The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-02-28
Frenzied Buying Makes
Kaffir Affair Look
Trivial.
SAD AWAKENING
COMING TO MANY
Thousands Fight to Subscribe
for Stock in Companies With
Weird Names-Clergymen
and Widows to the Fore
in This Latest Wild
Gamble.

Especial Cable to The Times Dispatch
London. February 27LTo use the
picturesque language OF prominent
member. the Stock Exchange is still
eating rubber and drinking oil. and
IT has nothing else to live on. OF
course, the rubber boom is much the
bigger affair. Shares are buoyantly
active, and many new companies are
being Aoated. with more to come. Take
to-day's newspapers, for instance. They
contain no fewer than seven prospec-
tuses. inviting the modest sum of
s4,o0o.00o from the public, which has
gone rubber mad.
Caution Flung to Winds.
1t is not too much 20 say that tho
boom Is of nature quite unprece-
dented. 1t makes the kaffir revival
of decade ago seem trivial affair.
Day after day for weeks past the mar
ket has been in confused and excited
tumult. The brokers confess that en-
ger clients are in ignorance OF the
weird names Of many OF the companies
whose shares they are anxious to buy.
They come. not in single squads. but
in battalions. Caution has long since
ing the warnings printed in the daily
press. Properties which. when put on
the market before the outburst al a low
figure, failed TO entice the rubber ex-
perts. now have been hurrIedly ac-
quired by syndicates who promote
companies having capital of eight to
ten times the amount OF value assessed
when the properties were rejected by
the experts.
The truth of the matter is that Eng
land Is In the throes OF one of its peri
odical gambling seizures. which MOTH
Ing on earth VIII allay but which
must work itself out. Then what a
sad. awakening will come to thousands
People who cannot afford to lose a
shilling in the ordinary course of af-
fairs have been unable TO resist the
fever. and have risked all, including the
rent money. In the Wild scramble for
profits 1t is a curious fact that cler
gynen and widows are always to the
fore in gambles of thig kind. showing
how widespread is this contagious dis
ease.
A prominent broker said to-day that
out of 100000 shares he dealt in last
week. fully half related TO orders for
five and ten shares which he received
from all parts of the British Isles.
.hdlly OF tIlOSt WIN hAu ac>
know what they wanted except to
''buy five rubber shares
Brokers Refuse Advice.
Many brokers now refuse to advise
the purchase of any particular shares
even at the risk of losing business. No
sooner does the prospectus OF new
company appear than a wild rush is
made to the bank to subscribe. and in
almost every case the list OF subscrib-
crs is closed within few hours after
the opening, while the very forms on
which applications are to be made are
sold for good prices.
There is no doubt that large for
tunes have been made. One Liverpool
merchant confesses to profit of ST.
100000 and hundreds of private indi-
viduals all over the country have net
ted sums ranging from $4,000 to $780,
600
A prominent rubber broker of Min
ing Lane is dealing in as many as
100000 shares a day, the result being
that his staff is completely Worn out.
The nerve strain on members and
clerks alike is very severe. Some
clerks have now lived in the city for
weeks. only going home for a few
hours in week. Rooms have been
engaged for them at city hotels, but
this is scarcely necessary. because they
deal all day and work on the books at
night.
Instinct Aroused.
With the gambling instinct fully
aroused 1t seems probable that the
public would swallow with avidity a
proposal to establish rubber planta-
tion on the banks of the Thames. AS
Indicating the extent to which the
public has been asked to subscribe
and has eagerly responded on rubber
propositions since the beginning of the
new year, 1t is learned from the ad.
vertised prospectuses that fifty-one
resenting $35,O00,0OO subscribed. 1t is
evident that this rate cannot continue
much longer.
''At last the rush Of SPECTATORS has
become so violent" said a broker.
that they bought whatever they could
get. no matter what the name or price
might be. Then came the company
promoter. the Wizard Of the piece.
with an ineXhaustible supply of new
shares. Old rubber trees past Yield
Ing. young trees not within sight Of
yielding. land newly planted, land not
worth planting-all We're capitalized
as prospective Vallambrosas."
That Is the stage of the rubber mar
ket now Furious gambling In old
shares and still more furious suhscrib-
Ing for new are going on side by side.
Authorities differ as to how much fur
ther they may go. how much longer
they may hold out,
Above and beyond these speculative
dangers looms one much more serious
the risk Of some effective substitute
for rubber being brought out. More
than one substitute has been discov-
cred. This week the, most promising
of them has come on the market, A
new elastic material invented by a
German engineer, Herr PAeumer, Of
Salzburg, was subjected to the severe
test of run of 300 miles in auto tires
at q rate of fifty miles an hour, The
test so completelyS' satisfied the COM
pany that they have contracted to
make and sell pneumatic tires under
royalties. s