Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1870 — The Ups and Downs of Wall Street. [ARTICLE]

The Ups and Downs of Wall Street.

One of the most striking the upsJtnd downs in life has come under my peraonal observation. A vert few years ago John was a poor .but industrious man, occupying the position of gate keeper at one of the East riVer ferries. His family resided in a-Brooklyn tenement house, and John expended no more funds than was Strictly necessary to the maintenance of comfort.' It had happened that Commodore Vanderbilt took a far-cy .to the man. It was one. of those strange freaks for which the Railway King ia< famous, viz.: taking, up men .in the lowest, walks of life and placing'them on the highway to fortune. John may some time have opened the gate - aqd stopped the ferryboat for the Commodbre s team, after the time was hp. POrbaps hesomt time found and secured a, valuable horse for him. Whatever may have been thecause, theOommodord was lead to 'fooach • him. He was.put into the fiariem pool. After the famous ’corner in that stock, John found himself wortif a million and a Ser of dollars. From poverty be Jtas , in a moment as it Were, into affluence. An elegant residence, splendid farm on Staten Island, and a valuable stud of horses soon followed. John continued to speculate, and fortune fa-, vorod him. He entered into combinations, but here he lost heavily Still he had a very large surplus left. When the rise in gold occurred, last,September, John “ waded in.” As the price continued to rapidly advance, he believed, with others, that the conspirators would carry it up to two hundred, and he operated accordingly. When, upon that eventful Black Friday, the collapse came, and gold dropped in the twinkling of an eye, as it were, from 162 to 134, John waa “ long.” Caught with other bulls on the horns of the bears, he roared and tossed about, but all to no purpose. John was a ruined man. The fortune he once possessed was comp.etely lost. He mortgaged property rightand left, hoping tostaye on the evil day of settlement with creditors. But his last piece, of property.is soon to •be sold under the hammey an& John 15 where he was, pecuniarily, Wire the, Railway King smiled upen him.-Oor. Chicago Journal. .