My Adventures with Your Money

and Gold

ompany, was disastrous to Goldfield, The declin

published a double-leaded editorial, in full-face type, setting forth that the Sullivan Trust Company had gone dow

ck-market values was not sufficient to convince the natives that the death-

but not to an extent as yet that indicated the almost complete annihilation of values which followed. Final destruction for the general list, with some scatter

0,000,000 during the boom, had within two months shown a falling off of $60,000,000 in ma

of the Sullivan Trust Company, the stocks promoted by the trust company were still in demand in all mining-share ma

a loss of 4 cents from the promotion price. Eagle's Nest Fairview was quoted at 25, off 10 cents from the promotion figure. These prices represented terrific losses from the "highs" that had been reached during the height of the Goldfield boom, yet the average market price was still above the subscription price of

assets, of which the creditors agreed to accept in full quittance 80 per cent. of the proceeds and to turn back to the

rever I went a hearty handclasp was extended. Not one of the Eastern stock brokers

e been meditated, I could have involved Eastern brokers for at least $1,000,000. Because I didn't, New York brokers were not

s stocks, I was as full of spirit as the month of May. I had been broke before, and the sensation was not new to me. Withal, I had profited. A new fund of experienc

enter. Market handling had been my weak spot. I now had a chance to witness the performance of so

w York Curb. I was in and out of brokerage offi

they ballooned the price of their security at its inception some $29,000,000 (400 per cent.) above the accepted intrinsic worth and were able to get the public

oters' fortunes were reared as by magic, some big names and big reputations were tarnished, and doll

MARKET MA

hs when I arrived in New York, and was reaching its climax. It was a wild orgy in market-manipulation and money-fleecing that had no parallel in history from the earl

ck-market operator and art collector; John Hays Hammond, mining engineer, promoter, politician and ambitious society leader; A. Chester Beatty, millionaire mining engineer, and the seven G

great pay-streak in the East apparently looked better to him than the pay-streaks that some of his Butte neighbors had missed in their deep-mine operations. He was an ideal man for the Nipissing job, as subsequent events in his career thoroughly confi

delphia, and Duncan Coulson, a rich Canadian lawyer. Considerable silver was being produced. The veins, however, were exceedingly narrow, not more than a few inches wide. It was impossible to block out ore to an extent that would warrant any opinion as to the real measure of the mine's riches. The gentlemen owners were not averse to giving Mr. Thompson an option on 100,000 shares of treasury stock of the 1,200,000 five-doll

f C. Shumacher & Company on Wall Street. The affiliation was calculated to give the promoter of Nipissing stock much standing. The move served well its purpose. The public grabbed at the shares. The price jumped to $4.50 in a jiffy. Mr. Thompson began to let go of stock after the $4 point was reached. He was making a killing, but fed out his optional stock very cautiously at the rate of about

vered on his return to New York that Captain Delamar had been buying that cheap stock through S. H. P. Pell & Company and was even then the heaviest individual holder, a position contested only once during the whole campaign, and that by a rank o

en begun in a comparatively modest way now showed the spirit of the gambler who plays "the ceiling for the limi

HEIMS ENTE

stock at $25 a share, making the investment $10,000,000, and putting a valuation of $32,000,000 on the property. Furthermore, it was announced that the deal had been made on the report and advice of John Hays Hammond, the international mining engineer, cro

majestically boomed to $33.25. Transactions in this single issue totaled hundreds of thousands of shares a day. Waiters, bar-keepers, tailors, seamstresses and tenderloin beauties competed wit

$24.50 up, cleaning up for personal account between $4,500,000 and $5,000,000, according to the estimates of close friends then in his confidence. Never was there a cleaner case of "finding" money for Mr. Thompson. The manipulative campaign, of which he was made manager, was a

g promotions, and is now rated at $10,000,000 to $12,000,000. He is generally prominent at the nutritious or selling end when a goo

25, stayed well above $30 for quite a while, and began slowly to recede. Complacent in the consciousness that they h

oused in the Guggenheim camp. They despatched A. Chester Beatty, one of their very best expert engineers, and a former protege of John

of the property had been based, contained little or no silver. It was smalt

orable showing made by mine developments carried out subsequent to Mr. Hammond's repor

nterim, there could have been no condition observable in the property as a whole when Mr.

the conclusion that t

then, and it is still a great producer, but this is another and more p

000 originally put up, besides paying the $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 in losses of personal friends for whose misfortune they felt personally responsible. Be that as it may, the Guggenheims emerged from the campaign with damage to their market reputation and standing from

