The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-03
CENTRAL AND TERMINAL.
THE RICHMOND TERMINALS PRES.
IDENT SEEKING 100000.

mlGCe6 surviving TO Evolve Rlan 60
Extr!cate the Property From Its
Financial Slough-The Hollins Plan
for Rehabilitating Central Not Yet
Made Public.
From the Netu York Herald
-Four million dollars
You don't often hear of anybody recover
ing such tidy sum in a suit at law. but
that's just about the amount involved in
the demand made by President Oakman Of
the Richmond Terminal Company, upon
Messra Hollius, Lehman and their asso-
ciates.
They are not exactly the sort of men.
sither, to give up their profit on deal"
and 100000 is the profit which the
plaintiff says they made by selling their
Georgia company TO the Terminal corpora
ton four years ago. Mr.. Oakman says he
is not bluh1ng, but In dead earnest. and
will begin suit at once unless the gentlemen
referred TO take back their property and
return TO the Terminal company the value
received for ii.
The institution of this suit will open au-
other chapter n the dizzy and dazzling his
tory OK this wonderful corporation-a cor
porAtion which has supplied Wall street
with a score of sensations in the last twelve
years, EDe system represents
has grown from few hundred miles of
railway between two Virginia towns into a
network OF 5000 miles extending from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi river and from
the Potomac to the Gulf OF Mexico, and all
this represented by mass of stocks and
snc bonds obligations aggregating hun
dreds OF millions of dollars.
SHOT UP TOO VAST.
OF course this growth " as far too rapid
20 ha y fnr rail l.
sound, must be of almost organic growth,
extensions being made as needed and other
lines taken in quietly from time to time at
business-like prices, whereas this abnormal
system sprang into existence wholly through
series OF wild speculative ''dealsn and at
inflated prices. The enormous fortunes ac-
cumulated by those on the inside of each
of these myriad deals and through
the tinanciering of the several COM
panies terward-the cancellations and
bond conversions and heaven knows what
and the fortunes made and lost through
speculation in the securities as listed on the
stock exchange would furnish material for
volume. But the feature of it all which
VIII strike future historians as most curious
and interesting is the incidental Eruption Of
the great, impulslve south into Wall street,
its transient period of glory in that exciting
locality and it's final discontinue and with
drawal.
1t was in the spring Of 1880 that the Rich
mond Terminal Railway and Warehouse
Company was chartered by the men then
controlling the little Richmond aud Dam
vile road. Their own charter was too re-
strioted and prevented them from acquiring
terminal properties and other lines OF road.
Hence the creation of the Terminal COM
pahy. The great boom n securities which
followed the resumption of specie payments
IN 1879 was then under full Roadway, but
the men who subsequently, exploited Rich
mond Terminal were then busy in other
directions, and the first growth was slow,
for in 1885 tbs system embraced only 800
miles, the other 1000 being added in the
six years following.
THE SOUTH ENTERS WALL STREET
About the time when ''the new south" be-
came familiar phrase throughout the
country the wild dance began 10 earnest
The south, which had so long lain dor mant,
awoke and throbbed with unprecedented
vitality and vigor Bountiful harvests of
cotton were OF secondary Importance TO the
coal mines being opened up, the blast fur
naoes building and the development Of
hundred new industries Citfesilike Birm-
tngham and Admission were springng up
like magic, new town was being
founded every day people were scrambIing
over one another's shoulders to buy
town lots in the mountains or backwoods at
fancy prices, and northern capital aud
European capital was pouring into these
new regions. Old railway lines were being
revived and new ones projected, and there
were opportunities for consultations and
deals on every hand. Bright, energetic
southern men were, quick to size up the
situation, and then IL was that Wall street
was captured by race of which it had
previously seen only an occasional indi-
Vidual
HOW THEY JARED.
The Baxters and Duncans oams I'D from
Tennessee, the Logans aud PAGES from Vir-
ginia, the Calhouns from South Carolina,
and a score of others whose names are
familiar and behind these came q vast I'M
numbered host OF lesser note-schemers
promoters, mine owners, SPECTATORS and
adventurers. Wall street remarked with
some curiosity that the speculator from the
south in some respects, bore astrklng re-
semblance to the men seen upon the bourse
OF Paris. These newcomers were quick
and impulsive and when they began to
dilate upon the future of the south in gem
eral and the millions TO be realized by their
schemes in particular their eyes glittered
and they fairly dubbed over with enthusi-
asm. Having implicit faith in their own
plans they convinced nearly everybody
IN Wall street that listened to them. Even
the rear guard Of mere constituencies
schemers ended in many instances by be-
Neving in their own lies and the culmina-
ton of the speculative boom found them
OpcIAOhueQ Win bbOCkS at tHo llRHebb OFFICES
This may seem exaggeration, but many
surprising instances might be cited. A ma
jority of these people chung to their pet
theories and their stock, and the ebbing
tide has stripped them OF the profits of the
boom years and sent them home again
southwark as poor as when they came The
hard-headed ard less enthusiastic fellows
from Maine or Ohio who took part In the
carnival pulled out in time, and although
some of them are slightly disflgured" they
are ''still in the ring"
FIRST OF THE BIG DEALS.
One of the first of the sensational deals in
Richmond Terminals career came In 1886
1t was a complete reversal of the controlling
power. What was known as the First Ma
tlonal Bank party had held the control of
the Richmond and Danvllle stock and car
rled it through the panic period of 1884,
This party embraced George 8. Scott,
Messrs. Baker and Fahnestock Of the bank
In question, and w. z. Clyde. In the fall
OF 1886 Alfred Sully, Gen. T. NJ. Logan and
othsrs heavily Interested in the Terminal
company declared that members Of
the First National Bank party who were
directors in both the Danville AID the Ter
minal companies were making the Terminal