The Richest Woman in America by Janet Wallach Read Free Book Online Page B

them to purchase more shares with less cash. In April 1854,
Harper’s Magazine
ridiculed the Wall Street operations of the firm of “Dry, Sly and Lye” and mocked its greedy customers who gambled on thin margin, bought puts and calls, and sold stocks short. It was no different from being at a roulette table, the editors said, not knowing how often future generations would repeat the scenario.
    That same month Erie Railroad stocks started sliding. Soon after, investors were agog when the New Haven Railroad announced that its president, Robert Schuyler, a prominent member of New York society, had swindled the company of $2 million. More railroads slipped as confidence fell, and for a few months Wall Street, trading primarily in railroad stocks, ran gloomily off the track. But if speculators who had bought on margin were forced to sell their shares to cover their losses, shrewd investors like Commodore Vanderbilt and speculators like Jay Gould swooped up the stocks at low prices. Hetty Robinson would later do the same.
    Railroads were falling, but a feverish rush for gold sent mining stocks soaring. Midwestern banks opened branches in New York so that customers could redeem their notes in the East. Five new bank buildings, commended for their graceful architecture, were under construction on Wall Street, and the total number of banks in the city was on its way to doubling. It seemed as though everyone was becoming rich.
    For three years the boom continued. Banks encouraged spending and loaned generously at low interest. When customers reached their credit limit, instead of cutting off further loans, the bankers urged them to borrow more, and then sold the loans at discounted prices to other institutions. With easy money, merchants and manufacturers expanded their businesses. Consumers shopped at a furious pace, importing fancy French furnishings for their oversized mansions, cashmeres and furs for their elaborate wardrobes, truffles and caviar for their lavish dinners and opulent balls. The banks exported gold to pay for them.
    The country was drunk on prosperity. The nation reveled. New York floated on bubbles of champagne. New Bedford tippled. In 1857 the city boasted a record number of ships in its whaling fleet, and localcitizens thrived in its commerce. For those who sought new homes, the New Bedford Five Cents Savings Bank opened its doors to lend them low-cost money for mortgages. To decorate their new houses, a few bought paintings from local artist Albert Bierstadt.
    Henry David Thoreau’s Lyceum lecture “Getting a Living” drew a sizable crowd. The impoverished author of
Walden
wrote that he was “rich in sunny hours and summer days.” He had no regret, he said, that he had not wasted his hours in a workshop or a classroom. He preferred truth to money. “Money is not required to buy one necessary [necessity] of the soul,” said Thoreau. In the New England town where many like Edward Robinson equated wealth with virtue, the puzzled audience walked away scratching their heads. They found his words “decidedly peculiar,” the local newspaper said.
    Instead, the hardworking residents of New Bedford erected a new building for the Friends Academy, started new enterprises, and enlarged their existing businesses. One entrepreneur, Abraham Howland, experimenting with coal, discovered a way to distill the chunks of fossil so that drops of oil trickled out. It was a portent of things to come.
    Like other firms, Isaac Howland Jr. and Company prospered, making Edward Mott Robinson and Sylvia Howland two of the richest people in town. Sylvia spent some of her time eyeing her investments and much of her time in the world of books. Her favorites included the abolitionist works of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the lyrical travel writing of Bayard Taylor, and the feminist volumes of Fredrika Bremer.
    The Swedish author traveled for a year around America and wrote a forthright account of her impressions. She admired the country’s