The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-10-05
BY WILLIAM ENGLE

Telegram Corporation
DEHIND his desk in the offices
ID Hartman q Co., at IL
Broadway, Jesse L. Livermore,
bankrupt. sat as unperturbed as
though he never had seen me-
teor, rising to sputter out, across
the sky of Wall Street, and he
grinned blandly.
Gentlemen. I have paid them"
he said "All Of them. A hundred
cents on the dollar ! have paid
for my mistakes. too. and one of
them cost me s2000,000.'
Out OF the welter of exaggera-
ton, out of the legend and the
myths. which through twenty
years have enveloped the most
volatile speculation Of his gen.
Grafton, that sturdy fact stood out.
The quiet. undemonstrative man
THE Boy Plunger," The Cot
ton King The Wizard Of Wall
Stree" who voluntarily had gone
bankrupt in 1915, owing, it was
believed, close to 100000, had
recouped within two years.
Not only had he paid his
creditors, he calmly revealed at
his Offices that day, but through
following the war brides" and
discounting futures in wheat and
cotton, he had amassed. besides,
a fortune greater than he had
ever had before.
Ups and downs, and mighty
ones. he has had since he cleared
his first market profit of S3.12 on
$40 capital Ups in which he
stacked millions. Downs in which
he saw them fade a
Astounding fluctuations of for
tune which leave him today as
spectacular in his absence from
the present market as he was by
his dominance of the markets be-
fore the Coolidge bubble burst.
But he never kept more strictly
in character than he did in those
two years in which he played the
upsWing of Bethlehem and United
States Steel. cotton and grain, to
turn small stake into solvency
after bankruptcy, and a fortune
besides.
L VEN in the lush era after the
II postwar depression. even
when as a youthful, enigmatic
towhead with level blue eyes and
penchant for silence he baff1ed
Wall Street. even when the small
fry investors of the continent
hung upon every word or rumor
that got from him into print, he
was no. more essentially himself
than he was in the single hand
ed struggle up from the slough of
failure.
For he has seemed through 1t
all to weather the downs as equa-
bly, as the ups-and the Street
today would not be surprised to
see him charging over the hori-
zon, scattering orders to buy, like
ticker tape shower in lower
Broadway.
Up to that time Wall Street
had not been aware of him. For
he played lone hand. Backed
his own calculations. Sought no
contacts with the master minds.
Then, as news of the brash
youngster spread, as tales of his
daring got around, almost before
Wall Street became aware of 1t,
he began to be a legend.
He was the Boy Plunger," they
said, and truly. No single market
held him. From the New York
Stock Exchange he swung opera
tions to cotton futures.
In Chicago he was credited with
clearing half million; traders
were short and he went long;
nearly preciptated a corner and he
was hailed as successor to Dan
Sully, king of cotton.
TIE was living. without oStenta-
Il Il ton then in Riverside Drive
in winter and spending his sum-
mers with his wife on his steam
yacht Venetia. He did not fire.
quent hotels or clubs, and if he
had any close confreres in the
market no word of it got out.
He went his own way, plunging
and that way led him after
while into one of the downs-the
bankruptcy of 1915.
Through no favor of heredity or
environment he rose to the sta
ture of giant. He was born on
farm at West Acton, Mass, son of
Hiram Livermore, and at Is he
was marking up stock quotations
at S6 week in the brokerage
house of Paine, Weber & Co.
Speculation got into his blood.
He took a chance in the Boston
bucket shops. Made that first
1912. And when his firm then
gave him a choice of quitting
the shops or keeping his job. he
quit his Job.
Presently he was making as
much as 500 a week in shoestring