Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/137

 pale before the awful passion and fury of Black Friday.

The New York World of September 25, 1869, thus describes the day:

"The scene during the conflict almost beggars description and exceeds anything ever before witnessed in Wall street. It was a tussle of enormous magnitude, fierce and desperate. It was a day long to be remembered and not easily forgotten by those who witnessed it or were caught in the maelstrom that carried everything before it."

The conspirators were early in the street, and the offices of Smith, Gould & Martin, Fisk & Belden and William Heath & Co. were the center of enormous excitement. William Belden, who was Fisk's partner, played a conspicuous part in this day's history. He was a man cool and daring—the fit companion of such men as Gould and Fisk. The day, however, left a stain on his record that could never be obliterated, and when, in 1888, Belden formed a co-partnership with a member of the Stock Exchange, the governing committee of the institution stated that unless the member severed his partnership with Belden he must leave the Exchange.

Gould, Fisk, Belden and their brokers held a counsel of war and laid out the work of the day. Heath was to look after this, Willard was to attend to that, Belden was to direct this and Fisk was to direct that, while "Gould"—the language of the Congressional report is now quoted—"Gould, the guilty plotter of all these criminal proceedings, determined