The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-02-14

y y
morrow, Its your dads business to
stake you, bub," was the ferrymsns
reply; I'm under orders to trust no
body. Money down or no ride across"
Many boys of twelve would have sat
down and cried Cornelius Vanderbilt
went to the tavern keeper near by, and
said: II have three teams to get across
to Staten Island. Lend me six dollars
on one of the horses, and I'll repay the
loan in forty-eight hours or you can sell
the horse" The tavern keeper con-
scented in consideration of an agree
ment to pay two days board for the
horse. And in this way Vanderbilt first
displayed his skill in utilizing the float
ing capital of other people, which is
the Alpha and Omega of finance. the
be-an and the end-all, for if finance
means or includes anything else, the
world is as yet ignorant Of the fact
| In addition to the skill that is ac-
| quired by practice, there is also in the
case of certain favored individuals
''lucky streak" and in others an IN
! lucky streak, which the owners cannot
afford to overlook. Some men almost
always guess wrongly; others guess
right three times in five, and the latter
class are sure to succeed, because when
two operations neutralize another two,
and one remains profitable, the result is
the same as if only the one profitable
venture had been made; and q contin-
ual recurrence of this means wealth,
and plenty of it And the rule holds
] 1zioa F111
have known Wall street dabbler
to buy 100 shares of certain stock in
the morning at 81. Before noon the
quotation dropped to ~ and he sold out.
IN an hour it rose to 80 and he bought
another hundred. This lot he sold at
z6% Just before three o'clock Such In
stances are plenty as blackberries, and
indicate how men lose the use of their
brains when they attempt to be fnan-
ciers without understanding the first
principles of finance.
There is an opinion more or less prev
alent that there is continual danger
of corners" At the present time this
is mistake. The financial arena of
America is too big now for corners.
There is too much floating capital, all
ready for aggregation on short notice.
If one man or ten men should lock up
ten or more millions of legal tenders or
specie in the New York banks, the
transaction would hardly be noticed It
would be extremely difficult to repeat
the great Northwest corner" of 1872, in
which Jay Gould was the prime agent,
and out of which he is supposed to have
made a large amount of profit
This was a very simple, neat and easy
corner, also. Mr.. Gould, through about
a dozen brokers, owned more than half
the common stock Of Northwest" Of
course, it was used as collateral at
banks, but he could lay his hands on it
at a moments notice, just the same as
if it reposed in his safe. Numerous
houses on the street owed Mr.. Gould's
brokers a corresponding quantity in
short stock. and on a given day all these
brokers called on all these debtors for
the stock. The debtors not being able to
buy stock IN the open market were adj
vised to ''see Mr.. Gould, as he might
help you some" At an early hour a
line had assembled quite as long as the
line that waits at the doors of the thea
ter when Bernhard matinee is to
ward" A colored man, seven feet high.
was the warder. He took the card of
the foremost man and handed it to
clerk. The clerk disappeared then re-
appeared, and ushered the anxious
broker into the presence of the king of
the situation.
The broker found at his desk a small.
dark man with full beard. who smiled
affably on him and begged him to be
seated.
''Mr. A., believer"
Eyes, sir; of A., 3. & Co."
Precisely. You owe me two hun
dred shares of Northwest common
stock, against which you have deposited
1000. Here are $4,000 in legal ten
ders" (extendipg fourteen United States
notes of s., 900 EACH; have you the GER
tificates about your"
Il haven't, I'm sorry to say. haven't
been able to buy or borrow them"
81 will sell them to you"
cat what price?"
''Mr. A., what is your firm worth?"
'Well, say quarter of million"
'Then the price is two hundred.
Forty thousand dollars won't hurt you
much, and, besides, you have your GUS
toner to look to. Send IN your certi- |
fed check before two o'clock, and nv
cashier will deliver you the stock. You |
can then make your delivery to the
broker to whom you owe it. Let me
- T. o. -
viii repay the deposit. Good morning. /
You see, I'm disposed to be fair with /
you. l don't intend to break any house /
in the street. Forty thousand isn't 60 /
ing TO hurt you much, and you recover /
fourteen of that. Good morning. Mr.. A |
This is my busy day"
This interview is a sample OF all, ex-
cept az to those cases where the short /
ages ran into the thousands of shares, .
or were against poorer brokers. In /.
these instances Mr. Gould graduated (
his prices to suit his plan that, while .
the bears should bleed, and bleed pro- /
fusely, yet no brokerage firm should /
be ruined, or SO crippled as to be I'M
able TO go on in business Thus, If .
house was worth half million and .
was short 1000 shares, the price was
made less than two hundred Il will .
be satisfied with half your capital"
said Mr.. Gould. You see. | don't wish F..
to ruin anybody" And this half was
cheerfully surrendered in cash or mar
ketable securities before two o'clock
All cash was not insisted upou- Active
stocks at market value were accepted f