On Wednesday the campaign terminated. Ely Central weakened an eighth from the $1 point, the closing of the day before, recovered to sales at $1-3/4 and closed at $1-1/2 bid; $1-5/8 asked.
All day long our offices were thronged with newspaper reporters and with pale-faced and agitated customers. Our clients felt their helplessness in such a tumult of warring forces. The only thing they could do was to stand by and watch developments as the battle waged. It was a proud moment for me when, at the end of the day's market, I mounted the platform in the Scheftels customers' trading-room, gave voice to a shrill cheer of triumph and wrote on the blackboard the following:
"We have not closed out a single margin account! We are carrying everybody!"
The scene which followed warmed the cockles of my heart. I was literally mobbed, but it was a friendly mob. We all joined in a season of noisy rejoicing. That we should have been able to survive the three-days' siege with minimum losses to customers and without sacrificing a single margin account was a signal achievement. I doubt if there are many cases like it in the history of Wall Street.
Scores of telegrams were received from out-of-town customers to whom the margin respite was wired. One of these read:
You may look for a tidal wave of business. Your princely action warrants 21 guns for the House of Scheftels.
The whole situation was greased for your descent. It was a shoot-the-chutes and a bump-the-bumps proposition. Congratulations on your survival.
Hundreds of letters of a similar tenor poured in upon us. Many of these came from the camp of Ely itself, where large blocks of the stock were held by mining men on the ground.
Thursday the stock closed at $l-3/4; Friday it advanced to sales at $1-7/8 and hung there.
The Scheftels organization now drew its first long breath. Friends and enemies alike marveled how the corporation had managed to survive. We had held the fort, but at murderous cost.
I got busy with the publicity forces at my command. Through the Scheftels Market Letter and the _Mining Financial News_ the story was told of the whole dastardly campaign.
The Weekly Market Letter of the Scheftels company on November 13, 1909, devoted 24 columns to the story of the raid.