G ON THE

dvantage of the Beatty report and to have sold the market short on the way down, making another "clean-up" of millions. The stock hit a few hard spots on the descent, but when the wreckag

ts only a fraction of the actual losses, for fabulous amounts were sacrificed in marginal accounts. The daily aggregate of open accounts in Nipissing during the months of keenest excitement probably averaged not less th

ritten and published report, for in that document is to be found a neat little hedge to the effect that "if" conditions as revealed to him were maintained, the values would be, etc., etc. That little "if

eminent A. Chester Beatty. For a little while after Mr. Beatty had to turn down his chief their relations appeared to have been strained. But this was not

Nipissing campaign are prone to figure how much a man might have made in the market with a foreknowledge of the

Hammond often ask unkindly what has cemented the bond between the two. Recently, when the Rocky Mountain Club

tunate campaign in Nipissing on the New York Curb was helped to a triumphant promotion climax by the Hammond re

THE $75,

t it? Some of the details of the grand separation scheme have been set forth in the foregoing, but nothing like enough to sat

u could notice. True, he gave up his alleged $1,000,000 job with the Guggenheims. But is he not a heavy contributor to the Republican national campaign fund, a close personal friend of the Administration, and did he not represent this great Government as Special

esident of Nipissing in 1906, headed the company four years later. Captain Delamar slipped down and away (he's now in on the extravagantly touted Porcupine Dome Mines Company), and so did E. C. Converse, whose time is all tak

d hue and cry against these eminent c

ay be equally honest or equally crooked, yet in equity both are entitled to the same treatment and the same consideration. Their operation

could put on the scent any young man who is a graduate of the public schools, and within thirty days he would obtain enough e

ings. It shows, among other things, most remarkable willingness on the part of financial writers for the press of that day to

t that time that many writers for the press were subjected to strongest temptations to lend their hand to the game of publ

into 500 shares of the Nipissing stock at the market price when the stock was still selling under $10 and at the time when it was being groomed for the terrific rise which followed and which did not culminate u

or, generous recognition in the news columns of the publication, in support of the Curb campaign, would be expected. Again the newspaper man declined, this time with unmistaka

und $6 this man's newspaper did not carry any fron

and by Wall Street magnates at a period when they were dependent for their daily livelihood on their weekly wage, and were lifted into the millionaire division by being put into "good things." Do you suppose newspapers presided over by those men are going to say a word against the enterprises

t my chief thought at that time, with the Goldfield Consolidated swindle fresh in my mind, was simply that the Western multi-millionaire highbinder promoter didn't c

inancial mart I felt like a minnow in a sea of bass. Without millions for capital, Nevada appealed to me as a more likely field of usefulness. I believed in Nevada's mineral resources. Having seen Goldfield evolve from a tented station on the desert with a hundred people into a city of 15,000 inhabitants; from

MINING-CA

ick to join in the rush. The Philadelphia crowd who owned control of the big Tonopah mine had annexed a pr

the Rich Gulch group of claims, a likely piece of ground with a well defined ledge, and incorporated the Rich Gulch Wonder Mining Company. A company with the usual million-share capitalization was formed to operate the property. A high-class directorate was secured. T. F. Dunnaway, vice-president and general manager

New York to Honolulu, who had signified over their signatures their willingness to undertake the sale of treasury stock at 25 cents per share on a basis of 20 per cent. comm

issues and also because of the smack in the face that mining-stock investors had just received in Nipissing. It was my idea that if the Rich Gulch Wonder mad

warrant the expense for mine development of at least $2,000 a month f

they existed. In the mining camps it was considered tantamount to financial suicide for the home publication to reflect on the merits of any locally owned property. Strictures were looked upon as "knocks," and "knockers" are taboo i

he Baltimore American and the Philadelphia North American. Mr. Teague is the possessor of a facile pen. At $50 a week, which was his stipend at the beginning, I was convinced that the Nevada Mining News had a cheap editor. When news was scarce he could write more about nothing than any man I ever met

TACKS SEN

ork Stock Exchange, factotum of Thomas F. Ryan, at terrible cost. The loan was made at a time when Goldfield Consolidated was selling around $10 per share. In consideration for the loan, Senator Nixon, acting for the company, gave Mr. Baruch an option on 1,000,000 shares of treasury stock of the Goldfield Consolidated at $7.75 per share. At the time Mr. Teague commenced

e terms of the outstanding option to Mr. Baruch, Goldfield Consolid

." It demanded of Senator Nixon that he stand behind the stock and support the market, and also called upon him to

an, and that while on the Philadelphia North American he had crusaded against get-rich-quick swindlers who had headquarters in Philadelphia, with the result that the Storey Cotton Company, the Provident Investment Bureau, the Haight & Freese Company and other bucketshop concerns were put out of business. On evidence furnished by him, it was s

