The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
SPEcULAToRS LOSE MILLIONS.
Two Cincinnati Men Who Tried to Cor
 ner the Wheat Market.
From Tit ts.

|
 ner the Wheat Market. |
 From Tit-Bts.
 "The man has never lived" once said the late Russell Sage, the famous Croesus of Wall street. who has 1 played with the fire of speculation without getting badly burnt. I've drop- l ped good few millions in my time, and I don't know any millionaire spec , ulator who hasn't"
 This was the experience of one of 1 the shrewdest and most cautious spec ulators of his or any other day; and l how true his statement is was proved only few weeks ago during the panic on the New York exchange, when such clever financiers as J. J. Astor, R. w. Goelet and Cornelius Vanderbilt, with all the strings, as they thought, in their hands, dropped 1,800,000 pounds sterling in a few days.
 Acting upon the advice of Mir Harri- man, the Railway Dictator" of Amer ica, they formed a pool for gigantic speculation In stocks. They com menced buying Union Pacifics at 150 and continued buying as the stocks rose, with the intention of selling at 200. To their dismay, however, Union Pacifics began to drop heavily; they began to liquidate at 120, and realized all their holdings at a much lower fig ure, the net result of their deal being loss of $9000,000.
 That this was no exceptional experi- ence is proved by the fact that less than a year earlier two of these three millionaires, Messrs. Astor and Van derbilt, lost nearly half a million pounds in single day in Wall street; while the third of the trio, MT Goelet, dropped nearly twice this gigantic sum in a single week of unluclly spec ulation in American rails.
 Equally disastrous has been the ex- perience of MT. Thomas w. Lawson, one of the most astute financiers in the states, man who has proven that he can iuggle with millions as cleyerly as a skilled prestidigitator can manipulate pack of cards. Not many months ago MT. Lawson formed a pool to to bear Amalgamated Copper. He de- clared that the stock was highly in- Hated, and that a financial crisis was inevitable.
 But MT Lawson had overestimated his strength. The enormous capital and influence of the Standard Oil com pany were trained against him, prices were steadily forced upward. his re- sources were soon exhausted by the forcing tactics, and his pool, which was to have put millions into his pockets and those of his friends, re- suited in loss of $4,000.000.
 Fortunately for himself, MT. Lawson was able to smile. however ruefully, even at such a disaster as this: but there have been many men whom reck- | less speculation has reduced in a few weeks or months from the possession of millions to absolute beggary. Among them was Mir, Harper, president of the Fidelity bank of Cincinnati, a man of | considerable wealth and power in his day. Twenty-three years ago MT Har- per attempted to corner wheat. He focced the contract price higher and higher, and then the "bears" began to deliver leash" wheat to him in a con- certed attempt to "break his bank" Two million pounds worth of wheat | was presented to him: he was unable to purchase it; and although he used large sums of his banks money in his efforts to save himself. he failed.
 Many another gambler in wheat has ended equally as disastrous. In 1890 MT. Mackay, who had made millions in silver, cornered 9,000,000 bushels, cool ly conducting his gigantic operations by cable from Paris, 5000 miles away. Clever as he was. the forces pitted against him were too strong, and he was glad to escape from the gamble with a loss of $2,500,000. A few years 1 earlier Messrs. Lyon & Co., started 1 huge gamble in wheat, which lasted | half year, and ended in a dead loss | of $10,O000 900.
 In 1892 Mir James Keene, supported by Jay Gould. staggered the market by | buying 25,000000 bushels of wheat. l Their calculations were soon upset, however, for the farmers poured their | wheat into the market so fast that | Keene was unable to keep his control. l To add to his misfortune, Gould, sec ing how the tide was running, basely deserted his partner. and Keene was left to face a loss of S7,500,000. En-
 deavoring to retrieve his fortunes by further wild speculations. he lost | $7,000,000 more and sank into oblivion,
 reduced, within few months from the
 rank of multi-millionaire to absolute and hopeless beggary.
 How rapid may be the vicissitudes O
 the gambler was strillingly illustrated
 by the case of Cincinnati speculator
 called Handy, who, in the early sos
 made an enormous fortune by buying g
 large quantity of wheat at s1 bushe'
 and selling again at $1.50 Not content
 with this luck, Handy changed his tao
 tics and became bear" MT. Ar
 Armour forced the price of wheat III
 to 6s. Sd. bushel, and in a few weeks
 Handy not only lost all he had gaine'
 by his former deal, but every dollar h
 had in the world.
 Probably no one man has ever fig