Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1901-05-15
BRIEF WALL STREET PAN|C|
Fight For Control Of Northern Pacific
Precipitates a General Crash.
MANY FORTUNES SWEPT AWAY

The Collapse Was So Sudden That Sp-cuIa
tors DID Not Have Time to Saw. Them
selNes-Hankcrs' Relief Pool Saved the
Money Market From Disaster Tre-
mcndo"s Shrinkncc In Stock Values
New York City. - Tie Stock Ey-
change was the scene Thursday of one
OF the most disastrous panicS ever re
corded. Fortunes made in the recent
rise were swept away in an hour
iaper profits amounting 10 millions of
dollars were cancelled. and in their
places enormous losses were created
Tor the account of commission house
traders 1t is simply impossible eve
10 estimate the losses sustained by
brokers' ana their customers. but 1t may
be said without fear of contradiction
that the actual cash losses reached u
total never before cQuallCd in the his
tory of Wall Street.
The panic was prccipitatcd by the
hght between the Moryan-IIill syndi.
cate and the Hartmann Kuhn. Loeb x
20 Clique for the control of the North
ern Pacific Railroad. The fight for tha
control of this property came ut a tim,
When the market was ripe for n rcac-
tlon. but instead of Il reaction an ahSo-
Iute ana unrcStraincd panic developed.
III the course OF which prices declined
from twenty 10 fifty points. with even
greater ScthackS in several issues Not
tlll the damage was done not till
prices had crashed as they had not
crashed even on Black Friday, did
these men apparently awake to real
zinG sense of the gravity of the situa-
( tion, of the wreck OF financial values
they had made.
While the crash was under full,
steam the scene on the Stock Exchange
was one almost impossible to describe.
! More members of the board were pres
ent than ever before recorded and
more excitement. more bowling, shout
ing and turbulence were noted than in
any preceding day known In Wall
| Street. Thousands of men and women
were called to Wall Street by telc-
phone. telegraph and afternoon extras.
Hard luck stories were heard on every
corner and in every brokerage office
reports of millions lost. and in some
eases millions won. were freely circu-
/, lated. but. of course, in all cases eXag-
gerations were intense
! The corner" in Northern Pacific
stock, which was the immediate cause
of the crash. is unlike anything pre-
viously known i'll Wall Street "Cor-
ners" rs they were known in former
times We're made for the dclihCratr
purpose of cntrapping spectators into
selling shares which they did not own
and forcing them to rcnurchaSc at cx-
! iortionatc prices or pay the plottrrS
well for letting them oil. In the pres
ent instance two rival cotericS OF bank
erS and railway mIguatrS competing
for control of the Northern Pacific
Railroad began to buy MI the stock in
sight both here and on the European
bourScS.
Three hundred shares of Northern
Pacific sold ~ high aS $1,000 share.
and the stock finally closed Il; X:@@5.
Fifteen banks raised q pool of SD
100000. which was loaned at from
forty to sixty per cent. TO brokers who
were unable to borrow nj eighty rrr
cent. thus avoiding serious disaster
Stocks generally underwent enor-
nous Shrinkagcs. and great losses
We're inflicted on the Specializing pub.
lie. The net loss on The day IN the
quoted values of thrty-rnur railroad
and industrial stocks was more than
500. 100000.
The crash in stocks has wiped ou:
tens of millions of paper profits beg
CARED myriad small spectators al
over the land and caused mourning no,
only in Wall Street. hut on the Euro
pcan bourSeS thar are markets foI
American securities.
Needless 10 say. the crash does MOI
affect the business of the country
Widespread losses have been incurred
fortunes on paper have vanished. anC
many projected trips TO Europe viii
he deferred, but the mines. the loom,
and forgeS Of the country are busy, In,
railways are laden with frciehts an,
the crops are growing in million field,
and the real wealth OF ,ne country is
not affected.