Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-29
Paris BourSe in a Shaky Con-
ditiOn.
HOLDERS OF SPANISH BONDS
Will Suffer Loss as the Government
Has Practically Rerudiated
Obligations,

New York, May 29.-The Times London
financial correspondent says: Paris mas
at last betrayed symptoms of ~tiredness.
The French are marvellous people,, the
, most painfully thrifty in the world, but
even they cannot be the means for all the
follies to which they are invited to sub
! scribe. Early last week some of their in
dustrial paper structures began to rum
BILE and suddenly the bourse found itself
overloaded in many directions. 1t has
| been sullen ever since, and twice during
! the week it looked almost disposed to
bando Spanish Investments. Poor old
Spain seems about to throw up the
sponge and alphabetically repudiate. No
one expected any government there TO
admit bankruptcy squarely. your a
lard has far too much dignity to do any
thing Of the sort. But an indirect adj
mission does just as we'll, so the next
debt coupon is not 10 be paid until the
! cortes votes the new budget with fresh
taxes, which is not a job of lightning ex-
| press order. Worse still, in some re-
spects. the government has viciously
kicked the bank Of Spain 50 that it may
die of i'll usage. Spain has no
to speak of except what foreigners con-
duct. The bank Of Spain has. therefore,
levied on the government by the simple
process of making it advances as re-
quired out of increased issue notes. The
security given consisted of Cuban bonds,
treasury notes and 4 per cent redeem
able government bonds. The interest on
the Cuban bonds has been frankly sus-
pended, that on all the other debt has
haon noStnnna1 on6-ha RIDER tra9tmpnt
than it, if possible-the redemption draw
ings on redeemable bonds have been
stopped. The result is that the bank is
stranded high and dry, with assets Of
perhaps G35, O0O, represented merely by
government pormises to pay "Manana.'
Theonl y consolation is that the repudia-
ton was done with high Spanish digni-
ty. The government had no more use
for the bank, because it could not get any
more notes, therefore it is left dying like
a spent mule.
The turn of the French banks comes
next. They hold nearly the whole of the
Spanish external debt and some Cuban
bonds, and have made splendid profits
out of the business in the past, especially
out of venturesome bears. Both England
and the United States paid them heavy
fines for rash sales on the outbreak of the
war last year. We certainly did, and for
many years past British bears have beer
periodically trapped and sheared by these
Skillful French financiers. They can
therefore afford to lose a few millions and
still have enough for "soupe maigre.'
But lose them they must, because their
very success in the past leaves them
with all the bonds and no market to sell
upon. The Paris bourse is consequently
pretty certain to be limp and wabbly fol
some time, if it does not actually col
lapse. Floating through the city is the
word nl9pl1p in E,0Vnt. in Hong Kong
at Marseilles and down go prices. Kru'
gers b%urghers grunt mo" to the ole
mans request that they should end The
bother over the franchise and kaffirs
crumble till G5 for Rhodes chartered
shares seems further away than Czal
Nicholas millennium. And this very Rus.
sian who has shed his claws at Ths
Hague-is he not making another grail
at China, n is not the weather cold
Icrops late and stunted. stock exchange
pay day at hand and the money marke
hardening? There is no need to go on.
AS regards the money market, the mos
potent influence of all, there are uncom
Portable forebodings, but for later in thu
year and not for next week. 1t will be
hard week because stock exchange pay
day and bank balance sheet day are tn
same, but the Bank of England will sup
l ply all corners at 8 per cent and only bull
of kangaroo shares will have to pay from
t Is to 80 per cent. The Japanese loan i
t out and is cordially received by the mar
ket because there is no fat on it. It ha
l been all taken, though, and will slowl,
| be mopped up by investors. Feeler
e about the Russian loan are meeting wit.
t scant encouragement. The Jews wer
= against it almost to a man, yet a JEWS
= house will issue a loan for e5, 600, 900 al
= most at once. New copper companies ar
being Matched SO fast that your vaultin
~monopolists nay soon begin to thin
that the metal species of grounsel ar
being vexatiously multiplied by seeding
Statement Was Misleading.