Record "Killings"

No one has been more surprised than Wall Street brokers at the recent story by Roxie Stinson (Daugherty witness) of how five of her friends, including the former Attorney Gen eral, made $33,000,000 in a few days speculating in Sinclair oil stocks. The story of Lieutenant Wood's reputed "cleanup" of $300,000 in the stock market has been received south of Fulton Street with polite incredulity. But Miss Stinson's story out-Herods Herod.

John W. Gates, probably the largest-scale speculator in stocks on record, never made $33,000,000 "in a few days," even in the wonderful speculative markets of 1898-1907. A few Wall Street leaders have, however, as the result of speculation in stocks over,the course of many years, made even larger sums.

The Pacific Railway Commission "of 1887, investigating railroad financing, stated that Jay Gould* had netted $40,000,000 out of his dealings in Union Pacific, while the "Pacific Quartet" -- Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins and Crocker--made about $50,000,000 between them out of Central Pacific and other Western Roads.

Old Commodore Vanderbilt, even earlier, had probably accumulated over $33,000,000 from stock speculation during his whole career, including his corners in "Hudson" and in "Harlem."

Of late years, however, opportunities for "killings," present in the pioneer days, have not been as frequent. Both Allan A. Ryan (Stutz) and Clarence Saunders (Piggly Wiggly) who recently "cornered the market" went broke. The entire fortune of Jesse L. Livermore, probably the most successful market operator of today, is said to be $20,000,000.

*Jay Gould, said Historian Peck, is the most sinister figure which has ever flitted batlike across the consciousness of the American public. But Mr. Gould frequently remarked he was too busy to deny all the lies told about him. In any case, his operation of railroad, telephone, traction, grain and other stocks, culminating in one Black Friday, earned him the sobriquet of the Napoleon of stocks, a title never challenged.