The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-01-27
THE ROOM STOCKS.

The rising tide of prosperity has
been taken advantage of by the spec
ulative element to force up the value
of securities along the whole line, and,
as a consequence, scenes have been en-
acted on the leading exchanges of the
country during the past few days
which constituted forcible reminder
of the widest periods in the Chicago
wheat pit, or of the excitement occa-
stoned by the late Jay Gould's gigan-
tic manipulations in gold, which
brought ON the ever memorable Black
Friday.
The daily transactions of such CEN
tres of financial activity as the New
York Stock Exchange have run up
into the millions. For more than
week shares in all sorts of corporations
have undergone great fiuctuation, be-
ing tossed up by the bulls and knocked
down by the bears, until brokers
and their clients were almost frantic.
Fortunes have been made and lost in
the space of an hour. To many per
sons the Unconditional clicking of tick
ers has brought the delirium of joy or
the agony of despair. Numerous eyes
have beheld visions of wealth which
vanished like a fog before the rising
sun ere they could assume the sub
stantial form of reality. But to not
few the boom has proved to be some
thing more than an elusive rainbow,
and their suddenly achieved success
has prompted others to hurl them
selves all the more recklessly into the
mad whirl.
Quotations have varied with such
rapidity that margins were wiped out
or vastly augmented before brokers
could execute orders. Some specula-
tors grew rich in spite of themselves,
while others in the .same Irresistible
current found all but ruin staring them
in the face. On the New York Ex-
change the sales of bonds alone on
Monday amounted to over $9,0O0,0 600.
The pandemonium continued on Tues
day, traders undergoing a mental
strain of which those who have never
found themselves in the monetary
1naelstrom can entertain but an im-
perfect conception.
Under all this feverish activity and
these sharp fluctuations there is, of
course, a substantial basis. Business
is improving, the demand for goods of
all kinds is assuming greater proper
tions, and large amounts of capital
are finding investment in legitimate
projects. The increased earnings of
railroads, iron mills, factories and
other enterprises requiring extended
financial resources for their operations
tend to advance the value of securities
Independent of any other stimulus.
What is happening now in the stool,
market is merely a repetition of the
spectacle presented when Joseph
Letter endeavored to corner the wheat
supply of the country. The scheme
failed because Letter found himself
unable eventually to take all the
wheat offered; but, in the meantime,
spectators operating on a cv.npara-
lively small scale, who possessed the
discernment to close out in time made
much money. Wheat dropped to the
natural level, which, however, was
considerably above the figures for
1896
Securities are now affected by SINH
lar causes. When the prevailing fever
OF speculation shall have abated there
will remain a substantial gain repre-
Aenting the actual improvement that
has taken place in the economic con-
ditions of the country, an improve
ment which may be estimated at hun
dreds of millions, and which will make
good the losses sustained during the
depression. Reckless grasping at for
tunes may ruin ditiduals, but it
cannot arrest the progress of recovery.
The present excitement is only a
symptom of returning yigor, and
from it the country will emerge strong
er than ever. Values are expanding,
not contracting. -Bdltimore HerUld |
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