The San Francisco call., 1904-04-10

price of the stock for year in order
to freeze outp the poor, unsophisti
Gated stockholders and to tire out"
some of the early buyers, because
"Turp," being "a good thing Green
baum ct al wanted it all for them
selves. .--e..
Then Sharpe sent fer "Jakey..' and
on the next day 9Eddie'Lazarus swag-
geringly offered to wager sl0.0 600 against
$4,000 that a dividend on ..rurp'' stock
would be declared during the year.
Whereupon the newspapers, of their
own accord, began to guess how great
a dividend would be paid and when,
and various figures were mentioned in
the board room By brokers who con-
fided TO their hearers that they got 1t
on the dead q. t. straight from the in
side" And two days later Sharpe's
unsupported brokers offered to pay IL
per cent for the dividend on 100000
shares, said dividend to be declared
within sixty days or the money for
feited and the stock scld up to 66&.
and the public wanted it. A big, broad
market had been established, in which
one could buy or sell the stock with
ease by the tens of thousands of shares.
The 4,40O shares, which at the incep-
tion of the movement at the unstable
price of $50 share represented theo-
retical SO, 432 900, now readily vendible
at s65 share. meant s7,422, 900; not half
bad for a few weeks work.
And still Sharpe, wonderful man that
he was. gave no sign that he was about
to begin unloading. Whereupon the
other members of the pool began to
wish he were not quite so greedy. They
were satisfied to quit, they said.
They implored, individually and col
lectively, Jacob Greenbaum to call on
Sharpe; and Greenbaum, disregarding
a still, small voice that warned him
against it, went to Sharpes office. and
came out of it two minutes later some
what flushed, and assured his col
leagues one by one that Sharpe was
all right. and that he seemed to know
his business. Also that he was cranky
that day.
The stock fuctuated between go and
65. 1t seemed to be having a resting
spell But as it had enjoyed these peri
DDS of repose on three several occasions
during the rise-at 40 and 4S and So
the public became all the more eager
to buy 1t whenever it fell to go or SO,
for the street was now full of tips that
"Turp" would go to par. And such
was the public's speculative temper
and Mr.. Sharpe's good work that dis
interested observers were convinced
the stock would surely sell above 80 at
the very least Mr. Sharpe still bought
and sold, and the big block he had been
Obliged to take in the course of his
manipulation diminished. On the next
day he hoped to begin selling the pool
stock.
That very day Mr.. Greenbaum. as he
returned to his Office from his luncheon,
felt we'll pleased with the meal, and
therefore with himself and therefore
with everything. He scanned a yard
or two of the tane and smiled. "Turp"
was certainly very active and very
strong.
I'm such a market" thought Mr..
Greenbaum, ''Sharpe can't possibly tell
he's getting stock from me. In order
to be on the safe side I'm going to let
him have q couple of thousand. Then,
should anything happen, I'd be that
much ahead. Ike!" he called to a clerk.
Yes, sir"
Sell two wait: make it 5000 - no,
never mind Send for Mr., Ed Lazarus"
And he muttered to himself with a
subthrill of pleasure: Il can just as
well as not make 1t 5000 shares"
Eddie" he said to his partners son,
"give an order to some of the room
traders, say. to Willie Schiff. to sell
five-er-six tell him to sell 1000 shares
of Turpentine and TO borrow the stock.
I am not selling share, seer" with a