm Specializing
on the Telephone Deciaion.

EIaousands of Dollars Made in Specializing
on the Telephone Decision.
Washington Special to New York World
The decision in the Supreme Court in the
famous telephone case, was evidently no sur
prise 10 the speculative Congressman. who re-
lieve the monotony of a strict attention to the
public business by taking an occasional flyer in
the street They had been given the tip. While
this occasion is not the first on record which
an importanG Supreme Court decision has been
given out in advance, the magnitude of the in
terests involved in this case and the opportuni-
kies for speculation, which have been eagerly
embraced by . mum Der of Represen tatives, have
served to create decided sensation. How this
advance information was obtained is q problem
ever which there has been good deal of BRAIN
cudgelling to-day. That IL was obtained from
an authoritative source there can be but little
doubt
Before the converting of the court this morn
ing, it was whispered about the corridors that
a certain prominent New England Congressman
mad placed margin of SOC, 900 on Bell Telephone
stock at ga the strength of the tip. AS Chief
Justice Waite and his associates flied into their
seats at IL o'clock this Congressman and three
or four of his colleagues the House pressed
through the crowd that packed the room almost
to snffocatlon, and stood within the bar
breathlessly awaiting the decision. Justice
Baichford sat before voluminous pile of man
uscript which he began to read in a steady,
Inonotonous voice. AS he slowly disposed of the
claims of the parties contesting with Bell the
priority OF the invention that has almost revo-
lutionized telegraphy, the anxious faces bright
ened. and first one and then another left the
Enclosure, and pushing through the
throng, hurried to the telegraph Office
in the House corridor. Near the win
dow stood the tall young man who, in
the days of the tickers, furnished stock quota
ions TO speculative statesmen of both houses
Fl 10 hands were full of dispatches, but they
were the anxious queries of his principals aud
not stock orders; those had been sent hours be-
lore.
'.How does it look9" the dispatches asked.
'.Do you note any chapgei Keep posted"
BELL 10 steadily, but very slowly rising" As
one after another of those who had been listen
ing to the reading of the decision left the court
room the tall young man buttonholed them for
the latest details and then hurriedly scrubbed
dispatches, which be tossed in at the window of
the telegraph office. Occasionally he received
q quotation on the stock, upon which he was at
once surrounded by an eager crowd. many only
curious, but others TO whom point either way
meant loss or gain of thousands.
Little Deacon White was very nervous Dur
ing the early part of the reading of the decision
he stood in the courtroom but afterwards trot-
ted up and down the corridor, waiting for the
termination or the suspense. 1t was a long
pull For an hour and three-quarters Justice
Blatchford threaded his way through maze of
technical terms and scientific phraseology. The
claims of each opponent of the great Bell mo-
nopoly were taken MP separately. One after
another they went down before the argument
that in many passages sounded oddly like plea
for Bell rather than legal decision. Casey
Young. of Pan-electric fame, now counsel for
Prof Gray. sat within the bar. his thin fingers
playing nervously with his watch-chain. TO the
left of the court sat dapper little Storrow, chief
of Bells legal advisers, his sharp eyes taking in
every detail of his surroundings. and his lips
parted in half smile, which deepened the
points he had raised in his argument were
one by one sustained by the decision. Opposite
Storrow sat young and stalwart Charles
j. KIntner, at one time Chief Of
the electrical division of the Patent Office, on
whose affidavit the inventor, McDonough, bases
in large degree his claim to transmit speech
by the ''make-and- break" current of electricity.
When the conclusion in favor of Bell was I'm
ally announced there a wild rush for the
door and Congressman and correspondents took
part in lively sprint for the telegraph Offices.
The tall young man. his hand shaking SO that he
could hardly hold pencil, scrawled a message
and pushed it towards the operator. In few
minutes he handed q dispatch. It read:
BELL pa; $50 asked" As he read it aloud the
faces of several who had expected the stock to
jump dozen points more wore an expression
of disappointment.
'It was discounted in advance said Deacon
White. but the New ENGLAND Congressmans
face wfeAthed in smiles He had made
$780, 900 in three days. tt said that among
the heaviest winners by the big jump the stock
has taken within q week are Henry Cabot
Lodge of Massachusetts, and Archie Bliss, of
W