The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-05-18
FAMOUS FINANCIERS.
Men who Have Made and Lost MIL
lions of Dollars in Mighty
PIunges.

The death of the famous Chicago
Spectator, ''Old Hutch, brings a rec
objection of his bold and gigantic oper-
atoms in the Chicago grain market.
Old Hutch died practically a poor
man. His unsuccessful effort to corner
wheat at the time when his attempt
and failure became the subjects of in
! ternational discussion left him broken
| in health and ruined financially. Like
many another stock and grain gambler,
he had played the limit and lost. But
Mr.. Hutchinson's tremendous losses
made no apparent difference in his bear
| ing and occupation. Only failing health
drove him from his daily place in the.
wheat pit. Had he won he would have
been equally unmoved, for there were
times when he won fortunes and
showed not the slightest evidence in
his manner of even qualification.
When one considers the citation or de-
! lection with which the average man
would win or lose 500 it seems scarcely
credible that there are about at least
| a dozen men who have won or lost a
hundred thousand times as much with
out, metaphorically, turning hair
During the recent stock exchange
'boom" in Wall street, it is said on ;Suiir-
| thority that Mr. John d. Rockefeller
lost $4,000 900 in less tiI e than it would
take him to smoke a cigarette. For six
| consecutive minutes he was losing ST.
100000 every minute on the fall in
Standard Oil.
After all, this was only a slight check
in a brilliant career of good fortune.
Such a loss 20 years ago would have.
ruined him absolutely; to-day it only
means the temporary loss of two cents
on the dollar of his possessions. During
his career Mr.. Rockefeller himself esti-
mates that he has at least six times
made over $5.00O,O0O on a single deal
TO illustrate the caprices of fortune
1t is interesting to note that while Mr.
Rockefeller was losing his six millions
young Joseph Letter was making that
amount; although last year Mr. Letters
famous deal in wheat lost for him al
most twice as much.
Nat Jones, who was in his days the
most daring Spectator in America,
started life on a few borrowed dollars,
made several million dollars within
few years, and by one rash deal on
the stock exchange lost all and died a
beggar.
For rapid money making, however,
it is doubtful whether any man who has
ever lived has equaled the record of a
Mr.. Macdonald. of Dawson City Only
three years ago Macdonald reached the
Alaskan gold fields almost penniless.
To-day he is said to own nearly so
mines. of an assessed value of $135, 000,-
600. This means that Macdonald dur
ing the last three years has increased
his wealth by $45,000,0O0 year or $685.
3S5 a week.
Few men knew better than the late
jay Gould the rapture of making mil
lions in single transactions. In 1873,
when he planned the famous gold coz
ner. although disaster overlook most of
his colleagues, Mr.. Gould came out of il
the richer by 81, 100000.
One of the most fortunate single deals
OK record was Nathan Mayer Roths-
child's historic plunge on the London
stock exchange just after Waterloo.
The tale, though old, is still thrilling:
how the astute Jew waited until he saw
the French army flying, how he rode
madly to Brussels, drove to Ostend, was
ferried across the channel during a
storm, and reached London eight hours
before any official news of the great
victory came. He bought literally
everything he could get in the way of
stocks and shares; and when the next
days news sent prices up like so many
rockets, he had netted an enormous
fortune.
f. B. Talcott, who, until recently, was
a stock exchange clerk in New York,
was among the first to anticipate the
latest boom in stocks, and with rare
judgment speculated largely in the very
stocks which were most inflated by the
boom. In three weeks he had made
$5,000.000, the amount he vowed he
would make, and then, like a sensible
man left Wall street forever.
Some of the most famous losses have
been made in wheat. Twenty years ago
James r. Keene made his famous cor
ner and lost 100000 900 by it; and 10
years ago f. L. Harper bought up H.
100000 bushels of wheat, and in trying
to complete his corner lost 81, 900, 0O0.-
Cincinnati Enquirer.