Page:WALL STREET IN HISTORY.djvu/83

Rh the financial skies were suddenly clouded. Wall Street was the first to feel the effects of the storm, which rapidly spread with devastating fury over the entire country. Enterprises of every description came to a stand-still, industries were paralyzed, the working classes were thrown into a state of extreme destitution, to which a severe winter added fresh terrors, and the avalanche of discredit brought down merchants, bankers, and moneyed corporations without distinction. Among the merchants alone were nine hundred and eighty-five failures, involving liabilities exceeding one hundred and twenty millions.



The richest men were poverty-stricken in a day. So many poor people were in a starving condition that food was distributed by the city government as well as by charitable associations; one cold December day ten thousand persons were fed in one district alone by public and private charity. Aid could not reach all, and many perished. Crowds assembled and seized bakers' wagons and other vehicles on the street, and threatened loudly unless hunger was appeased. Serious danger was apprehended. The Custom House and the Sub-treasury were protected by a strong force of United States troops. The exigencies of the next four years called for exceptional wisdom in the man