1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Old Waldorf Bar Days the time that Joe discovered Morgan's identity, he con– stituted himself a bodyguard for the financier whenever he saw the latter entering the hotel. It may have been that Joe had concluded that Morgan was in continual danger of assassination. If J. P. came to a festivity in the grand ballroom, Joe would make it a point to see that his progress to the dais of honor was made safe ·for finance, and more than once he was known to station himself behind Morgan's chair as a Cerberus o1f watch– fulness and protection. After such occasions, Joe knew exactly what the Market was going to do, and some of his friends might hear a hot tip. This began the "Southern Pacific incident." The stock of that railroad was hovering a little above 50, and cer– tain speculators were wondering whether it would prove a good thing to buy for a rise, or to sell short. Joe, after one of his Cerberic, if not cerebric, sessions with Mor– gan, had to spill what was on his mind. According to Alfred S. Amer, then an assistant man– ager of the hotel, Joe quoted Morgan as saying that he "would never let .Southern Pacific go below 50." That was all any listener needed. Almost every employee of the front office, envisioning quick and easy wealth, bought "S. P." Those who had savings, plunged; some who had no money in the bank, borrowed where and as heavily as they could and, in the lingo of The Street, loaded up. The stock. reports in the newspapers and the financial news now claimed earnest students, and clerks and managers began stealing off duty to crowd the stock-brokers' offices ·in the hotel. They followed the quotation board; they hung over the ticker. [ 88]