Sketch, of the Late James Fisk.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 122, 12 March 1872, Page 7

Sketch, of the Late James Fisk.

(2teies of tU World.)

In 1865, the blonde, bustling, and rollicking James Fiak, junr., came bounding into the Wall-street circus like a star acrobat, — fresh, exuberant, glittering with spangles, and turning somersaults, apparently as much for his own amusement ar for that of a large circle of spectators. He is—first, last, and always,—-a man of theatrical effects, of grand transformations and blue lire. All the world is to him, literally, a stage ; and he the best fellow who can shift the" scenes the fastest, dance the longest, jump the highest, and rake up the biggest pile.

His whole business career has been a series of scenic hits and stage metamorphoses. His i ii rst pr< nnincnt appearance was as the Prince of i Peddlers in New England. His waggon was ! magnificent ; his four horses sleek and meti tlcsome. At different points in his triumphal | progress through the rural districts he was | met by a train of his subalterns, who filled | the sheds of the country inns with their wag- : gons, held audience with their chief, and obeyed his orders. His next appearance was as a dry goods merchant, a member of the I well-known house of Jordan, Marsh, and Co. | Then quickly the scene changes once more, and he looms up as a stock-broker in New York with a capital of 64,000d015., the profits of his season of merchandising. His office in Broad-street was a bancmeting-hall, where he presided over tables which groaned daily with the most sumptuous lunches. From this j period of time (1805) there has always been I in the turbulent stream of Erie, an under ' current and an upper whirl of James Fisk, j junr. Uncle Daniel welcomed him, (or, perhaps we should say, his bank account,) patted him upon the back, indoctrinated him into the mysteries of pools, (of Course, always in Erie,) gave him a paternal hug ; during all which James saw his pile growing small by degrees and beautifully less, and, early in 11868, as he told a friend, he was not worth j a dollar in the world. Six months after this, ] the scene changed again, with much rumbling j and the shifting of blazing and many-coloured lights, and he stands forth with a million dollars at his banker's, the High Controller of Erie, a general theatrical manager, a steamboat potentate, —in fact, Prince Erie James Jubilee Admiral James Fisk, junr. Now the scenes shift swiftly,—the eye can hardly follow them; first to Wall-street, I where, to use his own words, "he made Home

howl," in the Erie ring of 18G9 ; then toJhj Courts ; then to the office of the Union Pacific Railway Company, amid the hammering in of great salamander safes with ponderous sledges ; then back to Wall-street amid the j growlings of a thousand bears and the bellowing of as many bulls, in the great gold ring! of September, 18G9; thence in the Courts ! once more, tampering with the Commodore's | iron chest; —all the while the voices of his enemies raining odium and curses upon him, which fall off like water from a duck's back, as he drives on his dozen teams, railroads, steamboats, theatres, pools, contracts, political combinations, etc., as imperturbably as a faro-croupier, and as '' cool as a coxiple of! summer mornings." Boldness ! boldness ! twice, thrice, and four times. Impudence ! i cheek ! brass ! —unparalleled, unapproachable, sublime ! Perhaps the strong point of this was in his physique; so robust, so hale, so free from the shadow of every optic derangement. His boldness, nerve, and business capacity are supplied by his physique, which also supplies him with animal spirits | beyond measure. He is continually boiling over with jokes ; good, bad, and indifferent. Once, when he and his father were peddling goods in New Hampshire, an old woman j charged Fisk senior with having deceived her | as to the value of a piece of calico, worth twelve and a half cents. " Well, now," said Fisk junior, *' I don't think father would tell j a lie for twelve and a half cents., though he j might tell eight of them for a dollar." He always seems to look upon his operations in \ Wall-street, no matter how large they may have been, as a gigantic side-splitting farce. After the great gold-break of 18G9, one B ,

a broker, called upon him at the Erie railroad office, for the purpose of tendering him 51)0,00!) dols. gold, which he claimed to have sold Fisk. Now, as this amount of gold would weigh something over a t«n, Fisk was well aware that B had not brought it with him, and therefore the tender could not be legal. So, as soon as B stated what lie came for, Fisk promptly replied, " Certainly, Mr 15 , we will take tluit gold. Here, John, (calling to an attendant,) go and help Mr 13 to bring up his gold." Poor Mr B , not having brought his ton of gold with him, could only look sheepish and retire.