The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-06
WEAK FIRMS FAIL
MUSHROOM STOCK CONCERNS CO
TO THE WALL.
THE POWER BUBBLE BURSTS
MONEY RULED HIGH ON STOCK
EXCHANGE.

Suspension of the Three Brokerage
Firms which Have Been Dealing
in Industrial and Canadian stocks
Announced-StOckM Market Was Sc
riousIy Affected, but Closed Steady.
DIR. w. Seward webb Appears to
Have Been Badly Taken in by Ir-
responsible Brokers, but All stock
still in His Name Is Being Repur-
chased.
New York May 5.-Three Stock
Henry Bros. & Co., and Lockwood,
Hurd & Co., announced their suspen-
sion in the order named at the opening
of the market to-day. The amount of
their joint liabilities is variously esti-
mated at from $2,000.000 to 100000;
assets unknown, and in the opininn of
good judges, a goodly portion are Of
doubtful value. No verified statement
was forthcoming from the parties most
interested.
The day closed with the usual ru-
rnors Of more failures, criminal prose
cution and the like. The solvency of
several financial institutions of stand
ing was brought in question, but for
such rumors there appeared to be abb
solutely no foundation.
The market was seriously affected
by the three failures, stocks breaking
heavily at the outset, but the closing
was fairly steady. Call money opened
at 10 per cent, rose as high as 20 per
cent. and closed at 8 per cent
The failures were directly due to last
weeks serious decline in a number
of industrial stocks. Two of this group,
Rutland railroad preferred and st.
Lawrence and Adirondack are regular
ly listed on the Stock Ex-
change. The others, including
Dominion Securities, Hackensack
Meadows, North American Lumber ana
Pulp and Storage Power, are or rather
were, more or less extensively dealt ir
on the curb.
II was an open secret last Saturday
tina; two or more concerns we're IN
volved in the decline of the Webb
Mayer properties and disastrous results
Acre feared. News of the thrse fall
ures came at the outset of the day
ore,at;ons.
Following the announcement of the
failures many lots of stocks and few
blocks of bonds were bought and sold
under the rule" on the Exchange for
account of the insolvent concerns. All
told, 1925 shares of Rutland preferred
were traded in during the day at from
Sc to 96, closing at So, net loss for
the day of 5 points. The rally in the
Rutland from the low point followed
announcement that Vanderbilt inter-
ests had agreed to take up block of
those shares for account of some of
the embarrassed spectators. There
was practically no trading in the
Webb Meyer stocks.
The assignee of Henry Bros. & Co.
is j. A. Bush and of Lockwood, Hurd
& Co.. Edward d. Perine. Both as
signees said they were unable to make
even an approximate estimate of La
bilities and assets to-day. Offenbach
& Moore, although suspended from the
privileges of the Stock Exchange, had
not really assigned. Mr.. Moore said
their embarrassment would be only
temporary.
At Offenbach & Moore's offices in the
Broad Exchange Building, Mr.. Moore
was on hand, but declined to be SEEN
MIR. Offenbach was reported to be ill
AS soon AS the firm suspended the Of
fees were. cleared, and later in the day
some of the furniture was being re-
moved.
All through the afternoon there were
conferences between Arthur l.. Meyer
and his associates. Among those at
the conference was Creighton Webb, a
brothe, Of Or. w. Seward Webb. Mr.
Welt; declined absolutely to discuss the
situation.
DR.. Webb arrived in this city from
Vermont early in the morning. He
was closeted for long time before
noon with Mr. Meyer at the Rutland
roads local office With DR.. Webb and
Mr.. Meyer was Henry T Sprague, vice
nresident of the Dominion Securities
and Storage Power companies and
other representatives Of the Webb
Never properties. Upon his arrival at
his office down town Mr.. Meyer stated
that he had been unable to reach any
agreement with DR. Webb.
VIII Protect webb stock.
Mr.. Prall OF the Stock Exchange firm
Of Webb & Prall, Of which Dr.. Webb's
brother is senior partner made this
statement shortly before noon:
IAN the Rutland preferred stock
sold hy Dr.. Webb last June, certif-
Gates OF which are still In his name
and amount to II, 500 shares, Will be