Evening journal., 1903-07-25
STOCK DECLINES
CIIIcF FIIIIIRFc
uHUuL lnlLUHLu
Two Well-known Wall Street
Firms Are Obliged to
Suspend
MANY OTHERS BADLY SQUEEZED
Failures Were Caused by Recent
Slump In Stock Market-James 2.
Keene Heavily lrvolved-scenee q
Wild Excitement.


New York. July 25.-The long-contin-
ued decline In prices for securities 90
the stock exchange has resulted IN the
announcement Of the failure OF two
important stock exchange brokerage
firms. The first announcement was
Of the suspension Of W. L. Stow &
Company. followed in few moments
by the news sensational TO the finance
world that Talbot J. Taylor & Com
pany. the senior member of which is a
son-in-law OF James r. Keene, had
failed
The firm OF Stow & Company was
heavily interested in Mexican Central
and was a member of the pool in tnat
stock. The announcement of the fail
ure caused an immediate decline OF 79s
in the price of that stock.
Talbot j. Taylor & Company II has
been supposed were long of Southern
Pacific ever since the Inauguration Of a
bull movement by means of a pool I'm
that stock more than a year ago by
James r. Keene. Southern Pacific sold
at a price about 40 points below the
high record figure 70 which Il was put
presumably through the bull maipula-
tion of the Keene pool. When no
dividend was declared on Southern Pa
cific and the stock began TO decline Mr..
Keene began an effcyt in The courts TO
prevent the Union Pacific and the
Hartman syndicate from continuing 20
exercise control of Southern Pacific.
No statement Of Taylor & Co.'S assets
and liabilities has been made, but from
the president Of a leading national
bank 1t Is learned that the liabilities
may be well on to S6,O0O.000.
Estimates OF Stow & Co.'S liahilitie!
range from 81 .25O. 600 to S2.500,0O0.
1t was veritable BLACK Friday,
although the market rallied very de
cidedly at the close and the general
situation in the minds of some was
much improved. Il was freely pre-
dicted that trouble even more serious
was impending From Trustworthy
sources It was learned that three OF
more commission houses had been
Squeezed" almost to the bursting
point.
Contracts hold over until Monday,
which may enable embarrassed indi-
viduals to get their second wind"
The Stow failure was announced
shortly before 2.3O p. m. and that of
Taylor & co. followed within less
than ten minutes The board room
was the scene Of wild excitement all
day. A Tip" that something would
drop" before the close OF the marie.
had gone all round. The hush that
fell as the official announcements were
made was broken only by the ill-sup-
pressed buzz Of brokers who gathered
in groups and listened intently to the
words OF the chairman perched in his
little white marble balcony.
Then followed another wild scram
bic all over the room. A thousand tel
ephone bells rang and almost as many
uniformed messenger boys seemed to
leap out of the floor and scurry In al
directions. The excitement subsided
/ only with the clang of the huge gong
which marked the closing of the mar
ket
To those who were In the know,
the Stow failure caused little surprise
but the Taylor embarrassment was
really unexpected. Talbot J. Taylor
is James r. Keane's son-in-law. His
brother, James b. Taylor, and Foxhall
p. Keene, son Of James R.. constitute
the firm. Young Keene, who is an in
ternational sportsman, is a special
partner in the firm, it is said, OF $3.50,
600.
The effect Of the Taylor failure upor
James r. Keene's personal fortune (!
largely a matter Of conjecture. Ac
cording to some reports the veteran
operator is heavily involved.
There are many who believe that the
Taylor failure is directly due to The
bad blood stirred up by that firm and
Mr.. Keene in the Southern Pacific anS
Metropolitan suits. In fact It has fire.
quently been said that the Hartman
and Whitney interests would not b
satisfied with anything less than thu
scalps Of the Keenes and Taylors be
cause of these episodes.