tried our system to operate in the stock market, and having been successful, was so satisfied with the working of it that he gave us the names of several parties in your vicinity, who would be likely to invest. Then they solicited a sum for investment. Evarts, Barnes & Co. was started by one of Buckwalter's clerks, who printed Lawrence & Co.'s circulars almost in duplicate. During October and November they constantly urged upon this gentleman the propriety of entrusting his money to them for investment, promising large profits. In one of their circulars they say: Many stocks have fluctuated fully 25 per cent. in one week, paying profits of $2,500 on each 100 shares; while profits of from $500 to $1,000 on a week's investment of $100 are common occurrences. Then, thinking to bait a trap with a more tempting morsel still, they say: If you are an old customer, we do not need to remind you of the great success we have had in operating our Syndicates, or the large profits we have paid you. This concern struck high; it did not propose working for small lots, but offered their shares in sums of from 100 to 500 shares of $1 each, only. As a pleasant sequel to Lawrence & Co.'s indignation, it will interest the reader to know that, after their business was stopped, they were obliged to return to this gentleman the money they had received from him. Attention has been called to the number of circulars received by this one man, and, as showing a link in the chain that binds men in the advertising by mail business together, we give a list of firms who persistently fired their paper missiles at him. In addition to those already mentioned we add Benedict & Co., Alexander Frothingham & Co., Ithamar Dibbell & Co., and Smalley & Gale. It was not an unusual thing for similar quantities of this matter to be forwarded to parties who had dealings with any one of these concerns. CHAPTER V. THE LEECHES. BAXTER & CO. We now come to perhaps one of the meanest varieties of this entire set of stock swindlers. Some have called them the Leeches, because they hang on and suck out the very life blood of the victim. In other words, having once got hold of part of a man's money, they keep on until by threat or otherwise, they have extorted from him the last penny. Out of a large number of cases that have been brought to my notice, the following is a specimen of the manner in which Baxter & Co. drained their victims. On page 92 is a copy of the first page of a circular, of some thirty-one pages, which they sent out gratuitously in answer to their newspaper advertisement. The circular continues as follows: SAFE INVESTMENTS. By the aid of this Pamphlet all may have an equal chance of reaping a golden harvest, and we shall show that men of small means may do a large business in stocks without incurring the usual risks, and yet succeed in a comparatively short time in making a fortune. We propose to exhibit a method of dealing in stocks which is fast growing in favor, and which is destined to be the plan followed by all prudent operators. This is the Privilege system of Puts, Calls, Spreads, and Straddles, as these contracts are technically called. A successful man in trade, or one in receipt of an income beyond his present expenses, often desires to invest his surplus, and so increase his means as to enable him to take a higher step in life. For the same reason those who have been disappointed in mercantile speculations turn their eyes to the mart where money and its values in the close form of stocks and bonds is easily turned, and the result more speedily known. Money gravitates to a centre. In this country its centre is Wall Street, and from that seething whirlpool are thrown up the greatest fortunes. All knowledge, of whatever kind, is best gained by the one who has an interest in his studies. In following this out, the method of doing a business in stocks is easily learned. If you have a 100 share Spread on Western Union, No. 17 Wall Street, (NEXT DOOR TO NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE,) NEW YORK. DEALERS IN STOCK PRIVILEGES and UNITED STATES BONDS. you are going to watch the market reports, will compare its movements with those of other stocks, will read about them all, and in a short time will be master of the theory. The practice, of course, you leave to your broker, who is on the spot, and will look after your interests as after his own. They are, in fact, identical, as his business is supplied by his customers, and he will not lose them if he can help it. He is, moreover, bound by the stringent rules of the Stock Exchange, where millions of values change owners by a nod, and where less than a word is better than many bonds. It would be inferred from this cut that Baxter & Co. were prominent bankers, connected with the New York Stock Exchange by telegraph wires running from that building into their office; while the fact is, that this concern when suppressed occupied two dirty rooms on the third floor of No. 7 Wall Street, on the opposite side of New Street, and west instead of east of the Stock Exchange. Had you entered this office you would have found the only aperture, in the high partition that enclosed their private office from the door, a little hole about high enough to admit the flat of a man's hand, or, in other words, about the size of the aperture of a drop letter box in the post office. Once inside of the private office, where the correspondence was carried on, you would also have discovered a board, fixed up as a screen, so that no person entering the outer office, which consisted of a space about six feet square, could see the inmates of the office through the opening before referred to. This office, in January last, was occupied by two men, one calling himself James Brown, manager, and the other, Richard Baxter, Jr., proprietor. The latter was a beardless youth, the former a gray-haired and bearded man. Besides these two men, there was one clerk employed to send out circulars, and answer correspondence. On my calling to investigate this concern, I asked for their books, bank ledgers, stock books, etc.; but failed to see either any books or any place where they could be kept in this office. The business of the concern was done exclusively, as the manager informed me, through the mails. The following advertisement appeared weekly in hundreds of newspapers, and will no doubt be familiar to many readers: |