The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 26, 1898, Page 20

20 THE SAN FRANC FAILURES OF THE TWO BIGGEST AND BOLDEST SPECULATORS OF THE DECADE N AMERICA-Specufator Leiter Tries to Comer the IN ENGLAND---"Promoter” Hooleu Floats Glittering Stock Companies for Millions of Pounds. HE most startling news of the last week was the announcement of the bankruptey of Ernest Terah Hooley, self-described in his own petition to t:e bank- ruptey courts - “of Berkeley Square, London; Risley Hall, near Derby, and Papworth Hall, Cambridgeshire. Mr. Hooley, in this apparently vain- glorious deseription, was really under- estimating his own territorial and per- sonal titles to glory. He might have added that he was qwner of many of the greatest historical estates in Eng- land, of the Prince of Wales' former yacht Britannia, of the Earl of Lons- dale’s schooner yacht Verita, of the for- mer Travelers' Club in London, and ex-owner of untold millions in stocks and bonds and good, hard, glittering gold. Only last November Hooley volun- teered to float a loan of £17,000,000 for the Spanish Government. Meanwhile he had been engaged for some time in floating a loan of even greater magni- tude for the Celestial empire. People even then shook their heads and said that he was in deep water. The capitals of the companies floated by him aggregate from sixty to sixty- five millions of dollars. The shares of these companies, taken as a whole, had depreciated more than 40 per cent since their flotation. To-day the inevitable has happened. Mr. Hooley is a bank- rupt. There is hardly any more sensational chapter in financial history than Mr. Hooley’s rise from nothing into opu- lence and his decline back from opu- lence to possible nothing. Not even Barney Barnato offers an effective parallel. Fact must yield to fiction in the hunt for a comparison. 'Aladdin of the Dastern fairy tales is the closest approximation to Hooley's his- tory. Hooley, indeed, seemed to have pos- pession of Aladdir.'s famous lamp. What he wished was instantly captured out of chaos into reality. He not only ac- quired for himself lordly pleasure houses in town and country but also every pleasure house that his eye fell upon, no matter how splendid the name with which it had been assoclated. Had any evil genius suggested to him that he needed a roc’s egg as the capstone and climax of his wishes that evil gen- {us would have been baffled by the in- stant acquisition of the biggest roc's £g8 in the universe. And to-day he is a bankrupt! Mr. Hooley is a comparatively young fnan, still on the sunny side of 40. He was born in Derbyshire some thirty- nine years ago. Since he was four years of age he has resided in Ilking- ton. “That {s why,” he explained to a re- yorter, “I wish to represent it in Par- liament. I left school when I was 13 iears old, and when I was at school 1 ad to walk eight miles a day. I be- gan life early, but I was born under a lucky star, though I have seen as much misery and poverty as any man liv- ing,” and he closed with the altruistic sentiment that his own aim in future would be “to lighten poverty if I can.” Discovering poverty in China and in Bpain, was it with this aim that he bent his energies to abolish it? But do not let us trifle at the expense of a noble-hearted man, who has himself told us that although in the abstract he is fond of sport, the mere sight of a broken winged bird or a maimed rabbit brifigs tears to his eyes and a bleeding plfl to his heart. is noble altruist first became known to his native country as a suc- cesWful lace manufacturer at Notting- hamy But pent up Nottingham proved too Tow ' to confine his powers. Havin§ achieved a respectable com- peteneyy which he himself looked upon Wwith scam® respect, his next move was paturally ¥ Capel Court, the London Dachshund on Dolphin. Captain Sigsoee's Pug ] Wall street. This was only a couple of years ago. He now made the whole boundless con- tinent his field of operation. The first of his schemes to startle the world was the purchase of the Dunlop Pneumatic Tire Company for $20,000,000. This gigantic scheme was uoated by THE BRITANNIAY means of a syndicate. Having first learned that the Dunlop Company was willing to sell, Hooley obtained an op- tion for $10,000,000 for one week. Then he bent all his energies to communi- cate to his friends, acquaintances and associates the fact that the Dunlop Company was in the market. The re- sult was that in two days Hooley was enabled, to exorcise his option. He purchaded the property for the stipu- lated $10,000,000, and on the third day unloaded it upon the said friends, acquaintances and _associates for double the amount. The neat way in which he netted a profit of $10,000,000 without stirring from his chair even so far as to put his hands in his pocket for a single shilling might seem to in- dicate that he had made monkeys of these more or less intimate sharers of his ample bosom. - Not a bit of it! They, too, profited by the deal to such an extent that they had every reason to rise up and cail him blessed. Then came the Bovril Company deal. Every American housewife associates the name of Bovril with a beef extract that has been enormously advertised as one of the greatest boons to suffer- ing humanity. Hooley's tender heart, the same that bled for birds and rab- bits, felt so deeply concerned