The times., 1901-05-10

! The startling advance of Northern Pa
! Cific yesterday morning to 1000 marked
( the end Of the boom Mr. Hin has not
! so. at least, he says. Mr. Hartman has
( not secured control, if Mr.. Hill may be
! believed. 1t is extremely probable that
I the Northern Pacific preferred stock is
not to be retired, either for bonds or COM
mon stock. This unprecedented advance
/ in the common stock was, as far as can
| be learned or judged by events, simply
! a gigantic coup by Mr. Keene Before
/ the present market such a coup would
! have been considered utterly out of the
/ question. IT involved the cornering of all
the floating stock of an issue of $50, 900, Coo
/ II was an operation in its way quite as
! daring as the formation of the billion
/ dollar Steel Trust This, however, seems
/ to be what occurred. Northern Pacific
! is not worth $50. 1t is probable that $50
! a share could be cut off this price and
! still leave a balance amply sufficient to
| represent the actual value OF the Sc
| curity as measured by the earning ca
pacity of the company and the dividend
prospects Of the stock. This, however,
did not matter to Mr. Keene He ap-
parently saw that the Hill-Morgan crowd
and the Hartman crowd both Were hold
! ing all their stock, the one fearful of los
ing control and the other hopeful of
gaining it. He saw that there was much
selling of the stock short and that the
supply of stock outside the hands of these
two parties was extremely limited. He
began TO buy it at n level far above
its value and in big blocks. driving UP
the price dzzily. This made the shorts
begin to cover and forced the price still
higher. 1t also attracted few outsiders
into the movement. who gave it new inn
petus Then the shorts ran into diff
culties Of the worst kind. They found on
Wednesday the greatest trouble in buy
ing stock TO cover. Yesterday morning
the scarcity Of Northern Pacific was ap-
palling. The shorts were in the most
successful and the most gigantic trap
Wall Street has ever seen. The price
opened at 40 and advanced by big leaps
to 500 Later it got as high as zoo and one
sale at least was made for cash at 81, 900
a share. This means that probably at
least $500 a share was lost on the stock.
The coup must have netted Mr.. keene
and the others who were fortunate and
INSCRIPTIONS enough to participate in it
several millions of dollars.
As was to be expected, the worst breaks
occurred in the grangerS and Pacific Sc
cUrities, in which the Messrs. Moore and
Mr. Gates are supposed to have been op-
Grating. These stocks were thrown over
with an utter disregard TO prices that
caused people TO stop breathing for sec
onds at a time. 1t seemed as If there
were no market for them whatever I'm
ion Pacific dropped and 10 points at a
time. from 113 to 1878, over 80 points, the
tumble coming largely in three minutes
OF time. The stock was selling at 133
day or two ago, so that the total decline
was more than 50 points. There is $780,
90 600 of this stock issued, so that the
break in three minutes yesterday of 80
points means a shrinkage of about s32.-
coo 600. St. Paul broke from 165 yesterday
morning and from 1SS a few days ago to
135, a total of So points. II recovered lit
tie. Rock Island broke from 15S to 125.
but recovered to 14S Atchison preferred
broke to TO- the price a day or two ago
having been well above par. The com
mon broke to a., which cut the recent
fancy price just about in half. Both
these stocks recovered well. the preferred
TO above 90. The latter stock is consid-
cred a good purchase at this level on the
declines. and will be picked UP by the
bargain hunters if there is another furry
today The fact that there is a panic in
Wall Street, which may even continue
for two or three days longer. does not
make the real value Of preferred dividend
securities any less.