Year: 1872

IL Is tdHU W hCCp 1tbOOS
in mind, because it has been widely
asserted that when Mr.. Fisk came to
New York he was penniless adven
t1lrer, whereas he in fact was then
rich. He had $130,000 in cash, and
owned an eighth interest in the Gold
ing patent, which he could at any
time have sold for $f25, 600.


New York offered theatre of ac-
ton wide enough for the transcend
ent powers of this representative Yam
kee to unfold themselves. He went
South in the winter of 1876 to
buy cotton, and as the Confederaey
began to weaken under the pressure
of Grant and Sherman, he saw the
surrender of Lee looming in the dis
tanee, and then taking the whole stu
alton into account, he conceived one
of the greatest financial schemes that
ever caahe from the brain of man. The
Confederate bonds were then selling
at $50 ON the 500 in London. Fisk
saw that the moment the news of the
collapse of the Confederacy should
reach that city the bonds would tumr
bic indefinitely; and what prodigious
opportunities it might afford


'If could get a man in London a
few days ahead of all competitors, he
said to himself, LATTER | knew the
Confederacy had gone up, what Il
haul / could make selling those
bonds short"


He at once came to New York, took
other capitalists into his confidence,
and unfolded his plans to them; they
saw the point, and agreed to furnish
all the money that should be necessary
in addition to what Fisk had himself,
and told him to go ahead.


Mr.. Fisk Immediately purchased
the fastest ocean steamer at1oat;
manned her with skillful captain
and trustworthy crew sent her to
Halifax, with orders to bank her fires
and have steam up ready to shoot
from the wharf at moments notice;
placed on board of her a trusty and
capable agent, from whom the captain
was to receive his orders to start, and
who was to work the scheme in Lon
don made such arrangements with
fifty miles of telegraph wire that no
one could get the news ahead OF HIM,
and then awaited the result OF the
fighting down in Virginia. For thir-
teen DAYS the fires in that steamer III
Halifax were kept banked, with every
man at his post, and everything In
readiness for instant departure. At
| last the death blow of the Confeder-
;acy was struck. "Goi" was the
word that the lightning hurled at
Fisk's agent in Halifax; and away
went the steamer, without O soul on
board Except the one confidential
many having the slightest inkling OF
the news which was already beginning
to set the Western continent ablaze.


There was no Atlantic cable in
those days, and so fortune favoring,
the swift gliding steamer would ar
rive at Liverpool long way ahead OF
any other craft which could bring the
news. Fortune did favor the adven-
ture. The steamer crossed from Hall
fax in six days and half, and reach
ed Liverpool five days in advance OF
the first steamer that left New York
with the news. What could not have
been done in these five days? But
alas one poor old weak-kneed asso-
ciate. unbeknown to Fisk, had secret
ly telegraphed to the agent at Halifax
not to 90 beyond five millions in his
London sales of Confederate bonds.
This knocked Fisk's gigantic scheme
square on the head. The agent sold
five millions of bonds short at the
rates then ruling in the London mar
ket. Before the day of delivery came
about the news of the fall of Rich
mond and of Lees's surrender arrived,
and the bonds tumbled to twenty
two dollars on the hundred. The
London brokers of course paid the
difference (as for the benefit of read
ers not familiar with the transaction,
we will state is the custom,) between
the price they had agreed to pay and
the actual price at which the bonds
were selling on the day of delivery,
which difference amounted to over
two millions of dollars.


The profit ON the speculation was
therefore handsome one after de-
ducting all expenses, but it was
drop in the bucket in comparison with
what it would have been had the
other parties to the enterprise been as
sagacious and plucky as Colonel Fisk
was. His plan was to sell Confederate
bonds short, in London as long as
anybody would buy them, and to fol-
low the market clear down to zero
Of course the bonds would never have
been called for, and the buyers would
have had to pay the differences. Hao
Fisk not heen betrayed, as we have
stated, he would probably have clean.
ed out London and made five hundred
million of dollars.


When Fisk heard of the trick tha
had been played him, he was proba
bly, the maddest man on the American
Continent, with single exception 0
Old Hickory Jackson when he heart
anything said against his wife.


Col. Fisk's love of fun and his trans
: parent frankness of nature made hin