CHAPTER III.

FISK IN NEW YORK.

James Fisk goes to New York-Gravitates to Wall street-He seeks adventures-Finds what he was hunting for-He "is broke" -Resolves on revenge and gets it-Invests in a patent-Makes a raise-Meets Daniel Drew-Makes another raisc-Appears in Wall street-Becomes a pupil to Drew-Outdoes his instructor-Is a man of wealth and power.

NEAR the end of the year 1864, James Fisk, Jr., opened an office as Broker, on Broad street, in New York. He went into stock operations in Wall street with the boldness that characterized all his movements, and with a recklessness that must speedily make or lose fortunes. Some of his ventures were successful, more of them were disastrous. Within a few months after he had entered the arena of the Brokers' Board, he had lost all the capital he had brought from Boston, and he found himself without means to maintain himself in business. "Wall street has ruined me and Wall street shall pay for it," was the defiant conclusion which he reached, after a careful and serious survey of his situation. He closed his office and returned to Boston. On his way thither, he met a passenger on the train who had, like himself, failed and was returning home disheartened and sad. The stranger was the owner of a patent right which he knew to be

very valuable, but which no one else wanted to purchase. Fisk examined the contrivance, which was an improvement in machinery used in cotton and woollen factories; he induced the owner to accompany him to Boston where Fisk found a purchaser for the patent, reserving an interest for himself. From this operation he gained a new start; he realized a considerable sum of money, with which he resolved to return to New York.

Fisk carried with him on this second trip something that proved to be vastly more valuable to him than all the money he had ever possessed before. This was a letter of introduction to Daniel Drew, then a noted financier in Wall street, the owner of lines of steamboats, and the magnate of the Erie Railway Company. The venerable NewYorker was favorably impressed with the manners and appearance of the New England youth. He commissioned him to negotiate the sale of the Bristol Line of Steamers. The prompt and satisfactory manner in which Fisk executed this trust, strengthened him in the confidence of Drew, and won for him a very valuable friend. Moreover, he secured by way of commission, a very considerable sum of money. He formed a partnership under the name of Fisk & Belden, brokers. This firm dealt largely in the stocks of the Erie Railway Company, of which Drew was a director and treasurer. The senior member of the firm being the especial friend of Erie magnate, of course, knew the secrets of the "Ring," and was thus enabled to buy and sell stocks

with a reasonable certainty of making large margins. Fisk proved himself to be a very apt pupil in Drew's school; and being young, impulsive, bold and reckless, frequently far exceeded the instructions of the master, in such a manner as to reap the larger part of the gains in the great "Corner" operations in Erie. His success was so great that he rapidly accumulated a fortune and drew to himself a number of very powerful associates. In October, 1867, he was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Erie Railway Company. At the same election Jay Gould, a broker on Broad street, and a financier of some note, also came into the Erie Board. This was the result of a compromise between the Drew and Vanderbilt factions. Drew and Vanderbilt had been waging fierce war upon each other for years. The former held Erie, and the latter controlled the New York Central, the Hudson River and the Harlem. A compromise was finally made. Drew put Fisk into the board of Erie directors, and Vanderbilt placed his friend Gould in, as a fair offset. The peace thus concluded was but short-lived. The old warriors were uneasy out of service; both soon resumed their weapons. and rushed into battle more fiercely than everDrew pushing Erie stocks down, and Vanderbilt driving them up, and both struggling for the control of the directorship.

Fisk and Gould could see no profit to themselves in such a fight unless they struck hands and gathered up the spoils, while their chiefs joined in battle.

This they accordingly did; and, therefore, while Drew and Vanderbilt threw Wall street, and indeed the markets of the world, into excitement, over the rapid and inexplicable fluctuations in Erie stocks, Fisk and Gould so managed their investments as to win millions of dollars from these great opera tors, and from the smaller brokers who ventured into the field. Drew won from Vanderbilt, Van derbilt won from Drew-both lost, and Fisk and Gould won.

The fiercest contest that ever ensued over Erie stocks, began in the month of February, 1868. Drew was then treasurer of the Erie Company, and held 58,000 shares of stock as collateral securities for a temporary loan. Vanderbilt began the assault by suing out of Judge Barnard's Court an injunction to restrain Drew from using the stock remaining in his possession as collateral. The Legislature of New York had made it unlawful for railroad companies to issue new stock without proper notice and authority regularly obtained. Vanderbilt, therefore, felt that he could count the Erie stock afloat, and arrange to make a "corner" in it. On the 19th of February, a second order from Barnard was served on Drew, suspending him from the treasury of Erie and also from the Board. This was a bold movement, and to a man less fertile in resources than Drew, would have been disastrous. But the magnate of Erie had prepared himself for this contest. He had induced his Board to issue bonds to the amount of $10,000,000, and these