The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-16
PANIC IN
WALL. STREET
Stocks Go Down
In a Tangled
Heap.
THERE HAS BEEN
| OVER SPECULATION
Some of the Soundest Securities
Are Unable to Hold Up
Under Pressure.

ment 1t has known in years and, while
prices were soaring up and down in
the widest manner brokers and spec
ulators became almost frenzied. In
the mad manipulation of the market
the shorts were squeezed until the
financial life was crushed out of many
of them.
The Northern Pacific was head and
shoulders above other issues as the
cause of excitement, but fortunes were
made and lost on other stocks as we'll
Before the close the entire market be-
came terribly demoralized, and the
flood of long stock swept prices down
many points. Brokers. loaded down
with commissions to buy and sell, lost
their heads in the great excitement,
and panic resulted.
Men rushed about the floor of the
temporary exchange in the Produce
Exchange like maddened animals, and
the din of many voices raised noisy
discord that reminded one OF the panic
days of the past when Jay Gould was
a power in the market. From the
crowded galleries spectators watched
the brokers in their mad rush for
money as they would riot, and
women became frightened. They could
not believe that the men below were
, merely buying and selling. 1t looked
to them as if murder was being COM
mitted
There were no rumors even to ac-
count for the violent liquidation, ex-
cept the general fear that prices were
on the toboggan and that SPECTATORS
were anxious to get "in out of the Wet
before a worse crash came. Liquidation
| continued till the close, when nearly
| the whole list was in a demoralized
| condition.
1t is impossible to make a rational
estimate of the effects of the slump
! but old operators declare that thou
sands of margin spectators who were
| reasonably well fixed this morning,
| found themselves ruined at night.
Thousands of employees are said to be
mortgaged for months ahead as the re-
suit of negotiating their salaries to
risk the money in the financial whirl-
pool
Conferences of important bankers
and banking interests We're held this
evening to discuss the matter and de-
wise ways and means to prevent far
reaching financial catastrophe.
| The break today started shortly be-
fore 1 o'clock, and when the market
closed some two hours later quotations
had slumped in the interval anywhere
from one to twenty points. Fortunes
that had been made in the last six
| months were in some cases wholly
wiped out.
All speculative eyes had been cen
tered upon Keene, who is supposed tC
hold the whip hand and a further pre-
nomenal rise in Northern Pacific COM
mon stock, which, owing to the cor
ner" had jumped up by leaps and
bounds to 1870 as compared With Tues
days close of 1872, a gain of seventy
full points in three days, had reacted
to 145 only again to advance from that
| a in ~ wit
5000 bid for it after the close of the
market and $40 share paid for the
use of it over night.
Suddenly Burlington stock, which
had been more or less heavy all the
morning, began to show unmistakable
incidently the Erie issues were de-
pressed. Then in the general list prices
also began to fall First it was ST.
| Paul, then it was Missouri Pacific and
| then it was Union Pacific Some hold
ers sat" on their stocks and looked
/ for recovery. Others proceeded to
part with their holdings. Soon the
contagion spread. Quotations thereup-
on began to break, not quarter or half
points between sales, but one and two
points. That settled it. The entire
| street proceeded to sell.
Every prominent stock on the list
broke badly, with the one conspicuous
exception of Northern Pacific which
held it's head so well above the storm
that at the close of the day is showed
an increase of 161a points.
The break, indeed, was the biggest
single-day general break the street has
seen since 1S93-greater even, so far as
the general list is concerned, than the
decline following the death of Roswell
P. Flower.
The wild variations in prices is shown
by the following:
| Northerp Pacific az oponipp 155
fluctuations between opening and noon
10, 100, $50, LAG, $780, 147, 155, 15S. After
noon to close, 15S, 163, 167, 10, 1853, 167
166 100.
opening, 1875; fluctuations between
opening and close 1856 194a. 1914, 191
1877, 1872, 1S9, 1909
Union Pacific, at opening 1241a; fiuc
tuations up to noon, 123, 125, 1891, 126
127. 129 127. Afternoon to close, 127
100, lis, ia. 1879, III, 1151a, ia, 113
1151a, 112.
Following are the total snares sold
Northern Pacific, common, $4,000; Chi
cago, Burlington and Quincy So 900
Union Pacific, 1888, 700.
J John w. Gates is credited with bein,
short Northern Pacific no less thar
$4,000 shares of the stock, representa-,
a loss of 100000.
There was talk in the street of
great fight for control between tn
Morgan-Hil interests on one side an,
the hn-Loeb-Standard Oh
people on the other, but nothing coul,
be learned of it. In some parts of tn
streets the talk of a fight and of
great clash between these powerful in
terests is credited. In other parts 1t 1
ridiculed. One story has it that owe
100000 shares more than the actua
capital stock of the company have bee
bought by the opposing syndicates
and that it is as yet uncertain wher
control lies.
However, whatever the situation
several conferences were held TODAY il
regard to the Northern Pacific stocl
situation, which was participated in b,
James Stillman, Kuhn. Loeb & Co., an
r. III. Hartman on the one side AM
Daniel Lamont, James J. Hill and M,
Bacon of ]. P. Morgan & Co. on tn
other. 1t is also understood that Georg
| T Baker and soma ranroSan4o4 i.- 3