Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1901 — PANIC IN STOCKs. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PANIC IN STOCKs.

Stampede in Wall Street Sends Prices Tumbling. .RUIN TO HUNDREDS. « (Wrlbern Pacific Contest Results in a Terrible Slump. Stock of That Railroad Goes to SI,OOO —Deluge of Other Securities Follows, and Under Heavy Liquidating Sales Prices Decline in Every DirectionCorner Is Broken by an Injunction— Call Money Forced to Sixty Per Cent.

TOCKS took a tergj rible fumble Thursday. The New York exchange was 1 a veritable bedlam, Willis and the brokers SgflT. and speculators were rank, wiidlllgEL eyed madmen. The 7corner in Northern I j fAjk Pacific had assuniUj mW* 4 .(i such colossal Ifll'pS'' proportions that in- =■' * evifable ruin stared

tramdreds of men in the face. A panic Worse than that of the memorable “Black Friday” threatened to wipe out not only the “lambs,’ but hundreds of old and wealttfy traders. Wall street was in the throes of the most violent convulsions that have ever been encountered in the wildest speculation. In the craze to liquidate, due to the •Vomer,” Northern Pacific was run up from the close of 160 Wednesday to sl.000 per share. The effect of this was ■tanning. The floor of the Stock Exchange presented a scene that defies description. Up and up went the stock at bounds of 20 points. Soon the mad fever firore the price up to 1,000 bid. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of speculation. The thing which finally operated to check the mad scramble to sell and to dear up the horizon for the following day was the announcement that Kuhn,

Loefb & Co. and J. P. Morgan & Co. had agreed not to ■all upon Northern Pacific shorts for tta delivery of the ■tack Thursday. Court proceedings were responsible tar this agreement, •■d act a desire on the part of the Anancial giants ■ghting for the

property to avert a peroral panic. Supreme Court _ Justice OBdersleeve issued an injunction re■training the giants of Wall street from baying or selling shares of Northern Pacific stock. The injunction was granted ■t the request of David Lamar, a broker, IAo is said to have acted fas an agent for James R. Keene. Keene is credited with taring instigated the proceedings for the purpose of relieving the conditions of the Market. This order was used as a club to compel the warring factions to break the comer and allow the shorts to settle tit 150.

Crowds Watch the Bedlam. When the gavel fell for the opening of the market the largest gallery of the week was watching the scene, drawn to the exchange by the hint that there would he a general crash and many failures. l%e first stroke of the gavel was hardly •odible. The second and third were drowned in a storm of vocal uproar that •choed In the -vast building like the hurrah of a regiment. It was a very rude •wakening when the first sale of Northern Pacific was made at 170, which was • gain of 20 points. The worst, however, was yet to come. There was a let-down to 170 from the Srat jump, at which some sorely pressed hear succeeded in getting 100 shares. On Are additional transactions the price ran to 206 “cash,” dropped back to-190 “reg■l«r ** Then the price went on skyward. ' No sooner had the giants of wealth began once more the assault upon Northern Pacific than there was a crash in stocks which is uneqnaled in the history of the •■change. All the railroad stocks tumhlad with one accord save Northern Pacific, which changed hands in lots of thousands at S3OO, SSOO and S7OO. A few gears ago this stock went begging at s2£o. It was like a battle scene with tfca cries of the wounded and slain now •ad then drowned by the shrill cry of victory of those who had prepared them•dves for just what took place. Meanwhile there were rumblings in •Cher quarters. The rest of the market opened down from 1 to 14 points for all •tods, railways, industrials and tractions. Then there was a slight recovery. B«t when the corner in Northern Pacific loaded its zenith there was a convulsive movement and then came a great Mmnp in all stocks. Northern Pacific dropped 15 points. United States Steel dropped 40 to 21, catching the longs for hundreds of thousands. Railway stocks dropped suddenly and the panic was increased until the Stock Exchange became • pandemonium. Union Pacific fell with • thud from 10G to 85. a loss of 21 points. A alight rally to 88 followed. Missouri Pacific was also panicky and dropped to tB. Atchison promptly followed with a decline of 5 points, falling to (iO. Everything was panicky, barring Northern Pacific. Just before noon four failures ware announced on ’Change, and other washes were momentarily expected. Whether this is the clearing-up storm m not It Is difficult to say. The madness M speculation may not yet have run its •sane, and there may be those who will •aßtnre again, when apparent quiet has fcwa restored. But soon the end will Wh, if it be not now. Liquidation wmt aet in, and the people who have fcaaa buying stocks at prices far above Mr, which have never in their history taM a dividend, will begin to inquire the dividends will begin. In the ab•mce of dividends these stocks must go tack eb the market nn& then commences fee inevitable descent ,

HARD HIT.