Mexico Missouri message., 1906-11-08
Copyright, By LothrOp Publishing Company.
CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XIV.
HOW THE CHINOOK CAME TO WALL
STREET.
The loss Of much money is COM
monty subject to be managed with
brevity and aversion by one who sits
down with the right reverence for
sheets Of clean paper. To bewail IL
painful To affect lightness, on the
other hand would, in this age, SAVIOR
OF insincerity. II not Of downright
blasphemy- More than bare recital
OF the wretched facts, therefore, is not
seemly.
The Blnes fortune disappeared much
az q heavy fall of snow melts under
the Chinook wind
That phenomenon Is not uninterest
:nE. We may picture far-reaching
wasts OF snow, wind-furrowed until it
resembles = billowy white sea frozen
motioniesG The wind blows half a
gale ana the air is full of fine ice crys-
tails that sting the face Vlciousiy. The
sun. lying low ON the southern horizon,
seems q mere frozen globe. with lus-
trous pink crescents enclrcling It
one day the wind backs and shifts.
A cnangs portendl EVen the herds Of
half-troZen range eaEna sense IL BY
some subtle beast knowledge They
are no longer afraid 70 lie doVs az
they may nave been for = week TnS
danger OF freezing has passed The
temperature has been a: 80 degrees
below zero Now, suddenly It begins
70 =ise- The air is scarcely in mo-
ton but occasionally IT descends as
our OF blast furnace from overhead.
To the southeast Is mass OF dull
black clouds Their face is unbroken-
But the upper edges are ragged. torn
by a wind not yet felt below. Two
hours later its warmth comes. In ten
minutes the mercury goes up IS de-
grees. The wind comes at 30-mile
velocity. 1t increases in strength and
warmth, blowing with a mighty roar.
Twelve hours afterward the snow,
three feet deep on level, has melted.
There are bald brown hills every
where to the horizon, and the plains
are flooded with water. The Chinook
has come and gone. In this manner
suddenly went the Bines fortune.
April 80, Consolidated Copper closed
at 81. Two days later, May 2, the
drop Of 40 points. Roughly the decline
meant the loss Of $1O0OO0,0OO 10 the
$4,000 shareholders. From every city
same Inflated stock closed at STA
of Importance in the country came
tales more or less tragic of holdings
wiped out, of ruined families, Of defal-
cations and suicides. The losses In
New York city alone were said to be
$5O,O0O,O00 A few large holders, re-
puted to enjoy inside information,
were said to have put their stock aside
and sold short" in the knowledge OF
what was coming. Such tales are al
ways popular in the street.
Others not less popular had to do
win the reasons for the slump. Many
were plausible. A deal with the Roths.
childs for control of the Spanish mines
had fallen through Or, again, the
slaughter was due to the shepler group
of Federal Oil operators, who were
bent on forcing some one to unload q
great quantity Of the stock so that
they might absorb It. The Immediate
causes were less reconcile. The Con
solIdated company, so far from con
trolling the output, was suddenly
shown to control actually less than 81
per cent. Of It. It's efforts to amend
or repeal the hardy old law OF Supply
and Demand had simply met with the
Indifferent success that has marked all
such efforts since the first attempted
corner in stone hatchets, or mastodon
tusks, or whatever 1t may have been
In the language Of one Of its news
paper critics. the trust" had beer
founded OF misconception and
prompted along lines Of self-destruo-
tion Its fundamental principles werl