Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-06-09

of the drive, had fallen eight points,
dropping from ninety to eighty-two in
three days, while the little mans bro
kers gathered in sixteen thousand
shares.
On Thursday morning, as Barr had
foreseen, the Suburban directors met,
and reduced the dividend on the COM
pany's stock from four to two per cent.
On the floor of the Exchange, follow
ing this announcement, an avalanche
of traction stocks, loosened from their
moorings by Barr, struck the market,
and the entire group futtered toward
lower figures like a mammoth balloon
despoiled of its gas.
Barr was lowering over the ticker in
his inner Office, hopping his face as
usual, when the announcement came of
the Suburban dividend cut. He scanned
the tape until it printed off a three
point drop in the stock, and then clap
ping his hat on his head he made his
way down Broad street to the Offices
of President Schlimbinger of the Su-
burban Trolley company.
Once in the presence of that har-
assed German gentleman he came
straight to the point.
'Some clients of our house, Mr..
Schlim-binger, have commissioned us
to try to get your holdings of Suburb
an Trolley. 1 don't know that you care
to sell, and I tried to tell them that |
didn't think too much of the stock as
a purchase. It's lower now, as | pre-
dicted, than the figures they are will
ing to pay you"
Barr fumbled about in his pocket a
moment, and drew out check.
eyes. You've got forty thousand
shares of stock. It's deposited as col
lateral with trust companies for loans
amounting to exactly three million two
hundred thousand dollars. The stock
is selling now, or was ten minutes ago,
at seventy-nine, which makes your
thousand dollars less than the amount
of your loan. If the trust companies
haven't already sold you out, because
of your exhausted margin, on behalf Of
my clients I offer you this certified
check for your equity over the three
million two hundred thousand dollars
you've borrowed"
Barr put the little piece of paper in
the trembling hand of Schlimbinger.
The mans face lighted up with joy.
Its one hundred and twenty thou
sand dollars" he said slowly.
much It's four dollars share above
the market, but they would pay it."
"My brewery it again me saves
ach Gott-sei danks." And quick tears
welled to the eyes of this other Esau.
who had so nearly despised his birth
right for the red pottage of Suburban.
He would have wept on the bosom Of
Barr had not the little man SO hustled
him through the process of signing pa
pers and telephoning the anxious trust
companies.
That evening when he had received
reports from his brokers, Barr found
that the syndicate was now in posses
sion of little over seVenty-seven thou
sand five hundred shares of Suburban.
This included the forty thousand
shares from Schlimbinger and fifteen
thousand shares his brokers had gar
nered during the day. He sent off a
telegram to John, summoning him to
New York, and arranged to fill his
place at Palm Beach.
Then, as if to sponge the slate clean
Of sentiment, he called in two of his
confidential brokers and arranged for
a savage attack on the whole market.
II want Suburban to go to seventy
five by noon on Saturday" he said,
with a vicious snap, and I want you
to get thirty thousand shares of the
stock by then"
When the Exchange opened on the
following morning there was a we'll
defined rumor on the floor that "big
interest" in Suburban was about to be
sold out by trust company, which
had loaned him vast sums of money on
the stock. The rumor gained birth as
it went, and it's ramifcations soon in
cluded startling array of reports of
failures, defalcations and general
crimes against the constituted order
of things.
Almost the first transaction on the
floor was a sale of one thousand shares
of Suburban at seventy-eight, a point
under Thursdays closing price, and
of three hundred, five hundred and one
thousand-share lots, which broke the
price to seventy-six before the end of
the first hour. The floor was convinced
of the truth Of the story Of drastic &C.
ton by the trust company, especially
as the selling came from brokers who
often acted for it.
There was no way of telling that the
stock apparently hurled haphazardly
at the market simply passed from
Barr's right hand to his. open left
through wash sales by brokers in
his employ Even the brokers en-
ployed did not know this, and the re-
suit was a big break in the entire mar