Show JAE leg ft t VA 1 1 n 2 ry A V ak arm i TT A I 1 1 1 2 k j I 1 AM P V A it I 1 e rya M t I 1 i to I 1 NN A VC 0 P W 14 va all a 10 ovy j wow BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON lEP 24 Is the sixtieth anniversary of an event now almost fori gotten which at the time almost shook the nation to its foundations for september 24 1809 has gone down in history as black friday the day that the gold market mariet in wall treet street s was cornered bringing a An financial ancial crisis which was felt throughout the country and shaking the conal dence of the american people in some of the highest public in the land a day of ruin insanity and despair despa lr 1 the two outstanding figures in this atory are jay gould could and col james risk jr gould could was a strong char acter acte reven even though not an admirable one a lone wolf who Is described fis 98 gifted for silent intrigue and never to be satisfied except when villen deceiving every one as to his intentions although fish was no less ruthless and daring than gould he was at least a more likable character A recent biography of him under the appropriate title of jubilee jim written ritten by robert 13 fuller and published by the macmillan mac abillan company shows him as a picturesque character a moral jackdaw jack davv with a continual hunger for the peacock feather of public consideration As a peddler showman eh civil war profiteer speculator manipulator of railway stocks corrupter of judges an elusive witness at public investigations where his and antics tickled the public fancy mightily r fluks life was a tam flamboyant boyant melodrama of industrial anarchy personal ostentation and private luxury fisk bad been a partner as nearly a partner as any two men could b lip when one was jay gould with gould in the famous erie railroad manipulations for tile the undoing of corneous Corn Cornet eKus lus vanderbilt and in some of the poll political fina financial acla I 1 schemes of boss tweed so gould took him late into his scheme to corner all tile gold in the country two problems faced the conspirators one was to buy all the gold fold in sight a comparatively timple matter for there was only about of it in circulation the other and the more risky was to keep the united states treasury which had from selling gold while the operation was on and the corner corder goulds first step was to seek the aid of A it corbin a wall street peculator lator who had married a sister of president grant when grant stopped in new york in june while on the way to the peace jubilee in boston be visited at the home bome of his bis brother in law where gould called upon the president when grant continued irn a his way to septon it was on one of disks fall river steamers as the guest of gould could and fisk fish during the trip gould led iad the conversation to the subjects of gold and crops and sought to convince the president that the government should favor a higher price for gold since it would give the farmers a better price for their crops thus making better busness business for the railroads and the country as a whole Bellei ing that he be had won grant over to ills his views gould embarked upon his bis campaign and on september 2 began to buy gold in wall street on that day he bought a million and a half dollars worth for corbin and another million mill lol and a halt half for general butterfield and gen norace florace porter both of whom later repudiated the purchase as having been made without their knowledge within two days gold went up two points and with each point rise corbin made soon afterwards gould invited fisk fish into the scheme assuring him that butterfield in charge of the in new york and the president were fixed all right so fisk fish began to buy heavily immediately gold began to climb and by wednesday september 22 it stood at at this point grant becoming disturbed by corbins Cor bios part in the manipulations on the exchange sent word through ills his sister bister to close out his speculations as quickly as possible gould tried to bribe corbin into disregarding the presidents instructions but corbin refused then gould could seeing his scheme about to collapse determined ter mined to double cross his bis own associates ile he gave gate secret orders to his brokers to begin to sell gold fisk kept faith with gould and continued to buy when the market closed on thursday september 23 gold bad reached the high mark of but worse was to come the next day friday destined to be known as ai black friday FrIda the next nest morning r ik entered the gold room and loudly gave orders to albert his broker to buy all the gold available up to next dext tie he sent orders to put it up to by noon it will was up to and who had bought GO 00 millions now had in his name for disks account halt half of all the gold in tile the country of what follo followed ned fuller writes it seems eeme absurd that the orders given by jim in heaths deaths back room and executed by that jumping jack spey erg era should have paralyzed business as they dm did from boston to san bran F jan c isco wall streets bedlam was only a sample Thou thousands sande of men in every city were reading the astounding figures that c came a me out of the be tk ticker ker tape figures t that hat told that they were ruined the fluctuations in the price ot of gold cold were so BO rapid that it was impossible in pos isible to keep up with them no speculator outside the gold room had azis chance to protect himself he gave 1 his order to buy or sell and after that lie he was in the hands bands of blind fortune he a night might as well have gone fight fishing r g as to have tried to follow what wa was m g eo 0 ing on in that densely packed a efto af f 0 cat catani ibm orn where men were thrust ing their needs heads into inlo the basin or of the I 1 little tile fountain to cool them of the lh j fever that prevented reasoning men who owned stocks and bonds bonda had to to throw then them overboard for what they j could get in order to pay their gold losses demoralization was general every lvery fluctuation of a point in the price of gold meant sains gains find and in losses e sea 01 0 millions and that day under the tha pressure of the tremendous forbes that were viere represented by the bulls and bears the price wavered like a weather cra vane in an easterly gale ale who could tell where these feverish pulsations in the price would lend lead fisli was declaring that gold eold would reach two hundred maybe he was right per haps the whisperings about a gigantic cons conspiracy piracy among public with I 1 president grant at their head to make fortunes by speculating in gold cold on the bull bide aide were true after all only the united states treasury im smash ash the clique that was boosting gold and the doors ot of the treasury seemed to be fart ast locked I 1 in the meantime ine antime telegrams had beer pouring la in from all parts of the coun try to president grant and the secre tary fury of tile treasury be hoggins aging them to order a sale of treasury gold to pre vent a crash in the business of the country grant derided decided to sell five millions and authorized the treasury to announce the sale but the break had already come james brown a scotch hanler hanker acting for a group 0 of merchants and ban bankers liers entered the gold room mom soon after disks fishs brokers broilers had bid the price up to and amid the din and confusion shouted that flint they would take any part of the 5 at that quotation sold at il said crown brown quietly A moment later he sold a second mil lion af a then at then the market broke ten minutes lat later word came from the sub treasury of the orders to sell four millions of ofa treasury treasure gold it la Is believed that brown already knew of president grants order nhen hen lie made his first offer but the main fact Is that his action started the alie break and the an no from washington corn com plated the within fifteen minutes the price of gold hid had fallen 29 S points the corner in gold old was ended A mob led hy by brokers demanding a settlement gathered in root front of the 1 brok brokers e house of gould smith and martin howling hoN illing for gould A similar mIlar jI mob assembled in front of file office of fisk and beldan shouting for fisk but the two conspirators who had expected some such result us its tills this had fled from froin wall street when tile mar ket broke and sought refuge to the erie offices in disks fishs grand opera house where they viere acre guarded by their b blind of hired thugs Co couladis Gould uldis ls said to have made eleven millions out of his coup colip despite the enet that he be had betrayed fisk tile the latter forgave him hills find and they continued friends As a matter of fact fisk lost nothing for with the aid ot of ill tweeds corrupt judiciary tie lie was successful in cepl ills lif i millions in debts when the whole affair was investigated later before tile garfield committee it was found that half of the business houses on wall street I 1 hall been ruined and it was not until the report of their committee became public that public suspicion of granof part in the conspiracy was allayed for neither the president nor any of ili his kin except his brother inlaw in law had profited profiled one cent from the shame of black blach friday |