Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1877 — Foi tune’s Wheel in Gotham. [ARTICLE]

Foi tune’s Wheel in Gotham.

“ Burleigh,” of the Boston Journal, thus concisely tells a story of the times of vast financial successes, of ruinous speculation and sudden downfall—as illustrated by the case of one of New York’s heaviest real-estate operators: He was a very successful cotton broker. All the money he made he put into real estate. His revenues were very large. His income was SBOO,OOO a year. One building, near Trinity Church, yielded him a rental of $90,000 per annnm. Everything he touched turned to gold. He was loaded down with cotton. One day a merchant handed him a check of $300,000 to cancel a contract. He took it. Within ten days cotton surged up, and he made a fortune. He owned an elegant house on Fifth avenue. He crowded it with paintings, statuary, and works of art Not content with this, ho was induced by a speculator to take hold of a railroad. He bought bonds at 60. Soon afterward they went down to 40, and the gentleman bought all he could lay his hands on. He took the road. He proposed to run it. He found it unfinished. He equipped it, spent $300,000 in locomotives and rolling stock. Ruin came to him sis it comes to every one who dabbles in outside mat ters. The panic completed bis demor - alization. His fine New York property was mortgaged for more than it was worth. To-day he has ceased to straggle. Few men will be warned and few men will be the wiser for all this. Here is a man who, a few months ago, had a royal income of SBOO,OOO a year. He wanted to make it a million. To-day he is a hopeless bankrupt-.