Omaha daily bee., 1915-11-07
FORTUNES IN The MAKING
Features Of the Craze for Gambling
in War Stocks on Wall
Street.
FATE OF FORMER GAMBLERS


Street.
FATE OF FORMER GAMBLERS
We'll make fortune over nighti'
The public is invading Wall street.
Thousands Of men and women are TAX
ing part in a wild scramble to buy
war stocks"
From the stories which the whirlpool
Of speculation Is blowing around brokers
offices II would seem a simple matter to
find the rainbow's end and pick up a pot
Of gold.
Profits Of $4,000. $4,000. $4,000 or
800, 900 have been made on the purchase
Of a small lot of Bethlehem Steel, Cen
eral Motors or any one of a number of
other stocks which have advanced any
where from 30 to 500 points.
Brokers' books show an aggregate of
these small winnings amounting to mil
lions OF dollars.
VIII these paper profits be converted
into more substantial forms Of wealth OF
be dissipated In a frenzied effort to ac-
quire additional winninngs7 That's the
question professional Spectators are ask
ing, but the public has not time to par
ley with professional spectators. While
old-time operators in Wall street have
been standing on the side lines shaking
their heads disparagingiy. the public has
taken the market by storm.
What is the use of wasting time talk
ing when there Is money TO be had by
action1
Buyi Buyl Buyi The profits will take
care OF themselves.
Such is the stock gambling craze
sweeping over the country. Nothing
like It has been witnessed since the great
bull market which marked the trust
formation" period. about fifteen yeam
ago.
On that occasion the people rushed TO
buy the stock Of this or that company on
the rumor 1t would be taken into one Of
the great Industrial combines then in
process of organization. just as in the
last weeks they have bought up the
stocks of concerns which are reported TO
have been favored by large orders for
munitions and war supplies.
Just Like Old Times.
II is the same now as It was then.
Wherever you go, wherever you chance
to be-ridinR in a subway or in a Pull
man car. dining in a fashionable uptown
tea room or In a downtown lunch club
where pretty young girls employed in
nearby office buildings congregate for
their MONDAY meal. in the cafes as well
as the lounging rooms of millionaires
clubs-everybody is talking "war stock"
Women as well as men are discussing the
merits and financial prospects of indus
trial concerns OF which they knew moth
ing q few weeks ago, whose existence
they probably never even suspected.
1t Is surprising how much knowledge
has been accumulated In such a short
time. The affairs OF these companies are
now discussed Familiarity by thousands
who are expecting to make fortunes in
war stocks" This concern has received
an order from the allies for millions upon
millions of dollars worth OF shrapneI,
this one huge contract for gun barrels,
and still another for hundreds of auto
mobile trucks. The profits arising from
these colossal transactions, presumably
amounting to many millions of dollars,
have been figured down to a nicety, and
the fact that some OF the stocks which
have advanced in the most sensational
manner pay no dividends does not In the
least seem to dim the luster of their pos
sibilities as investments In the eyes Of
those who are buying them.
In the same way fifteen years ago,
when the Flower interests, the Morgan
interests, the Moores, John Gates, Daniel
Reed and other members of the "tin
plate" crowd were buying up steel mills,
paper mills and various other Industrial
plants over night and making them uEits
of great Industrial combines, the public
seemed to get the inside track of these
deals and speculated on the outcome furi-
ously and recklessly. Then It was largely
a case OF following the movements of
men who were doing big things in an
industrial and financial way; now it's a
case OF following war orders. The mar
ket has no leadership.
CIAmOr of the Crowd.
Step into any one of the large broker
age offices in the Wall street district and
the excitement attending the public's wild
plunge into the stock market Immediately
becomes apparent. The reserve and dig
nifty maintained in times OF calmer mar
kets have been taken off. rolled up and
put away in cold storage.
The office manager is running from one
telephone to another, orders are shouted
across the room to the man In charge of
the private wires, the telegraph instru-
ments are running a neck-aud-neck race
with the ticker. both seemingly imbued
with the Importance OF the message they
are carrying to thousands OF anxious,
half-crazed spectators.
The board markers" nimble as they
are In slipping into place the little num-
bered cards that indicate the upward or
downward trend OF prices. frequently
fall behind the tape and call out the
quotations.
Baldwin Loco. now rs. i30"
What's that?" some one yelis, and for
An instant all IN the room are at atten-
ton. In another moment some other
stock forges to the front, eclipsing Bald
win Loco, and 80 It goes all through
the five hours OF trading.
Over in one corner of the room a num-
oer OF customers are seated around a
table, in the center of which is a ticker
housed under a rounded glass cover such
rs protected the wax flower group on the
Darlor mantel In the old homestead. They
are too impatient TO wait for the board
marker" With heads close together
hey are bent low over the mysterious
little piece Of mechanism which has such
power to fascinate and rob people OF
heir common sense. Every now and then