The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-01-26
SCENE ON CHANGE
During the Fluctuntion OF Stocks
on Monday Inst.

DuriHE VIC fluCtuutioi VI otOCkS
on Monday Inst.
New York World OF Tuesday: Yes
terday Wall street did the greatest
days business in its history. No fewer
than l.769,212 shares were sold on the
New York stock exchange. 1t will be
known as Panhandle Day"
The average value Of these shares Is
about par. Therefore the aggregate Of
business was about sls5,S6l 200, lnclud-
ing the sales OF bonds whose face value
is $3.50. 900.
Hundreds OF fortunes were made and
a few We're lost. A man who had $1,000
and knowledge of the fluctuations In
the market could have made $4,000.
There was never such scene OF mad
confusion on the floor Of the exchange
as there was during the opening hour.
All day long there was the maddest ex-
citement.
Prices bounded up and down like
| rubber ball; brokers and bankers were
like manlacs. shrieking. struggling In
excitement. Never before We're there
such wide fluctuations, and the ten
dency was upward.
men who lost in the tremendous gam
bling game were those who could afford
TO lose, and none suffered greatly. 1t
was logical outcome of the tremen-
dous boom which has prevailed for
weeks in Wall street.
The great boom was In Panhandle
stock 1t closed on Saturday at GSS. 1t
opened at rs fiat.
The news spread through the e4-
! change like wildiire. In O few seconds
there was mad rush to the post
where the trading was going on. Men
who came into the exchange sober. Sc
date citizens were instantly transform
ed into maniacs. but there was method
In their madness.
Never In an insane asylum were there
such wild ShriekS and cries. Men surg
| ed back and forth. packed In mass so
dense that when n man raised his
hand to make n transaction he could
not lower 1t. They elbowed. butted.
pushed and hauled in the effort to get
Into the centre of the trading. Nos
and then an old football player u,ould
| drive his way through the mob.
To those who watched from the gall
| lery. and It was speedily crowded. for
| the awful din could be heard q block
away above the racket OF the street
traffic. II seemed that the brokers were
in great rough and tumble fight.
The frantic waving OF hands. the dis
torted, red faces. the hoarse believing.
tie rushing of messengers who were
entangled In the SurSing OF the mob as
! 1t swayed TO and fro made It look like
n mob OF savages bent on each others
| destruction.
II was struggle for wealth. FOR
thousands and millions. Fortunes were
tossed from one man to another at the
wave OF Il hand. There was something
irichtful In the fierce intensity.
The first sale Of Panhandle reported
after the opening was at Is. So fast
were the succeeding ones made that
they could not be recorded. The next
quotation posted was 20. Then the price
went up and UP. while the excitemcr;
grew greater. Operators in other STOCKS
caught the infection. and there was
wild trading around other posts.
It seemed like chaos. like 4 tableau OF
the Inferno as Dante pictured 1t. and
the faces OF the brokers. who little
while before had brcakfastcd quietly
with their families were like those OF
the tortured souls who are condemned.
In the little time OF fifteen minutes
Panhandle stock advanced to IS. nearly
twenty points, and then the stock ex-
Change was a bedlam. Men were doing
that which under other circumstances
would have caused q hundred fights.
ThcE tore of each others clothing.
shook their fists In each others faces.
and all that came OF II. so far as those
! IN the, gallery could sec, was the iotinc
down OF something In little memoran'
dun books.