Page:WALL STREET IN HISTORY.djvu/96

88 board in Wall Street was formed about 1857. Its existence was not of long duration, and its successor in 1859 was short-lived. In 1864 forty-one gentlemen, nearly all of whom had seats in the regular Stock Exchange, organized the Mining Board of New York, and John Simpkins was elected president. The institution was located for a time at 12 Wall Street, afterward in a room in the new Stock Exchange building. Since its birth nearly two hundred mining companies have sprung into being, representing as many millions of capital. The Stock Exchange held its sessions, between 1854 and 1857, in a room over the Corn Exchange Bank, and afterward in a hall in Lord's Court, in Beaver Street. The removal to its present spacious building was in 1865. The gold brokers came into prominence when the banks refused to honor their own bills by payment in coin for the full face value. The Gold Exchange was established in 1864, after gold had taken its succession of immense leaps, and reached the pinnacle of 285. More than half its original members were also members of the Stock Exchange, but the two organizations were entirely distinct, and at one time almost hostile. While the war lasted the gold market was the barometer of success and failure. In 1866 the Gold Exchange Bank was established, which became a clearing-house for the Exchange. Meanwhile the corridors of the Fifth Avenue Hotel seemed to be as much a part of Wall Street as the steps of the Sub-treasury building. A blood-red transparency announcing a petroleum board in the evening, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-third Street, attracted crowds; and railways, petroleum stocks and gold were sold at all hours of the night. Brokers seemed to be living without sleep, or rest, or peace. A series of irregularities and defalcations followed, of which that of Edward Ketchurn, leaving behind him a legacy to Wall Street in the shape of a million and a half of forged gold certificates, was one of the chief. The banks and the Stock Exchange resolved unanimously to hold no intercourse with the men engaged in these night operations, and the Gold Board took similar action. Thus, from 1865 to 1869, there were comparatively few startling paroxysms. Early in September of the latter year the atmosphere began to exhibit signs of an approaching tempest. On the 24th came the Black Friday panic, which has burned into the souls of thousands of sufferers in every part of the Continent, and the differences arising out of the operations of that terrible day were not adjusted for six or eight years afterward. The clearings of the day previous had been 325 millions, and the contracts of Friday aggregated 500 millions, but they were not cleared, as the machinery of the Gold Clearing-house broke down. While this 500 millions of gold was in process of sale or purchase the storm of voices—veils and shrieks—lost human semblance. The