heretofore enfolded them was now boldly thrown
aside, and the men of Erie, with the sublime Fisk in the forefront of the
assailing column, assured the shorts that they could not settle too
quickly, since it remained with the ring, now holding calls for one
hundred millions, either to kindly compromise at 150 or to carry the
metal to 200 and nail it there. This threat was accompanied by
consequences in which the mailed hand revealed itself under the silken
glove. The movement had intertwisted itself deep into the affairs of
every dealer in the street, and entangled in its meshes vast numbers of
outside speculators. In borrowing or in margins the entire capital of
the former had been nearly absorbed, while some five millions had been
deposited by the latter with their brokers in answer to repeated calls.
When Thursday morning rose, gold started at 141-5/8, and soon shot up to
144. Then the clique began to tighten the screws. The shorts received
peremptory orders to increase their borrowing margins. At the same
moment the terms of loans overnight were raised beyond the pitch of
ordinary human endurance. Stories were insidiously circulated exciting
suspicion of the integrity of the Administration, and strengthening the
belief that the National Treasury would bring no help to the wounded
Bears. Whispers of an impending lock-up of money were prevalent; and the
fact, then shrewdly suspected, and now known, of certifications of checks
to the amount of twenty-five millions by one bank alone on that day, lent
color to the rumor. Many brokers lost courage, and settled instantly.
The Gold Room shook with the conflict, and the battle prolonged itself
into a midnight session at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The din of the tumult
had penetrated to the upper chambers of journalism. Reporters were on
the alert. The great dailies magnified the struggle, and the Associated
Press spread intelligence of the excitement to remote sections. When
Friday opened clear and calm, the pavement of Broad and New streets soon
filled up with unwonted visitors. All the idle population of the city
and its neighborhood crowded into the financial quarter to witness the
throes of the tortured shorts. Blended with the merely curious were
hundreds of outside speculators who had ventured their all in the great
stake, and trembled in doubt of the honor of their dealers. Long before
9 A.M. these men, intensely interested in the day's encounter, poured
th