Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1886 — A Story of Daniel Drew. [ARTICLE]

A Story of Daniel Drew.

Mr. Drew was squeezed one famous day by operators in Northwest stock, and he la d down a big pile of money in losses. Not unnaturally, Mr. Drew felt grieved, while other people were correspondingly high-spirited and happy. It was a great thing to catch the wilev deacon napping, and a hundied jokes went the rounds in celebration of his upsetting. Some of these bits of humor fell upon Uncle Daniel’s own ears, but he didn’t seem to pay much heed to comments that made all the rest of Wall street laugh hilariously. Some young men old enough to know better even went so far as to accost him personally and laugh in his face. Behind the smile that lighted his face it is barely possible that the recording angel heard a grinding of teeth, but the festive brokers did not hear any such thing, and they went on their way rejoicing for many days. One evening a big congregation of them were in an up-town club when all unexpected in marched Uncle Daniel Drew. He had called only for a moment, he was hunting for a man he did not find. It was not an excessively warm night, but L ni le Daniel seemed to be much overheated, and two or three times he drew out his big white handkerchief and bathed his face in it: and finally out of his pocket with the handkerchief came a slip of white paper to float and circle around till it settled at his feet on the floor. Mr. Drew didn’t notice that he had lost anything; the speculative gentlemen before him did, and the foot of one enterprising broker was big enough to cover the slip of paper over as it lay there on the floor. Mr. Drew went out. The eager crowd gathered up the white scrap, and this in the Wall street king’s own unmistakable handwriting was what it said: “Buy me all the Oshkosh stock you can at any price you can get it be'ow par.” Oshkosh was already pretty high. Everybody was agreeing that it was too high, and that a tumble was inevitable, but the handwriting of the millionaire operator plainly exposed on that slip of paper was sufficient to convince the eager crowd in that club-room that night that some new scheme must be afloat to send it further skyward. Bigirt through the mill-stone they saw it all, and then and there they made up a pool to buy twenty or thirty thousand shares the next day. They did, and the man who sold it to them was Daniel Drew. He blandly told them all about it as they saw then' money ali going to pot Oshkosh declined a dozen points a day. Mr. Drew’s handkerchief exercise had been carefully planned.