I labored all that night in my advertising agency on some
strongly-worded advertising copy recommending to the public the
purchase of stock in Jumping Jack Manhattan. In the morning I induced
Sullivan to advance $10,000 to pay the advertising bills. The copy was
dispatched by first mail to the important daily newspapers of the
country, with instructions to publish on the day following receipt of
copy.
Within six days all of the advertising had appeared. The effect was
magical. The display advertisements assisted the brokers in the various
cities, who had asked for reservations of the stock, to dispose of
their allotments in a few days. Within ten days after the initial
offering of the promotion by telegraph to the Eastern brokers, Sullivan
showed me telegraphic orders for 1,280,000 shares of Jumping Jack
Manhattan stock at 25 cents a share, an oversubscription of 280,000
shares. Before the stock certificate books were printed and delivered
from the local printing office, we were, in fact, oversold.
That week and the next, Sullivan gave me _carte blanche_ to speculate
in local mining stocks with partnership money, and within a fortnight
we had made another small fortune from Manhattan securities. These were
advancing in price on the San Francisco Stock Exchange by leaps and
bounds.
I recall one overnight winning that we made, amounting to about
$12,000, which came so easy I felt almost ashamed to take the money.
Manhattan Seyler-Humphrey stock, promoted by Patrick, Elliott & Camp at
25 cents per share, was now listed on the Goldfield and San Francisco
stock exchanges. It was in fair demand at 30 cents.
A dispatch reached Goldfield from New York, purporting to be signed by
John W. Gates, reading as follows:
"At what price will you give me an option good 48 hours on 200,000
shares of Manhattan Seyler-Humphrey? Answer to Hotel Willard,
Washington, to-night."
This was to Patrick, Elliott & Camp. Within half an hour a half-dozen
similar messages reached other Goldfield brokers.
I happened to be in the office of Patrick, Elliott & Camp when the
first telegram was received, and I lost no time in going out on the
street and annexing all the Goldfield offerings of the stock at current
quotations. At first Lou Bleakmore, manager for Patrick, Elliott &
Camp, "smelled a rat," but when he learned that I was buying the stock
he became convinced that I believed John W. Gates really wanted some
Seyler-Humphrey, and he shot buying orders for his own firm into San
Francisco.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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