Year: 1871

The Henry Chauncey Cnnard-A Stock
Gambling Trick.


The apocryphal report of the destruction by
fire at sea of the Pacific Mail steamship Henry
Chauncey is much more than its authors
intended it to be. They originated 1t simply
as hoax to influence fluctuations at the Stock
Exchange, of which they might reap the ad-
vantage; but it is an outrage on the public at
large which ought to meet with the severest
punishment, and we are glad to see that a
heavy reward has been offered for the detec-
tion of its perpetrators.


In any aspect the act was one Of unmiti-
gated villany. Although the report was con-
siderate enough to spare the feelings Of those
who had friends on board the steamer by an
assurance that all the passengers had been
saved, the alarm was of widespread extent
among the merchants who had valuable freight
in her cargo and among people who received
the first tidings of her loss without being
vouchsafed the additional intelligence of the
safety of those who were voyaging in her.
The whole scheme was of the most deliberate
character. The time was selected when the
vessel would be quite likely in the vicinity OF
the point at which the disaster was reported
to have occurred, and the place was selected
because Body Island is merely a wrecker's
dreary abode on an inhosptable coast, with
which communication would be difficult and
infrequent circumstances all combining to
give color to the Norfolk letter. The an
nOuncement also was made by channel hav-
ing the appearance of legtimacy-an official
letter of advice from an assumed agent of an
underwriters company. 1t is true the scheme
might have been better planned. Had the
telegraph been used instead of the mail it
would have been greater success. The alb
sence of corroborative intelligence by tele-
graph was laid to the believed dulness of Nor
folk and its incapacity for excitement over so
ordinary an event as o. wreck between Capes
Hatteras and Henry.


The motive of the whole affair was the
desire to prof. by the fall Of the steamship
stock Its manipulation and management
recall the Vanderbilt hoax of last summer, and
suggest the probability of its having been the
work of the same parties. If there be an
OTSduiIeu Ciluue lOT tuc purpose Vi uakiuR
these speculative diversions it is time the
Stock Exchange exerted its efforts for their
suppression. The probity of the financial
community and the integrity of financial
transactions demand swift and sure extirpa-
ton of such rascality. The footpad who robs
the traveller on the heath is gentleman
compared with the authors of such villany.
We know that many think it simply ''smart-
ness" to make money by such trickery and
device; but the speculator who by false
reports or wilful Misrepresentation of any
kind obtains the property of another comes
by it as dishonesty as if he puroned it by
stealth or possessed it by the many arts Of
the swindler. The men who originated the
story of the burning Of the Henry Chauucey
and profted by the fail in Pacific Mail stock
have stolen every dollar of the money as much
as if they picked it from their victims pockets.
The morality of the game of speculation is
| questionable enough without the addition of
| positive fraud and dishonesty.