These losses, it is true, were almost entirely
borne by financiers and speculators, rather than by manufacturers and
traders.
The month of May, 1884, concludes the prosperous period which followed
the crisis of 1873. During this period the most gigantic speculations in
railroads occurred; the zenith of the movement was in 1880, and as early
as 1881 a retrograde movement began, only to end in the disasters in
question. The decline in prices had been steady for three years; they
had sunk little by little under the influence of a ruinous competition,
caused by the number of new lines and the lowering of rates, but above
all through the manipulations by the managers on a scale unexampled
until now. In connection with the disasters of May, 1884, the names of
certain speculators who misused other people's money, such as Ward, of
Grant & Ward; Fish, President of the Marine Bank; and John C. Eno, of
the Second National Bank, will long be remembered. General Grant, who
was a silent partner in Ward's concern, was an innocent sufferer, both
in fortune and reputation.
The Marine Bank suspended on the 5th of May, and in the following week
the Metropolitan drew down in its train a large number of bankers and
houses of the second order.
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