WHEN MILLIONAIRES FIGHT.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 23 November 1901, Page 4

WHEN MILLIONAIRES FIGHT.

Conflicts which Shake the Com-

meroial World

AUhough it ia five years since Henry Bower and John Skornway struggled for t'lo emnerorship of the cotton world, the after effects of their bat le are still felt in Cot onopolis.

Both men were types oi the modern millionaire—Henry Bower, the man with the languid air and fiery brain : John Storoway, the man with the slow-working brain, but massive physic and bulldog jaw.' ’ l!

The battle began by Bower wipping Stornway’s eye over a largo deal in Amcica. ■

Bower’s coup shook Stornway’s linenciil position; but it was typical of the man that ho commenced his war of retaliation by taking a four months’ yach ing cruise.

When bo camo back his former fo’lowers bad almost forgotten him. In fact his position was considered so hopeless that a rumour gained currency tbit be was gong t.o take a salarial position. Ho was altogether forgotten two weeks later, when the cotton marks t was rocked to its foundation by the hand of some un known man. Then, when the whole cotton world was in the throes of panic, a corner was formed. House after house failed, the crowning triumph being the breaking of Henry Bower, whn left the battlefield a physical wreck. Then the corner was stopped, and John Stornway was crowned cotton king. In his fight he had wrecked 89 cotton firms, worth an aggregate capital of £30,000,000.

The recent fight between Piorpont Morgan, of steel trust fame, and John Hardman, a fellow millionaire, for tho control of the Northern Pacific railway, only lasted a fortnight; but neatly a million people were ruined before the combatants called “pax.”

The fight began by Piorpont Morgan tryin" to get control of the Northern Pacific, w ? aich ho considered necessary to tho furthering of hla schemes. Suddenly he found himself confronted by John Hardman. Neither man could br a’c opposiuon. In 24 hours £IOO worth of Northern Pacifies were selling for £IOOO. Business in Now York, apart from Wall street, stood Btill. Clerks, “bosses,” and actresses sat side by side, nervously watching the t akin" of the tape-machine. So virulent did the gambling fever become that every restaurant and places of amusement found that if it wanted m keep its customers it must have a tape machine. The inflation of the stocks became so huge that financial ruin seemed cerfcaii) when the slump (same* i

Then suddenly Pierpont Morgan and John Harriman retired from the ring, bo h claiming victory. What had actually happened will probably never be known, but it was rumoured that a great European financial house had stepped in. The small gamblers were easily stopped by the bank rate being raised to 5 per cent, thus making it almost impossible for them to obtain money and make anything on a deal.

At the present time a South African millionaire is amusing himself by strangling a South Coast watering place. He has, during the last three years, erected a pa’adal summer reside? o) within two miles of the seaside resort in question. Consequently, his home being one of the sights of the neighborhood, every tripper makes a point of • Taving a look at I%*’ and the jingling char a-banc includes a drive round its walls in its shilling tours.

The plutocrat tried to stop all these excursions by buying up all char-a-bancs. This became public news, and every owner of a worn out wagg motto on the South Coast sent his vehicle to bo bought by the millionaire. This move, and several others which he subsequently tried, having failed, this king of the million has begun buying up tho whole town. Ho began his campaign last year by purchasing the two leading hotels, and pulling them down. Every quarter sees more and more householders under notice to quit, and the house destroyers at work ; and by next summer the whole town will have been wiped off the map as surely as the Transvaal Republic.

The fight for possession of the present unworked Chun-lu coalfields, in Central China, almost threw this country into war with Russia.

Herbert Smyfche, an Englishman, who has spent the last 14 years of his life in China amassing a fortune of nearly two millions of pounds, had the concession giving him control of this vast area in his pocket, when Count Volovski, probably the richest Russian living, tried to bluff the Empress Dowager into annulling Smythe’s treaty. But Smythe would have none of it, and knowing how shaky our foreign diplomacy become when we deal with the Muscovite, decided to play own game. To this end he imported every European he could find in the East, and, aided by them, drilled a small army of Chinese. These he camped on his concession, and, armed as they were with the latest rifles, and backed by a battery of pom-poms, they were indeed formidable. Yet it is probable he would have had to surrender had not Phineas Galium, an American millionaire, who owns vast territories adjoining Smythe’s concession, stepped in. His reason, he stated, when the American Embassy inquired, was that he knew Smythe would “trade” while ha had never yet met a Russian who was any good in business. Russia, knowing that it is dangerous to play with the United States of America, called off its Count, and so the matter ended.

When the French sweet king, Henri Lerasseur, issued his ultimatum to all Continental sweetmeat purveyors, warning them against soiling any other sweets save those manufactured by him, confectioners felt instinctively that for “ any other sweets ” they wore to read “sweets manufactured by Jacques Bouchier,’’ Monsieur Bouchior being, as was known, Henri Lerasseur’s rival in a love affair. Within a fortnight from issuing his ultimatum Lerasseur was selling his sweets at half-price. Then Bouchier ' retaliated by selling his at 25 per cent cheaper still. Before a month Lerasseur was giving away his confections on condition that all confectioners should not even accept Bouchier’s giods as gifts. Bouchier retaliated by making a French corner in bcet-sngar, thus cutting off his rival’s supply. Then Lerasseur played his trump card hy having his rival’s sweets analysed, and the analysis printed in all French, German, Swiss, and Italian papers as an advertisement. It was, of course, not complimentary, and within eight weeks Bouchier was an undischarged bankrupt.

But that was not the end, for it appears that while he was making this gallant, ii modern, combat for his “lady fair,” the said lady eloped with a young Italian officer.

Lerasseur then called on Bouchier, paid all his liabilities, and then took him into partnership. Their firm is to-day the most prosperous on the Continent.