in the welfare of suffering humanity that he exploited the Bovril extracts in exactly the same way he had expected the pneumatic tire. : And again his friends, associates and acquaintances, who put big profits into his own pocket, had reason to bless him for that they found their pockets simultaneously dilated. That much suffering was likewise alleviated in dyspeptic stomachs caused the good man’s cup of joy to overflow. Again Hooley turned his attention to the bicycle. That most deserving ob- ject was now clamoring with a loud voice for tubes. Cycle manufacturers found themselves at a loss for sufficient tubing to meet the demand. Hooley was the man for the occasion. “Go to Coventry,” he sald to his agent, “and buy up all the tubes you can.” Coventry, it may be sald In passing, was the great center of the tube in- dustry. Coventry nobly responded to the agent's request as far as it could. But Coventry unassisted was still an inadequate center. Mr. Hooley fur- nished the requisite assistance. The British public awoke one morning to find itself solicited to invest three mil- lions in the Swedish Tube Company, to be established at Coventry for the pur- pose of filling the orders secured by Hooley’s agent. The British public re- sponded by golden promise and per- formance. The money was sub ~ribed for ten times over. A new factory was built, all orders. were filled, Hooley netted a round million and again his assoclates wec rewarded for their prompt response. _he factory still yields a satisfactory return to all investors. And now it appeared that Aladdin's lamp was of inexhaustless potentialjties. Its possessor became the man of the *Major Domo™ on Cruiser Detroit, \ AN § N =\ Rl hour. His name was on every one’s lips. London went wild at its mere mention in connection with any new financial scieme. But Aladdin’s energies were now tem- porarily diverted from —ublic to private enterprises. The benefactor of a con- tinext made personal aggrandizement FT his immediate object. He secured fa- mous yachts, like the Prince of Wales' Britannia, ana the Earl of Lonsdale's Verena. He invested in equally famous race horses. He purchased magnificent historic estates which were falling to decay in the hands of spendthrift heirs. In a short time he had become master of 'a palace in Berkeley Square and country seats like Risley and Pap- worth halls. He leased the big building at the corner of Hegent street and Pall Mall, formerly the Traveler’s Club, with the intention of turning it into offices. He became a member of numerous yacht clubs. He associated with the Prince of Wales and other great and good men. The advent of Queen Victorla’s jubi- lee gave him a longed-for chance to re- turn to philanthropy. In January, 1897, the Prince of Wales publicly announced that the Queen would be pleased to have her anniver- sary made an occasion for endowing new charities and enriching those al- ready endowed. Hooley’s scarred heart leaped within his bosom at this sug- gestion. Incidentally he saw a chance to realize his pet ambition of repre- senting his native county in Parlia- ment. But that, of course, was merely incidentally. He straightway notified the local au- thorities that he had set aside £400,000 to be invested in the hands of trustees, who were to expend the income in bet- tering the condition of the poor, the aged, the widowed and the orphaned in his own corner of Derbyshire. These figures may sound more august when the intelligent reader i{s reminded that £400,000 is about two millions of dollars in American money. The yearly income of this enormous sum would be £75,000, or $355,000. A unique system was organized for the proper expenditure of this income. Every town of 10,000 inhabitants was to receive a sum of $5000 a year, every village of 3000 a sum of $1500. But the fund was not to be expended in actual money payments to the veneficiaries. Accounts were to be opened with the varijous storekeepers, upon whom or- ders were to be given by the local com- mittees after careful consideration of the necessities of the applicants. Early in February of last year Mr. Hooley discovered that St. Paul's Ca- thedral possessed no sacramental plate worthy of its position as the metropol- itan- church of the United Kingdom. This discovery inflicted a new wound upon his sensitive heart. He deter- mined to supply the omission. At im- mense cost he procured and presented to the church a magnificent service of pure gold. A fierce wail was uttered by outraged evangelical England. From end to end of the country went up a complaint against the cathedral authorities for having been “so little mindful of the dignity of St. Paul's” as to accept such a gift from a man of the class and standing of Hooley. Some of the great London dalilles, the quint- essence alike of conventional respecta- bility andof conventional humbug, went s0 far as to ridicule the plate by de- Turtle on Raleigh, “Sam Slocum™ on Vermont. scribing it as the “Hooley communion service.” But Hooley, a consummate humbug himself, knew how to value at its just worth the concentrated humbug of the great London dailies. He succeeded in forcing upon the church authorities the splendid gift which the snobs of the press would fain have them reject. For Hooley was a friend of the Prince of Wales! Once in the pages of a now defunct magazine, Mr. Hooley