ar in connection with the publication except as part of the aggregation of Sullivan & Rice who advertised therein, but I was openly accused by Messrs. Nixo

im as an individual, he took luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. When the waiter presented the bill the Senator ostentatiously tendered the $1,000,000 check in payment. The waiter put it all over the Sena

inting 28,000 copies weekly. Sample copies were sent in every di

ccused of playing the r?le of Brutus, I was stopped on the street by the editor of t

ver to the bank right away. If you know what's g

Building, and if the Senator has anything to say to me he can gi

dn't

met me again. "Senator Nixon wants to see yo

hat?" I

e appeared in the Nevada

plied, "I'll send

or Nixon, and if he has anything to communicate regarding the

the directors' room. My stenographer accompanied him as fa

n jumped to his feet. He looked bla

these drawers. While I have not read it, I know the story, and I am going to have it published in a b

but he thought it a poor newspaper stunt to incense him further at a moment when it looked as if, by appeasing him, he could tempt him into volubility. Soon Mr.

g attitude as meaning that I would undoubtedly "listen to reason"

FOR A S

his O.K. on them. After you have done that, give the Senator one copy, give the printer a copy, and put the other copy in the safe. As soon as the copy of the interview is in the printer's hands, sit down and write an editorial. Head it 'A United States Senator with a Blackmailing

iling Mind," appeared. It was a passionate denouncement, calculated to

nd the paper contained still another editorial lambasting him in amplitude for trying to practise on the credulity of the newspaper's re

wrought an und

ything else. The Senator was not seen on the streets of Reno for two months afterwards. For a fortnight afterward he didn't even call at the offices of the bank. When he did final

went away. Even George Wingfield, the Senator's partner, it was reported (and I afterward corroborated this from the lips of George Wingfield himself), backed me up

Blackmailing Mind" it is said he telegraphed to former Governor

his awful attack, I'll choke!" cried the

view which they publishe

aid the

ng at all now, they'll choke y

Huntington régime when legislatures were bought; of having bilked the investing public out of millions in Goldfield; of having carved his fortune, that made possible the acquisition by him and his partner of control of the Goldfield Consolidated, out of a gambling house in Tonopah; of having gathered his first mining property and mining-stock inte

TING GOL

w York mining-stock brokers advised their clients that the stock would almost certainly go down to that figure because of the Senator's mistakes in the financial management of the company. That edition contained another editorial on Senator Nixon, headed "Branding a Bilker." It accused him of saying in his annu

d, $5? asked, and the whole Goldfield list smashed farther in sy

ck they might have sold on the way down from $10 to $7.75, which was the option price. Then the stock was promptly manipulated back to $7. On th

l manager of the mining company in Goldfield put forth a similar tip. As the market began to recover toward the $7 point, Senator Nixon went to San Francisco and was seen often at the sessions on the floor of the San

er the telegraph wires to all market centers by the Associated Press. At the same time a story was printed in the New York Times saying that it was reported on the Street that J. Pierpont Morgan,

ed at the head of the editorial columns. At about the same time the Sullivan & Rice enterprise was abandoned. I discovered that most of the money Mr. Sullivan had put into the corpora

her at periods than $7.50. But he now evidently found it a hard job to hold the stock above $7.50. By September it had receded again to $7.40. At this period it was rep

of the Baruch option and the varying statements put out by Senator Nixon from time to time regarding the plans of the company, which was now awaiting the erection of a huge

very broker, investor and speculator residing in Goldfield by this time had gone broke because of the vagaries of this stock in the market, and the losses in bad loans and unsecured overdrafts incurred by John S. Cook & Company's bank, controlled by Messrs. Nixon and Wingfield, was said to total nearly $2,000,000 as a result of the almost general smash in market valu

the $1,000,000 obligation of the company, leaving the company free of debt and with a cash reserve of nearly $2,000,000. It was stated that Mr. Baruch had originally been given the option for services in securing the loan of $1,000,000 from J. Kennedy Todd & Company of New York f

te. Because the officials of the company declared by resolution that the "unused certificates shall be canceled"

atches from San Francisco to the Nevada Mining News, which I promptly published, alleged that Mr. Baruch was given 200,000 or more shares of Goldfield Co

y when Goldfield Consolidated was selling around $7.50, after the stock had been manipulated to

investigation and on analysis of the company's reports, i

the price at which the stock could have been sold had it been quietly disposed of on the market during the period of nine months which had preceded the date of cancellation. As a matter of fact, there was no necessity at all for settling the loan with stock, the company having in its treasury more than

of the option again thrust into the limelight the e

this point it kept on tobogganing during a period of weeks down to the $3.50 point-a depreciation in market price for

