St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-12
The New "Deal" in Reading
Stocks Set Wall Street
in a Frenzy.
Impossible to Figure on the
Money Made and Lost in
the Rush.
Fifteen Million Dollars the
Value of Shares Sold in
Thirty Minutes.

practically into an exchange for Read.
ing stock. Over 100000 shares of this
one stock were traded in during the
first half hour of business. 1t is doubt
full if the stock exchange ever
witnessed such scene as took
place at the opening of business
this morning. The post where
dealers in Reading stock usually
congregate is in the Broad street wing
of the board room, but this morning a
mighty crowd of brokers, packed
densely together, overflowed the usual
limits of stock crowd and swallowed
up in their numbers half dozen other
groups, the members of which haG to
go elsewhere if they wished to trade in
their special stocks.
Reading stock closed last night at
553s. but later the details of the big
deal by which the company is to con-
troll the Jersey Central and Lehigh
Valley were made public and at the
Windsor hotel last night sixty was bid
for the stock. At the drop Of Chair
man Mitchell's gavel at 10 O'clock this
morning announcing the opening of
business, the 300 brokers gathered in
the Reading group, became
Like So Many Maniacs.
Such hustling, pulling and excited
crowd Of men has seldom been seen.
Length of limb and depth of voice came
in good stead this morning. Once in
/ the middle of the crown, it was impos-
/ slble to get out, and trading went on at
very different prices in the inside and
on the outskirts of the crowd. The
stock opened in the board at
571a. simultaneously sales were
made at SO, and in a few minutes
since yesterday, and of % points since
this day last week.
The scene was pandenonium. A
wilder shouting, struggling and shift
ing occurred than in times of panic.
The excitement did not flag scarcely
through the day, and the brokers who
had endured the ordeal were exhausted
at the close of business. The enormous
interest in the coal stocks led many
pecialistS"-brOkers who devote their
attention to one or two particular stocks
Ito rtsuse to execute transactions in
their specialties. Messenger boys were
at premium. The confusion was in
describable. 1t was day of
IuImU1t ana Excitement
that appalled, the oldest men in the
street. Figures alone will give some
idea Of the transactions. 1t must be
remembered that on days of intense
excitement and activity tens Of thou
sands OF shares are bought and sold
which are never reported so as to be in
cluded in the official record.
| In the first two hours after the OPEN
| inO If ic nStinotoH oI>
| shares were dealt iE. That is record
rarely made for a day; it has often been
the record OF a week. The total re-
ported transactions for the dav
amounted to 1,442,94O shares, or
about the capital stock and one
half over. Fluctuations were of
the widest kind, and differences
of fractions between the quotations
were almost ignored. No one looking
at the maddened, excited crowd of men
shrieking at the top of their voices
would have supposed them to be bust
ness men capable Of dealing in S15, O0O,-
600 worth of property in thirty minutes.
But such was the case, and, moreover,
the value of the Reading stock alone
enhanced in value S3.500,OO0 by the very
actions of that excited mob. 1t would
be useless to figure on the
Money Made and Lost
today. Hundreds of thousands were
won and lost in the big game. Trans
actions were not only enormous in the
aggregate, but all the individual trades
were on a large scale.
whats bid for 100?' cried a broker.
rushing up to the Reading crowd this
morning.
.Run away, little boy" answered
another, hopping his brow, 1--WE are
playing with blue chips only today"
Wednesday, Dec. Is, 1856, the total
reported sales were 1,074,00O shares.
This was up to today the greatest on
record. By a singular coincidence, the
most conspicuous stocks OH that day
were today the great features of the
/ speculation. The telegraph operators
employed in the exchange to send out
the quotations had to be relieved every
half hour owing to the heavy strain
upon them.
Contracts Ratified.
/ New YORK, Feb. 1.-Messrs. Drexel,
Morgan d Co. announced officially this
afternoon that the leases and contracts
which were signed last night have now
been ratified by the boards of directors
of the Reading, New jersey Central and
Lehigh Valley Railway companies. bv
which was effected the combination of
the anthracite coal interests.
Samuel Sloan, president of the Della
ware, Lackawanna e Western. said to-
day regarding the combination: 1.-THE
Lackawanna is thoroughly In SYM
pathy with the combination, and while
we have made no formal agreement
with the Reading, we shall act with the
combined interests both in the output
and price of coal. The object is, not to
ralsesthe price, but to regulate prOduc-
ton and to make prices uniform
President Maxwell, of the jersey Gen.
trial, authorizes the following statement:
"Our people have been buyers of Lack
awanna stock for some time past, and
the stock has been bought with the in
tentiOn of working in harmony with
Mr.. Sloan for the general good of the
coal trade"
Vanderbilt Not in 1t.
Cornelius Vanderbilt was asked If he
would say definitely whether he was
interested in the coal roads, combina-
tlon. Mr.. Vanderbilt being engaged at
the time, authorized Mr.. Depew, with
WHOM he was in consultation, to say for
him that he was not interested in the
transaction.
President Mcleod, of the Reading
company, gives somes additional details
Z m regard to the deal. The primary
object of the arrangement is, he says,
to secure a more ecopomical manage
ment in the coal trade by avoiding