CHAPTER XVI.

DREW AND THE ERIE "CORNERS."

A HARMONIOUS UNDERSTANDING WITH THE COMMODORE.HOW THE COMPROMISE WAS EFFECTED.-AN INTEREST ING INTERVIEW WITH FISK AND GOULD IN THE COMMO DORE'S BED-ROOM.-HOW RICHARD SCHELL RAISED THE WIND FOR THE COMMODORE.-DREW'S SHARE OF THE SPOILS. HE TRIES TO RETIRE FROM WALL STREET, BUT CAN'T. THE SETTLEMENT COST ERIE NINE MILLIONS.GOULD AND FISK "WATER" ERIE AGAIN, TO THE EXTENT OF TWENTY-THREE MILLIONS, BUT LEAVE DREW OUT.— "UNCLE DANIEL" RETURNS TO THE STREET. HE IS INVEIGLED INTO A BLIND POOL BY GOULD AND FISK, LOSES A MILLION AND RETREATS FROM THE POOL-HE THEN OPERATES ALONE ON THE "SHORT" SIDE AND THROWS AWAY MILLIONS.-HE TRIES PRAYER, BUT IT "AVAILETH NOT."-"IT'S NO USE, BROTHER, THE MARKET STILL GOES UP."-PRAYING AND WATCHING THE TICKER-HOPELESSLY "CORNERED" AND RUINED BY HIS FORMER PUPILS AND PARTNERS.

A

BOUT the middle of April Drew emerged from his re

treat in Jersey City, and appeared openly in Wall Street, apparently without any fear of arrest. Other members of the Erie clique had gone through the formality of purging their contempt of court, but had not made their peace with the Commodore, and things went forward without any special interruption or excitement until July, when a settlement was made with Vanderbilt.

It was agreed that the Commodore should be relieved of 50,000 shares of Erie stock at 70, for which he was to receive $2,500,000 in cash, and $1,250,000 in bonds of the Boston, Hartford & Erie at 80. It was further stipulated that he was to receive $1,000,000 for the privilege of calling on him at any time within four months for the remaining 50,000 shares of Erie at 70. He was allotted two seats in

the Erie Board of Directors. All suits between the two high contending parties were to be dismissed and all offenses whatsoever relating to the case, in the language of the law, were to be condoned.

The manner in which the compromise was effected is not the least interesting part of the famous deal in Erie. Some time after Drew had got through his famous Sunday evening interview with the Commodore, paving the way for his partners, by weeping and showing other manifestations of deep contrition on account of his inglorious flight to Jersey City, Gould and Fisk came over early one morning to seo the Commodore at his residence in Washington Place. Fisk told the story of meeting the Commodore with great unction, in his bold, brazen and lively manner. "Gould wanted to wait," said Fisk, "until the Commodore should have time to get out of bed, but I rang the bell, and when the door was opened I rushed up to his room. The Commodore was sitting on the side of the bed with one shoe off and one shoe on. He got up, and I saw him putting on the other shoe. I remember that shoe from its peculiarity. It had four buckles on it. I had never seen shoes with buckles in that manner before, and I thought, if these sort of men always wear that sort of shoe, I might want a pair. He said I must take my position as I found it; that there I was, and he would keep his bloodhounds (the lawyers) on our track; that he would be damned if he didn't keep them after us if we didn't take the stock off his hands. I told him that if I had my way, I'd be damned if I would take a share of it; that he brought the punishment on himself and he deserved it. This mellowed him down. I told him that he was a robber. He said the suits would never be withdrawn till he was settled with. I said (after settling with him) that it was an almighty robbery; that we had sold ourselves to the Devil, and that Gould felt just the same as I did."

Among the friends who adhered to the Commodore in the trying hour of the "corner," besides those mentioned, were

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William Heath, Richard Schell and his brother Augustus, and Rufus Hatch. Richard Schell was highly practical and remarkably shrew in the aid which he offered the Commodore to obtain money for the speculative fight. He managed, through his tact and shrewdness, to get loans on Erie after the banks had absolutely refused to lend, on account of the over-issue of the stock. After this refusal, he made inquiry at the banks, and found that most of them had New York Central stock. He then went to a bank and said: "If you don't lend the Commodore half a million on Erie at 50, he will put Central down to 50 to-morrow, and break half the houses on the Street. You know whether or not you will be among them."

