The morning call., 1893-05-06
TIE NEW YORK PANIC.

New York is always prolific of sensations.
YESTERDAY it was the most splendid naval
pageant ever witnessed; to-day it is panic.
in Which banker, broker, merchant and
Spectator go toppling over in financial
whirlpool. New Workers are t. the man
ner born. They go to business in the morn
ing with sunny faces and smile on their
lips; a cyclone strikes their portable prop
erty and wipes il out OF sight; when the
bank sends a message to hurry up some
deposits, they are unable to respond; they
announce their insolvency and step out of
the ranks; next day business goes on just
as If they never lived, and in month their
names are forgotten. and the sums they owe
are charged off TO profit and loss. The wave
which they caused when they went down
has been smoOthed out OF the surface of the
waters. Who knows or cares ABOUT the
years of poverty which panic entails upon
its victims?
We are told that this panic is not as bad
as the panic caused by the Barring collapse.
or the panic in winch the reaction from the
boom of 1SS1-S2 eliminated. 'Tis not as deep
as a well nor as wide as church door, but
twill suffice for those who have been caught
1t will suffice for the Kings who were carry
ing such a load Of stocks that the depression
| OF Wednesday impaired the margins which
they held to the tune of $500, 000-a sum
| obviously too large to be raised by those
| who owed it in time to save their brokers.
| SO they went down. wildly clutching at
! imaginary values in their trunk to save
themselves. ~ oung man." said an old
! dealer in Wall street, there are two ways
of dealing in stocks: one is TO buy and sell
on your own account in which case, if you
are smart and lucky you may last a good
many years. and may even get rich; the
| Otner is TO do a strictly commission business,
in which case you are sure to go under in
| the second panic you encounter. If you have
the chance to survive the first"
The novelty of this panic is the nature of
the securities which caused it by their
eccentric fluctuations. a few years ago,
when jim Keene went 10 the wall. opera-
| tors in Wall street dealt in railroad shaIes-
Erie, and Reading. and Rock Island. and Lake
| Shore, and New York Central, and the like ;
now the chips are National Cordage. Ameri-
can Sugar, cOt:ou-seed oil, General Electric,
| whisky and lumber. These are shares in
the trusts which have been formed to deal
in these various articles of merchandise.
| When the trusts were formed fierce out
| cry arose against them and it was an
| nounced that they were going to be ami
| hilated by lawsuits, or at least by legis-
| lation. With the sweet simplicity Of the
acolyte Western legislators declared trusts
| illegal, having done which they laid their
! heads on their pillows and thanked God
| that they had scolched the snakes. Counsel
learned in the law hurled Blackstone and
| Coke upon Litteton at the trusts, and as
sured the public that this was fight for 3
| funeral, and that the trustmakerS were be-
ing measured for coflins. But the trusts go
On-at latest dates there were ninety of
them, all Furnishing and paying dividends
and the fluctuations which happen in their
shares are serious enough 10 cause a panic
| 10 Wall street.
The gambling instinct seems to be in
eradicable in the heart OF man. but the
article which is gambled in changes with
each generation. a little over hundred
| years ago all Europe was gambling in
! shares of companies which represented
| colonial enterprises, many Of which were
mere projects. Fortunes were made and lost
in stocks representing interests in towns
which only existed on paper, though one of
them-New Orleans-actually materalzed
| in brick and mortar The English and
Dutch had before that gamDled madly in
| tulips. Each species was regularly quoted
| in the market, and operators went home
| long Of Towering bulbs or short of tertiary
bulbs. as San Francisco brokers 20 home
| long of Yellow jacket or short of Ophr.
The railroad mania furnished spectators
with gambling material for moro than a
generation, and those who realized that
well-iocated roads must become property
in time made fortunes II they were able to
| hang on. Now the list of doubtful railroad
securities is becoming SO reduced that
American operators are dealing in the new
trust shares, whose value is so uncertain
that it depends largely on the element of
chance, which cnmmends them to the lovers
of agio. English SPECTATORS operate mainly
in the bonds of foreign countries especially
such countries as Turkey. Spain. Argentine,
Brazil and the Central American States,
which may or may not pay their debts
Under Napoleon III the court provided the
Bourse with gambling material in the shape
of shares in the Credit Foncier and the
Credit MObilier and other industrial enter
prises, some OF which survive to the present
day. But the French gamblers drew such
an Irish dividend in Panama canal that they
are rather subdued just now.