T. C. GOO

was a hustling young mining man who had engaged in the business of "turning" properties to promoters. In August, when Goldfield Consol

ave been trying to make my new firm stick, but it don't seem to work. I guess I don'

ital have you

of Nat's mone

h $5,000," I said, "

. A week later Nat. C. Goodwin & Company was incorporated with Nat. C. Goodwin president, Mr. Miller vice-president and general manager, and

, but as demoters. Instead of at first promoting a mining company and earning its profits on the constructi

ulch Wonder, had boasted of a very high-class directorate and the property was conceded to have merit, the public refused to enthuse. Instead of subscribing for large blocks, scattering purchases ha

de of Goldfield affairs through the mistakes of Messrs. Nixon and Wingfield had resulted in a depreciation in market val

t even I, despite my chronic optimism, began to feel the influence of wha

Five days later the embarrassment of the Knickerbocker Tr

Mr. Heinze went overboard the company was already short 2,000 shares of Goldfield Consolidated at around $6. On h

te telegram from Chicago stating that the paper of the State Bank & Trust Company of Goldfield, Tonopah and Carso

ay the failure of the State Bank & Trust Company was announced. A run followed on the Nye & Ormsby County Bank and its br

share. Around this point Nat. C. Goodwin & C

uns as a result of the failure of the two Neva

th. These banks finally threw open their doors, but when they did, those of Reno met depositors' withdrawals with asset money instead of legal tender. The only bank in Reno which had refused to take advantage of the enforced legal holidays was the

Ormsby County, that the Nixon institution in Goldfield would have found it hard to weather the storm but for the fact that

nk & Trust Company lost $375,000 by the failure of the Sullivan Trust Company ten months before, and that I had broken the bank. The liabilities of the bank were $3,000,000, and its Sullivan Trust Company l

t the company had only recently resorted to the sale of treasury stock for money-raising purposes, he asserted that a quarterly dividend, payable Janua

The Senator's interviews had now become a standing joke in the community. Specul

THE GOLDFIELD

unced. It was alleged that Senator Nixon's Goldfield bank could not afford to pay out the money on deposit to the credit of the company because it was required for bank

had suffered an average depreciation of about 85 per cent. from the "highs" reached during the Goldfield boom of the year before; when the State of Nevada was racked from end to end by the serious losses incurred by citizens through the fa

as in a state of anarchy. Goldfield wasn't. As a matter of fact, the situation in Goldfield with the miners, from the standpoint of law and order, was never good, but it was as goo

's unsecured scrip in lieu of money for the payment of wages. The miners refused acceptance. They were willing to take time-check

ue and money sufficient voting power at a meeting of the executive committee of the Miners' Union to pass a resolution objecting to the bank's scrip. The refusal to accept the bank's scrip

n the account of the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company, was a perfect stop-gap; and the need of the presence of troops was a fine coincidental excuse for the shutdown. Incidentally, it would rid Goldfield

tlett in laying the matter before the departments. The wires between Goldfield, Reno, Carson City and Washington were kept hot with an interchange of views. President Roosevelt fina

r jobbery, listened to a Goldfield committee and permitted a dispatch to be se

tate being without any militia and the representations made by Governor Sparks in his dispatches being s

nearest approach to an overt act of recent occurrence that had been chronicled was the alleged theft a few days before of a box or two of dynamite, about 300 feet of fuse and a q

3.50. This was a new move, calculated to rouse the ire of the wage workers and to prolong the lockout. Messrs. Nixon and Wingfield's bank in Goldfield announced at the

he Administration had been buncoed. The General wired the President his opinion. President Roosevelt quickly dispatched a commission to Goldfield to conduct a public inquiry. This commission consisted of Charle

President Roosevelt by Governor Sparks, indicating the existence of a state of anarchy, were without justification. The report was given to the

ut torrents of abuse on Governor S

OF GOVER

omotions as president, I tried editorially in the Nevada Mining News to justify the Governor's action. But it was a

in health and in spirit, grieved over the President's

me from all parts of the State to pay homage to the grand old man and who followed the hearse to

ave closed over his remains th

March,'" said on

sufficient time was gained to enable the financial atmosphere to clarify. By the time the troops departed,

here was no valid occasion for their presence. I feel that it is an important chapter of my experiences and is fraught with interest to the general read

individual like myself, who had had the hardihood to conduct a newspaper campaign in the Senator's own home town against his financial and political activities, would judge it the better part of valo

the job," and but for the quick intercession by telegraph of United States Senator Francis B. Newlands of Nevada with the Postmaster General at Washington, I