Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/133

 sell and clear himself, for the reason that the sale of $50,000,000 would have broken the market to nothing. The struggle had become intense. The whole country was looking on with astonishment at the battle between the bulls and the bears. All business was deranged and all values unsettled. There were indications of a panic in the stock market; and the bears, in their emergency, were vehemently pressing the government to intervene. Gould now wrote to Mr. Boutwell a letter so inconceivably impudent that it indicates desperation and entire loss of his ordinary coolness:

"Sir: There is a panic in Wall street, engineered by a bear combination. They have withdrawn currency to such an extent that it is impossible to do ordinary business. The Erie company requires $800,000 to disburse. Much of it in Ohio, where an exciting political contest was going on and where we have about ten thousand employed, and the trouble is charged on the administration. Cannot you consistently increase your line of currency?"

From a friend, such a letter would have been an outrage, but from a member of the Tammany ring, the principal object of detestation to the government, such a threat or bribe, whichever it may be called, was incredible. Mr. Gould was, in fact, at his wits' end. He dreaded a panic and felt that it could no longer be avoided.

The conspirators interpreted the telegram from their messenger, reading "all right" to mean a favorable answer to the letter, and they were much