volunteered to reveal the secret of his success in busi- ness. All the world stood expectant of important revelations. But when the interview appeared it proved to be simply a rehash of conventional hum- bug. The net meaning might be re- Ernest Terah Hooley, Who Floated Numbers of Gigantic Financial Schemes. solved into the Poor Richard maxim that early to bed makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. At the time the interview appeared Mr. Hooley had undoubtedly achieved these three requisites of conventional comfort. Exactly how they would square with his present predicament must be left to the future to deter- mine. This great man has his weaknesses. Among this is a passion for three- penny bits with holes in them. It would take a more subtle psychologist than myself to explain the why and wherefore of this superstition. The fact remains that he has had out a standing order to the managers 6f such banks as he dealt with for all the mu- tilated three-penny pieces which hap- pen to fall in their way. Nevertheless, he has the frugal mind which Cowper has celebrated In the notorious case of Mrs. Gilpin. He pays no premiums on holes. He takes thém at the market value for whole three-penny bits. Why he should have a passicn for such mu- tilated currency has never been re- vealed. But it has been dimly inti- mated that at one time in his career a three-penny bit with a hole in it proved the turning point in his fortune. Just before the beginning of our war with Spain Hooley had entered into what was the most gigantic speculation of his whole career. This was the form- ing of an enormous syndicate for the purchase of Cuba. The capital of this syndicate was to be some two hundred millions. It is even asserted that this sum had all been subscribed and that the proceedings had reached the point of negotiations with the Government officials of Spain. They favored the proposition, and would have carried it through had they not feared a popular uprising in Spain. Large sums are said to have been spent in bribery, but withs, no substantial result. And now Mr. Hooley has gone to join the great army of speculators in the past, whose names are only useful to point a moral and adorn a tale. He will be remembered with John Law and Barney Barnato and others of that ilk as one of the men who made an ex- traordinary though transitory impres- sion upon the British public. No one credi's men of this type with altruistic yearnings, or, indeed, supposes that they are actuated by any more ideal motive than the very common one of striving to do the best they can for themselves. But it is none the less a mistake to suggest that they are merely parasites of society contributing noth- ing to the welfare of their race. ‘shortened, and Wheat of the World, , OSEPH LEITER is no longer king of wheat, and the country in general as well as those who have been defeated by him in his opera- tions breathe more freely. His fall was rapid. It was but a few days ago that his defeat was reported, and within twenty-four hours the defeat be- came an utter rout. And it must add poignantly to his chagrin that Philip D. Armour, the bit- ter enemy and rival in business of himself and his father, was the man who stepped in, and, in apparent pity, agreed to take 3,500,000 bushels of Le! ter’'s wheat and dispose of it for the benefit of the young man who so lately ruied as king of the wheat pit. Late dispatches from Chicago tell also that Armour is willing to handle all the wheat held by the banks. With- in the past two days fully 10,000,000 bushels of wheat have been disposed of, and Leiter's wheat, held in store in enormous quantities at Minneapolis and Duluth and in transit across the Atlantic, has changed hands. The wheat king is dethroned. The erstwhile king is not only desert- ed by his friends but his own father has had a bitter quarrel with him, tell- ing him that it was his careless ways of life and his lack of close attention to business that brought about the giant collapse. It needed but this in addition to the triumph of his great enemy, Ar- mour, to fill the cup of young Leiter's humiliation to the brim. Leiter's easy and gay habits away from his office have been the subject of knowing comment among his acquaint- ances. The young man who in a piain little office sat at his desk in a chair tilted forward by having its front legs there, while literally sunk down to his ears with his work before him, planned and directed schemes of Napoleonic daring was an- other being when he left the office be- hind him. His father has long known of this and chose to overlook it. Now he realizes that it played an important part in the huge collapse that has taken place. The biow has had little effect on the markets, and this is an additional hu- miliaticn to the young king, who thought tnat when he should fall many must fall with him. Only a few firms here and there have suffered. The wheat market has been but litfle ef- fected. In Liverpool there was a slight panic, but the market soon steadied. Leiter's loss is estimated at nearly $6,000,000, but his sinking has made but few rip- ples on the pond. Most of this big loss represents profits made in the first rise of wheat. When his troubles are set- tled it is roughly figured out that his net losses will be between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. The market is firmer, and all over the United States there is a feeling of joy. And young Leiter, true to his strange character, is himself cheerful. It is believed in Chicago that the creditors will lose little or nothing, as L. Z. Leiter, the young man'’s father, gave his personal security in most of the deals. It is not expected that an actual assignment will be made. Charges are made that owing to the faint-heartedness of men whom he had associated with him in his speculation the crash came, but there is mnoth- ing more in this than that men uld not stand by Leiter to their own loss after they saw that the crash was im- minent. Overbuying and overstaying are declared to be the causes of the downfall. 