among a large number of people.

This plan could not be carried out, however, in the ordinary way,
because large sales of stock by the Vanderbilt interests, if the
speculating and investing public learned that he was making them,
would greatly depreciate the price and might create general
demoralization and a panic, while they would certainly injure the
credit of the New York Central property. But a way out of the
dilemma had to be found. It was at this juncture that a new
personality, later to be closely identified with the Vanderbilt
lines for a long series of years, appeared upon the scene.
Vanderbilt was advised to consult J. Pierpont Morgan, of the
banking house of Drexel, Morgan and Co. At that time the name of
J.P. Morgan was just beginning to come prominently to the front
in banking circles in New York. The Drexels had been conspicuous
in business in Philadelphia for many years and in a sense were
the fiscal agents of the great Pennsylvania Railroad Company. But
the spectacular success of the House of Morgan a few years before
in marketing the French government loan in England had added
largely to its prestige. And so Vanderbilt concluded that, if any
man could show him a way out in his difficult problem, Pierpont
Morgan was that man.

The upshot of the matter was that Morgan devised a plan for the
sale of a large amount of Vanderbilt's stock holdings through
private sale in England, and in such a way that the knowledge of
such sale would not become public in America. A confidential
syndicate was formed which undertook to take the stock in a block
and pass it on to English investors at approximately its current
market price of about $130 per share. The sale was promptly