The threat was repeated at other banks, and, in almost every instance, had the desired effect, and the Commodore was supplied with the sinews of war, but he was only throwing away his ammunition.

The Erie stock from the inexhaustible fountain of overissue was supplied to him without stint, and his attempts to "corner" the clique were absolutely futile.

While these gamesters were feeding the Commodore with this extemporized stuff to order, Fisk said: "If this printing press don't break down, I'll be d-d if I don't give the old hog all he wants of Erie."

The printing press did not break down, but did its work well until the Commodore was nearly "burst," and had it not been for his indomitable courage and the hold he had acquired on the courts, he would have been bankrupt. His escape seemed almost a miracle to the people of Wall Street, and Gould and Fisk were not less surprised that they had met a foeman worthy of their steel. In spite of the fact that he spilled over seven millions like water, the Commodore managed to sustain the market through it all, and prevented a crash that, in its local effects, at least, would have been as disastrous as that of Black Friday.

Certain innocent holders who had been badly crushed in

the collision between the great leaders received a financial emollient for their lacerated feelings, amounting in the aggregate to $429,250. The Boston party, represented by Mr. Eldridge, was to be relieved of five millions of its precious Boston, Hartford & Erie bonds, receiving therefor four millions of Erie acceptances.

Thus, the settlement in full cost Erie about nine million dollars. The Erie stock and bondholders were saddled with this liability in defiance of law and justice.

Gould and Fisk pretended to be opposed to the settlement, leaving the public to infer that it was all the work of Drew with Vanderbilt. However this may have been, it was probably the best thing the others could have done to relieve themselves of their various complications at the time. No doubt the Vanderbilt note to Drew, for which the waiter was discharged from Taylor's Hotel, was at the bottom of the whole settlement.

Drew was left to enjoy his share of the fruits of the corner," which netted seven millions, except that he had to pay into the Erie treasury the trifling item of $540,000 in discharge of interest and all claims or causes of action which might be presented against him by the Erie Company. The Erie Railway fell to the lot of Gould and Fisk as their share of the spoils growing out of the entente cordiale. Drew then retired from Wall Street in the same way that Gould has so often retired since that time, except that Drew had probably an honest intention so far as it was possible for him to have such a conception of leaving the Street forever, but it would seem that he had not the power to do so. Once in Wall Street, always in Wall Street. It is like the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, as laid down in the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is impossible to get out of it when the speculator gets fairly into its fascinating grasp.

Drew might have enjoyed life and the consolations of religion on the few millions he had left if he had retired, in

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company with his Bible and Hymn Book, to some lovely, secluded spot in the peaceful vales of Putnam county; but he was under the infatuation of some latent and mysterious force or attraction, the victim of some potent spell, like the one in whose weird grasp Nancy Sykes was firmly held when she essayed to get away from the murderous "Bill," as described by Dickens in Oliver Twist.

Drew came back to Wall Street, and saw and was vanquished, quite unlike Cæsar.

When he returned to the 'Street" after a few months absence, the scene was greatly changed. His two pupils had shown themselves to be such apt scholars, that in the interim they had exceeded the wildest dreams of avarice that ever their able preceptor had conjured up or inculcated. In four months Gould and Fisk had inflated the capital stock of Erie from 34 millions to 57 millions. No doubt, Uncle Daniel was astounded at their progress, and his feelings can be better imagined than described when, in the presence of this marvellous increase of wealth, he reflected that he was no longer treasurer of Erie, and had neither lot nor part in its unprecedented prosperity.

His natural propensity to operate, however, was still strong, but when he again tried his hand at speculation, it seemed to have lost its cunning, and he felt almost as much disappointed as Rip Van Winkle did when he awoke in Sleepy Hollow, after his twenty years' nap, and began to examine the changed aspect of the country'in the vicinity of Irvington, now Gould's country seat.

The speculative tactics in operation had been changed, and he soon found that it was a losing game to go on the bear side of the market. He was invited into the pool by his old partners, to have a little practice at the popular game of spider and fly. Drew had been the spider for a long time who had inveigled the unwary flies from every direction into his insidious net. He was now asked to assume the role of a fly, while his former pupils played spiders. In