3 Had Joseph Leiter been content to be a wheat speculator, and to give his at- tention to it, he would still have been a financial king. But he spent, in the company of women, time that ought to have been spent in work. And, puffed up by his phenomenal success in one field of speculation, he entered into wide dealings in stocks of various of various kinds. The strain of such varied and complex speculation was too much for him. This fellow, the noise of whose downfall was echoed around the world, affecting the markets of cities thousands of miles away, thought that he could take up business as a brilliant and gainful pastime. It was scarcely more than a year ago that Joseph Leiter, who is now only 30 years old, began his phenomenal career. Before that, he had been deem- ed only a voung man of ordinary abii- ity and qualities. He had been given a college education. He was handsome, of snlendid rhvsique, a trifle over six feet in height and of great physical strength. His hair was parted in the middle. He wore the finest clothes. He loved horses, yachting and gayety. He is a gay fatalist. He believes that if a man i{s meant by providence to suc- ceed he must succeed, and if the peo- ple are meant to suffer from the high price of bread they must suffer. Now, when disaster has overtaken him, he still keeps up a bold front, and says that it is a mere hapnening that could not be avoided, and he merely awaits a new opportunity to test his fate with fortune. Shortly after leaving college he was given $1,000,000 by his father to play with. His father expected him to lose it, and, indeed, he did lose most of it. But he gained knowledge. Unsuspected, he studled the details of street railroad- ing and mining. He learned the cost of operative electricity and how to know a salted mine from the genuine. He still laughed and danced and kept up the gay round of pleasure, but he ET! YAL' Jyetr : WARWICKSHIRE l*r,«rry"el. | e\ W< \ i \ y m ; ™ N 8 gt \ LR s 3 “PLASSEY™ 2 s BRI for soldiers’ also learned hard facts and human nature. He began to win before he had lost the full million, and after a while had more than recouped his losses. His facial characteristics well typify his mixed character. His eyes can be very gentle, but his enemies see them burn with stern fire. His nose is long and strong, but there is a sensuous broadening at the lower end of the nos- trils. His lips, that at first sight seem only made for smiling, can tighten in firm lines. His chin is broad and determined, but it has an unmistakable doubling, that comes §rom high living and fl‘)e indulgence of passion and appetite. In these dual characteristics lie the secrets of his rise and of his downfall. Leiter's victories continued. He was more than a Chicago wheat dealer. He was a man who watched the crops and the fluctuations of the market in every part of the world, and his opponents found that he had made heavy Euro- pean contracts, to sell, long before he began to buy. He is a man of curlous opposites, and who prides himrelf on attention to small details. Visitors to his office are compelled to take their turn, and the other day a man who, as Leiter knew, wanted to rent from him some property for $10,000 a year, was compelled to wait until a man with a basketful of rare fish had shown his goods and made his sale. At another time his broker called him up on the telephone to tell him that a $-00,000 deal v-as in sight, and that it could not wait a moment. “It’s got to wait,” said Leiter coolly, and rang off to go back to the man with whom he had been talking. It was one of his tenants, and the matter in ques- tion was whether or not a new sink was needed in the house. That mo- mentous affair settled Leiter called up his broker and arranged for the $200,000 2 Now is the time to sell May wheat, Don’t breathe a word; but Joe says so. “Joe"” referred to was Joseph and the speaker was Nina Far- rington, once a star of the burlesque stage. ~he was one of Leiter's gay friends, and he told her enough of his plans one day last February t. put her in th> way of making a large sum. She is turn wanted to tell her chorus girl friends in New York and so wrote to Jeannette St. Clair, saying: “I am having a lly time here in Chicago, and am better off than when T was on the stage. Now, let me tell you in confidence to buy May wheat. Den't till 1 telegraph you, and if you follow my advice you will make enough to buy a new spring bonnet.” A few days later she wired to Jean- nette to caii her up on the long-dis- tance telcphone, and then told her what “Joe” had advised. ‘“Joe” did not ex- pect that his secret would be passed about, but it