Omen Of 1857
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(Conspiracy Nation, 12/18/05)
-- William Tecumseh Sherman (image, left) narrates these particulars
regarding an omen of 1857.
The steamer, Central America, carrying 600 passengers and 1600
thousand dollars in gold, had foundered at sea, off the coast of
Georgia, in 1857. It was feared that all hands must be lost.
The captain of a different vessel, a Swedish bark, had been
enroute from Honduras to Sweden. He paced the deck. He noticed a hawk
begin circling his ship. Nearer and nearer it came.
The hawk swooped down upon him! The Swedish captain grabbed a
belaying-pin and smote at the hawk, but missed.
The hawk flew away a short distance, circled back, and again
zeroed in on the captain. This time he successfully clobbered it.
Here was an omen. Unlike
so-called civilized persons, mariners, closer to nature, know not to
reject omens. The hawk omen "made him uneasy; and he thought it
betokened danger... without any particular reason he ordered the
steersman to alter the course one point to the east."
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It grew dark. The captain still paced the deck. He became drowsy.
"As in a dream he thought he heard voices all round his ship." Waking
up, he ran to the side of his boat, "saw something struggling in the
water, and heard clearly cries for help." The Swedish captain instantly
heaved to, lowered the lifeboats, and was able to save the lives of
more than 60 persons from the doomed steamer, Central America.
Notice that the Swedish captain did not say to himself, "It is Social Darwinism. Those people splashing
about below will just have to adapt. It is survival of the fittest."
The Swedish captain instantly heaved
to and lowered the lifeboats. Furthermore, he then went off his
planned course and brought the survivors to Savannah, Georgia.
The wider background for William Tecumseh Sherman's narration is the
bank panic of 1857. The steamer Central America had been carrying a
cargo of gold, needed by New York banks teetering upon the edge of
insolvency.
Sherman had been in California during the gold rush days of the late
1840s. Huge amounts of newly discovered gold found its way into the
economy. The price of real estate and rental housing in San Francisco
went sky high. A mere rented room cost $600 per month, big money in
those days. The equivalent today would be about $15,000 per month for a
rented room. Back then, the people did not scratch their heads and
wonder, "Whence comes this inflation?" Any idiot could tell you, "Of
course there is inflation!" It was not a shortage of housing so much as
new gold (money) supply skyrocketing the prices.
San Francisco was a boom down. Speculation was rampant. Some banks
over-extended themselves. One day, the prominent Page, Bacon & Co.
bank was forced to close its doors. Investors grew uneasy, and began
withdrawing savings from other banks. Lines formed. People wanted their
money. Said one Frenchman upon receiving his money at Sherman's bank,
"If you got the money, I no want him; but if you no got him, I want it
like the devil!"
William Tecumseh Sherman's bank weathered the crisis, but many other
banks did not. It was a crash! "So great was the shock to public
confidence, that men slept on their money, and would not loan it for
ten per cent a week, on any
security whatever..."
Bank failures caused mercantile losses and led to "an utter downfall
in the value of real estate." There was the same demand as always for
property, but money had become tight.
Real estate, "which the year before had been first-class security,
became utterly unsalable."
The money panic in San Francisco filtered eastward. Eastern banks as
well had become overly speculative due to "easy money (new gold)"
flowing into the economy. "Wall Street was thrown into a spasm by the
failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company..." Within a month, "the
alarm became general, and at last universal." In droves, people lined
up to withdraw savings from banks. To meet sudden demand, bankers
scrambled to obtain cash. In this context, the sinking of the steamship
Central America and her 1600 thousand dollars in gold worsened the
situation. And thus comes down to us the tale of the Swedish captain
who heeded the omen.
(Sherman, William T. Memoirs.
ISBN: 0-940450-65-8)
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