As prices soared the volume of speculation increased, and on January 7th the day’s total sales amounted to 2,116,500 shares, and then went on increasing till they reached 3,271,000 on April 30th. Then came the Northern Pacific bombshell, the panic of May 9th, when stocks came down even faster than Captain Scott’s coon, and the actual sales were still larger, but owing to the intense excitement, demoralization, and confusion that prevailed, it was impossible to keep track of them all, and the ticker registered only 3,073,300 shares.
This sudden catastrophe convulsed the stock market in a way that alarmed money lenders, destroyed confidence, and caused a general rush to sell stocks which brought them down with a crash, involving many thousands in ruinous losses. The revulsion of feeling, the change in the sentiment of the Street was as startling as a violent earthquake, and the consequences were fraught with grave disaster. Up to the very eve of this great convulsion in the stock market the dance of speculation had been fast and furious, among both “the big men” and the little, and its unlooked-for occurrence reminded one of Byron’s lines on the Brussels ball, given on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, when the sound of cannon unexpectedly boomed above the music:
“On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes looked love to eyes that spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell;