The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-24

does Lawson say?"
Enemies Made Fortunes.
The Boston plunger seemed to have
hypnot1zed the investors and the brok-
ers by his daring methods and unparal-
ieled audacity. For the first time in
years the wise old sheep OF the street
itself took alarm at the cry of wolff"
and plunged into demoralized flight.
They rallied after 60 minutes of disas-
ter. In a single hour on Thursday
Thomas W. Lawson was the central fig
ure OF stock speculation. For mo-
ment he was a king of destruction,
smashing his way through the securities
of trusts, of combines and of veteran
manipulators. AS he had boosted lie
with only a faint tremor-tl1e founda-
lions Of No. &c Broadway, New York,
the house Of Standard Oil magnateS,
and the center of their widening circles
routed II. H. Rogers out of the Stand
ard building and sent him and his as
sociates scurrying into the marker with
tremendous and costly buying orders to
protect their pet stocks. When prices
were at the lowest Standard Oil bank
ers and operators bought at least 500, 600
shares of the best stocks. These pur-
chases showed profits of more than 81
900, 900 for one day. To buy 900
shares of stocks without warning means
to have at least SO, 900, 900 cash on hand
and 10000 600 credit. John D. Rookie
Teller is said to keep 500 100000 of his
such emergencies as Lawson forced on
the market on Thursday last.
Proclamations to Excited Men,
While the panic was on in the stock
market the new Moses of finance sat in
his office in Boston issuing pIoclama-
lions to the people, as would the COM
mander Of an army to the subordinates
under him. They were all LaUsoniSh in
their makeup and characteristic of the
man. To the excited holder of stock,
who knew not which way to turn in tine
hour of peril and whose p1 OTIS vanish
ed like mist before the sun. Lawson
gave these bits of wisdom:
Don't let Wall streets frenZied fnan-
ciers'' fool you.
Never before have you and the Amer
lean people had these people just where
you wanted them, and you must re-
member they have not the big insurance
treasures to throw in as investors.
pledge my word to the American
people that each and every such state
ment is absolutely false. l have no con-
nection directly or indirectly, with any
stock market operator, and I would be
a cur If I were in league with standard
Or and 1.-THE System
Bear in mind in 35 years have never
given my word for a thing fat-footedly,
and deceived you.
1t would take 100 Morgans, a dozen
STANDARD Oils" and a few Banks or
England to take what will be sold this
trip.
Sell Amalgamated uninterruptedly for
what you can get.
President Roosevelt is just beginning
his work. 1t is tobacco today. When
it gets to insurance, banks and trust
companies, business will begin.
UNPARALLELED Attacks on E1nanciers.
Lawson has gone further than any
other man in like position. Not only
has he attacked the Standard Oil COM
pany, bearded J. Pierpont Morgan
and the Steel financierS in their dens,
h1It he great
insurance companies. These corpora
lions, with their millions of reserve
funds whose methods are as sealed
book to only the few on the inside,
are promised a raking from Lawson's
trenchant pen before he quits his
campaign. 1t must not be supposed
that the Boston broker keeps himself
before the public in such dramatic
thropist. His first idea is revenge on
the men whom he charges with trying
to cheat and ruin him; and next to ad-
vertise himself and his wares. He is a
shrewd Yankee, and his whole career
bears this out.
Lawson, Born Speculator.
Thomas w. Lawson is many-sided.
He is sportsman of the sort that
sporting men like, full of grit and
His whole life has
been of the skyrocket sort-a rush,
a whirlwind and hurly-burly. For
tunes have come and gone to him. In
1872 there was a boy of fifteen who
went into business for himself in Bos-
ton. Previously he had been an
errand boy and clerk in a banking
house. His name was Thomas Will
liam Lawson. Soon after he started
business Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleve-
land railroad stock dropped all once
from $50 to SO a share. Then it rose
again. Lawson was ION the inside"
for the banking house he had worked
for did a lot of business for the rail-
road. He cleaned up $4,000 by spec
ulating on the sudden fiuctuation of
the stock.
A little while later he lost it all by
a crash in Boston Water Power stock.
about the matter several
years afterward, Lawson said:
ITO be absolutely correct, I dropped
just $59,S41. Deciding to make a
clean sweep and start afresh. I gave a
hotel for the purpose of getting rid
of the $3.50 had left.
when the dinner check was paid
there was still $3.50 left and I gave
that to Horace, the head waiter.
''Then I was ready to start again.
/ was broke at seventeen, after having
made what some men would be salts |
fed to call a fortune
Has Plenty of Enemies.
No American speculator-not even |
John w Gates-has had a stormier |
career than Lawson. From the time |
he made and lost his first fortune, at |
the age OF sixteen, he has been doing |
battle with the heavyweights of the |
financial world-nlen of the caliber |
of the late William G. Whitney and |
H. H. Rogers, the Standard Oil mag |
nate-some times winning, sometimes |
losing, but always ready to come up |
smiling for the next round.
After the historic crash in Amalga- |
mated Copper, he admitted to a news |
paper man that he had lost seven |
and then added:
1.-The man who sets I'D to be a, stock |
operator must be prepared to take
smilingly whatever comes his way. |
You will observe that I smile.''
About the same time, another man |
remarked that he must have q lot of |
enemies. He replied, enthusiastically: |
Observation-Disclosures am not a bet