filtered out to many, and dealers heard of it. As a result he lost $175,000 on that deal alone. His friends hint that by many similar indiscretions he lost other great amounts. In his year of brilllant speculation Leiter is credited with having cleared over $6,000,000, and now in less than two days he has lost more than that. That under the fever of prices that accompanied his speculations the price of wheat went up and the price of bread followed, and that the poor all over this country cursed him was noth- ing to him. He merely laughed again, and said that he must really start on that long yachting trip. He defied public opinion, and said that he knew he was acting within his rights and the law. PETS OF THE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. UR boys in blue are not alone in their desire to possess regimental pets, or, as many prefer to call them, mascots. Boys in red or green or any other color, all the world over, have the same fancy—the Russian in Siberia, the Frenchman in Algiers, the Englishman in India, share this fondness for and belief in the benign influence of dumb animals. In the English army nearly every regi- ment has its pet, and in many in- stances the practice is of such long standing that it has received a sort of semi-official sanction, and the animals may be considered as carried on the books of the regiment At Edinburgh Castle, in a charm- ingly picturesque corner of the old ramparts, there is even a graveyard pets. There, embowered amid carefully tended shrubs and flow- ers, may be seen dozens of little tomb- stones, ~bearing pathetic inscriptions such as this: “In memory of Pet, who followed the Seventy-second Highland ers In peace and war for ten years” or, “In memory of Kate, the drum- mer’s pet, Ninety-second Gordon High- landers.” The name of nearly every famous Scotch regiment, from the heroes of the “thin red line” to the recent victors at Darghai and Atbara, are to be found there, for the brave man has always a tender corner in his heart for dumb companions. One of the oldest and best-known of regimental pets is the goat of the ‘Welsh Fusileers. No transport officer would dare to refuse ship room for this sacred animal; no officer could lead the regiment into action unless the goat were also at its head. For more than was placed hors de combat, and as Fen- imore Cooper remarks in his novel, “Lionel Lincoln,” the regiment did not have enough men left to saddle its goat. This reference to saddling the goat refers to one of the many queer cus toms associated with the animal. The: were hard drinking days; the me dinners of our forefathers were orgies fitted to try the strongest head, and it was but natural that the officers should wish the regimental pet to share i their hilarity. On the 1st of Marc every year, being the day of the tute- lary Welsh saint, David, a banquet of special magnificence was given. When the fun was at its height, the goat splendidly caparisoned was led into the mess, mounted by a drummer boy, and solemnly ridden three times round the tables, amid the cheers of the hilarious officers. Unfortunately, when the reg- iment was af Boston in 1775 the goat took alarm at the uproar and prac- ticed bucking so successfully that the unfortunate little boy riding him was thrown violently to the floor and killed. s = AT ‘PET OF THE 95T REGT two centuries, ever since the regiment ‘was embodied in 1689, the goat has been its fetish, its symbol, or, if you lika, its mascot. Of course it has not al- ways been the same animal—even goats must die some day—but the regiment has always replaced its pet at once. In the present day, the Welsh Fusi- leers are particularly fortunate because of the interest taken by the Queen in their pet. In 1844, when the goat of the day passed away, her Majesty heard of the disaster. She immediate- ly presented the regiment with two of the finest goats from tha roya] flock. These were of the famous Persian breed, a gift from the Shah of Persia, Since then, whenever necessary, the supply of goat hae been renewed. Pretty nearly every country in the world has seen the elsh Fusileers and their famous leader. He has even been in America, but there the mascot theory did not seem to work. For some rea- son, not-unconnected with revolution- ary skill in marksmanship, its tradi- tional luck deserted the regiment at Bunker's Hill. Every officer save one A EILT AN A .\;‘{\'/‘ Wi Another regiment which has adopted the goat is the Ninety-fifth Derbyshire. The corps secured its pet in the most dramatic fashion. It was in the height of the Indian. mutiny,and a_severe fight was going on in the streets of Kotah, from which cfty the black rebels were being expelled at the point of the bay- onet. During a lull in the action, one of the soldiers observed a magnificent ram of the famous Rajpootana fighting breed calmly grazing in a vacant com- peund. So the regiment carried off the ram with them, and Derby, as he was called, took most kindly to a soldier's life. Every action saw him well to the front. He marched three thousand miles with his regiment and assisted in nearly every fight of that blood-stained campaign. Cavalry regiments, for obvious rea- sons, naturally take to horses as their pets. The Royal Irish Hussars for a long time had a famous drum horse called Black Bob, which served with Continued on Page Twenty-Six