£80,000 BETWEEN BREAKFAST AND DINNER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 359, 9 April 1910, Page 9

£BO,OOO BETWEEN BREAKFAST AND DINNER

] SHORT (JL'TS TO OAtX AXD POVERTY. i A thousand millions lost every year I iu gambling 1 As much golu a? would j pay for all the battleships <>i me world j a twelfth of the entire weaith of the j1- irted Kingdom) Such, according to | l ' le recent statement of a wed-known j American financier, is the colossal sum I S( l LU ' lK 'ered every year in speculatiou iu. the L liited State's, ior iioise-raeiiig to j gambling in cotton and wheat, copper j ""'I oil. Ami the strain of ;his wild : speculation is over all classes, from the j ollice-boy and artisan to the Croesus of I Wall Street. Xew York City alone has at least j sixty pool-rooms, in each of which thous--1 amis of pounds are wagered every year

! on horse-races. At the great race-meet-ings--Coney Island, Brooklyn, Morris j Park and .Monmouth Park —every day j sees from £50,000 to £ 100,000 ami more i won or lost; while at a single recent ■ meeting ninety bookmakers had bets to ' the amount of nearly £300,000. j £12,000 WON BY A MRU , These figures only relate to the neighj 4>orhood of New York. When are added | to ilieni the sums staked at the hundreds of 'pool-rooms scattered over tho . States, and at the great race-meetings j at Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, j Saratoga, and scores of other sporting j centres, tit is easy to believe the statej ment that .gambling on horses alone ! accounts for £40,000 a year in the j United States, and that a round mil- | lion goes in expenses incidental to the ; gambling. j Even this amount, stupendous as it is, is insignificant compared with the sums won and lost on thfe Various 'Changes, where it is no uncommon thing for a man to be rich one hour and a j pauper the next. "'Puts," "Calls," "op- | tions," the buying and selling of things j which often have no existence—these j are the facile means of filling and emp- | tying thousands of: pockets, j The office-boy stakes his month's sal- ; ary, the girl-clerk her small savings, in a i gamble in railway shares, and so on. in j Ascending scale, through every grade to j the millionaire 'who wins or loses an- ! other million between breakfast and dinner—all equally fired with tbe feverish desires to grow rich quickly or to add to their already colossal piles of gold. And naturally they often win. One hears of an office-boy who in one lucky week made 10,000 dols.. of a warehouseman who-made five times this sum in Union Pacific shares, and of a girl typist to a Wall Street broker who. profiting by a tip given by her master, was able to turn her back on the typewriter with a fortune of 60.000 dols. But. of course, there are thousands who lose—who are ruined, literally in a day. . FORTUNES MADE IN FIVE MINUTES. It is not long since Mr. Joseph Hoadley made £200,000 in five minutes by the clock on the New York Cotton Exchange; and before he sat down to his 'dinner was £BOO,OOO richer than when he cracked his morning egg. The late Mr. Harriman once made £400,000 at the rate of £50,000 a minute; and on the same day one of his porters cleared £IO,OOO. Mr. Theodore Price, a few years ago, made £IOO,OOO in five minutes' gambling in cotton, and doubled bis winnings before ho went home; Mr. •T. .T. Livermore. who but a few years ago was office-boy to a Boston broker, is credited with having added £IOO,OOO to his capital in less time than it takes a man to eat his breakfast; while during a recent Week Mr. Patten's profits on a speculation in maize totalled £400,000. And the losses are on an equally magnificent scale. Mr. Joseph Leiter in one unhappy hour dropped £320.000 through a 20 cents fall in the price of wheat: Mr. Jacob Astor and two of his friends lost £600.000 between breakfast and luncheon: and a slump in Union Pacifies cost a few millionaires, including Mr. J. J. Astor and Mr. floelt, the appalling sum of £1.800.000.