New-York tribune., 1909-12-28
STOCK UP AND DOWN
Consinned from first page

100 So 400. 81. 1000. o. $40. %. ss'.
80; 1000. 81: 1900 81: 200. Ga. 700. So.
200 81: 500. 80; 800. 30. coo. 70is: 800.
-; 300 73. 400. -: 600. IS. 900. 20. go.
so: 600 80. 800 so1s: 1000. 81
After touching 81. the next sale was
leo. at SD. and total sales. between 80
and 81. inclusive. were IS. 100 shares.
the next transaction. 10000 shares az
80 bringing the price under the starting
point In the rest OF the first hour II
fiuctuated between J0 and 531a. standing
at 52ss at IL O'Clock In the same hour
there We're sales Of only 500 shares OF the
preferred. which moved within a range
OF 81. points.
PROFITS AND LOSSES MANY
Stories Of profits and losses during the
stirring quarter of an hour were pIenti-
full Jacob Field IL Is said. made S1l5.-
go and Walter Content 29.0oo the lat
ter through selling LEGO shares at -
and covering at 81 A customer OF a
commission house left an order on Fri
Gay afternoon 10 sell his 200 shares yes
terday at 81 OF better. and they went at
65. One floor trader sold the stock on
the advance until he was short $500
shares, and had loss of $4,000 which
caused him so much Uneasiness that he
was about 10 begin TO cover and accept
his loss when the market abruptly
turned enabling him TO come out with
profit of Ss4OO
But il there We're winners there were
also losers. mainly operators who had
left "at the market buying orders with
their brokers OF Friday In one au-
thenticated case a man lost fully 500
600. as. In the indescribabl confusion
at the opening, his purchasing orders
we're executed at very high figures and
he has on his hands a large block Of
stock which is not likely IN the near
future. in the belief Of Wall Street. to-
touch again the levels of yesterday.
One broker had 1000 share buying
order which he filed by taking 500 at
6S and 1.50o at SO; and another. with an
order of the same size. bought part at
56 and the rest a from 30 TO IS
While it Is not known whether or not
the jump was caused by an attempted
corner. the transaction serves 70 call at
tention 10 some famous corners OF the
past in stocks. One Of the best remen-
bered of these is the squeeze in Sugar
on March Is, 1899, which happened
shortly after the stock of the American
Sugar Refining Company had been listed
On the New York Stock Exchange
This corner. which was said to have
been engineered by Standard Oil inter
ests to squeeze James r keene, who
was reported to have been heavily short
of sugar. forced the price OF the stock
up from 141 TO 40 within few minutes
from the opening AS in the case OF
Rock Island yesterday, the stock then
reacted. dropping TO 154@. under food
Of selling orders. 1t rallied subsequently,
to 1925 and then sold off again TO 1884.
at the close. a net gain OF 191s points for
the day.
vANDERBILTS HARLEM CORNER
Another famous corner was the ..Har-
lem corner" engineered by the late
Commodore Vanderbilt in 1863 Harlem
was the commOdOre's first investment
in railroad securities. When he bought
it the stock was selling at between SS
and 50 a share. Shortly afterward the
Common Council granted the commodore
a franchise to build a street railroad
down Broadway to the Battery. This
caused Harlem stock. which had grad
ualIy advanced TO 80. 10 jump TO -.
1t appeared. however. that the alder
men had only granted the franchise to
try to catch the commodore mapping
their plan being TO sell short all the
Harlem stock that the market would
take and then repeal the ordinance The
latter however, heard OF the scheme.
and. with his associates went on buy
ing the stock and took up all the shorts
that We're offered When the aldermen
and their friends thought they had sold
enough stock short 70 net them A
profit of several millions. they repealed
the ordinance. The commodore had
managed his corner so successfully. how
ever. that the stock dropped only 3
points TO 20 when the aldermen hal
expected it TO drop TO 90 The bear
operators. among whom was Daniel
Drew. had sold more Harlem stock than
was actually in existence. Most of the
actual stock was in the possession of
the bull pool headed by Commodore
Vanderbilt, and. when the shorts
rushed into the market 10 cover no
stock was forthcoming except at the
price at which the pool chose TO sell.
As a result the price Jumped with
startling rapidity 10 179. at which figure
the commodore and his associates un-
loaded the bulk OF their holdings on the
unfortunate aldermen and their friends
A more recent corner was that known
as the Northwest corner" IN which the
late Jay Gould squeezed his partner.
Henry N Smith. who had ahsented him
self from Wall Street for the day to go
10 the races In this corner the price
of the stock was forced up from around
par TO nearly 800.
The latest effort TO corner a stock in
Wall Street was the attempt made bv
the firm of Otto Heinze & Co. at the be-
ginning OF the 1907 panic to corner the
market in United Copper. The attempJ
was a failure, however. more stock being
offered than the firm was able TO taks
up. and as result the Heinze firm and
another which had been acting as It's
brokers in the transaction were forced Tn
the wall