NEW YORK GOES MONEY-MAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81866, 16 October 1906, Page 4

NEW YORK GOES MONEY-MAD.

FORTUNES MADE IN" MINUTES. WILD GAMBLING. New York, August ig. New York has gone money-mad. Since Jay Gould's exploits in railway finance twenty-five years ago thete has been no boom such as that which sent not only the Stock Exchange but the entire city crazy yesterday morning. Over 600,000 shares were dealt in, or 350,000 more than the previous 1 best record for one Saturday's business. Men who were only worth a few thousand dollars on Friday were millionaires last night. Fortunes were made in minutes, amid scenes of the wildest excitement. The boom began on Friday with the announcement of the surprising dividends of the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific Railways. The great magnates who engineered the boom took their profits then, and added a few odd millions to their vast fortunes. Yesterday it was the turn cf the general public, fascinated by the exploits of the railway kings in money-making. The boom, which began in rails, spread to nearly all speculative stocks, and prices -were inflated by manipulators to absurd artificial values to satisfy the sudden gambling craze of the public. Brokers who had anticipated the boom were at their offices by six and seven in the morning dealing with the thousands of orders that came by the first mail, and making preparations for dealings on a large scale. By ten o'clock, when the Stock Exchange opened, there was hardly a man with a seat in the House ab sent. SCENES ON 'CHANGE. As soon as the chairman's gravel fell, crowds surged round the brokers. Twenty thousand Unions were sold in one hand at 181}. compared with the 17SI which was high-water mark on the previous night. Southern Pacifies, which had closed 00 Friday at S/J, jumped at a bound to go, and brokers could not write down bargains a* quickly as dhey were transacted.

The scene from the galleries, which were crowded with spectators, was amazing. Coatless, hailess men tore from one end of the market to the other snapping up bargains and enquiring prices. When a broker was seen to be selling in large quantities men literally fought one another to gei near him. In the second hour there was a rush to buy Readings. Everyone bought wildly, and sold as rapidly when (he reaction set in. Shares spurted and dropped, but the bulls always bad the beat of thei cteajs, and the met- who kept on buying in ■:lu face ot everything came out winners at the close of one of the wildest Jays that has ever been known even id the New York Exchange.

lhe motive force behind this wild scene was the support of the public. Everyone wanted to be in the boom, jnd even the wariest old tradesmen who never risked a cent in anything .vhich did not produce a tangible equivalent, began to buy. The craz< spread to small office boys, who mortgaged their month's salary of five 01 -i\ pounds and then pooled to take risks in stocks. Girl typists in brok ts'_ offices who transact confidential business for their employers advisee heir parents and sweethearts what to buy. and risked all their savings '.hem selves. PLUNGERS' FORTUNES. Extraordinary stories were told las! night of the men who had made fortunes. One of the most successfu' plungers was a broker named Abraham White, who made enough vcsier day morning to buy the gorgeojcountry house near Long Beach, on the Atlantic seaboard, that formerl; belonged to the late Mr John A. Mc Call, president of the New York Lif< Insurance Company. McCall spent over in beautifying thi place.

White conceived the idea of purchasing it a week ago as a birthday gift for his wife, if the Union Pacific deal came off. He had private information that the line had recently been making large profits, and hat! been studying the fluctuations of Pacific stock for some time past. On his return from the west six weeks ago he began buying, convinced that theie was a boom coming.

White, who came from Texas twenty years ago, and is now forty-three years old, has had a chequered careei that has graviied mainly round Wall Street. He got his first start bv a daiing purcha-e of Treasury bonds which are allotted without security and on the strength of a two shilling stamp.

A smaller fortune was made by a pastor of a Baptist Church in Flatb(;sh named Phillips. The trust funds of his church were invested in Unions. He sold at 170 on Friday m the advice of his deacons, but began buying back on his own account and sold out again at 185 yesterday. He has already planned to build a magnificent new church out of the proceed- of the deal.

The rapidity with which fortunes wire made and men jumped a.t a bound from penuiy 10 undreampt ol affluence was shown by the scenes n :h. hotels and restaurants and theatre., up town last night. Men who never drank anything dearer than lager beer, and not much of that, were ordering the finest brands of ehamp i a -?i? e * and smoti "« cigars at five shillings each. PORTERS LUCK.

One of the gayest of the revellers was an Irishman named Muldoon, who came over in the peerage from Tipperary about five years ago, and has been employed as a porter in the Hamman offices ever since. Muldoon, who had a reputation of holding his tongue, had assimilated remarks he had heard in the Harriman offices, and with his own savings and ihe extensive surplus 0 f his brother, whe had been in the New York police fo._some years, had been buying Unions in small quantities for -onic lime past.

He has now made a fortune, and says he will go back to Ireland and buy the farm from which his father was evicted. Meanwhile he celebrated the occaHion on Sa'urday night by buying up all the b, xes at Weber"and field's music hall and filling them with Caseys and the Mulligans and tin; O'Doherty'-. and all American citizen-. The proudctg g Ut o t he had was ,h<- charwoman at his offices, who had entrusted him with her sav"ijf—/Cls 4to buy stock, and S woith now over £IOOO. Great hotels like the Waldorf-As-toria, the Si. Regis, and tlnllotel As:cr did such business as ha- not been known since the st e il boom in 10,01. rind iheir waiters made small fortunein lips.

The -tories of [he fortunes made yesterday havr still fur'her fired tlv public imagination, and it is bclievi«"-«-' the -cnes to-morrow and the following day- i V j|] |„. even more exciting. Numeiou- rcpor's arc ciirrrn; that oiher railways will take s ; milar action to the Harriman line-, and thai an era of speculation -uch a- followed the manoeuvies of the la'e Jay Gould is ahead.

It i- calculated that the principal -treks dealt with in the Huus- haw enhanced £60,000.000 in valu< during the last two dav».