Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1856-02-15

The following is an e46IdCt ALoA A'A"S"uAoy NJ" |
volumes of the History of England:
II was about.tbe wear 1868 that the word stock
iobber was first heard in London In the snort space
of four years crowd of companies every one OF
which held out TO subscribers the hope OF immense
gains surapg into existence the Insurance Compa-
nv, the Paper Company the Lutestrng Company, the
Pearl Fishery Company, the Glass Bottle Company
the Alum Company, the Blythe Coal Company. the
Sword blade Company. There was Tapestry Com
pany, which would soon furnish pretty hangings for
all the parlors of the middle class, and for all the
bed chambers of the higher. There was Copper
Company, which proposed to explore the mines of
Eng land and held out hope that they would prove
not less valuable than those OF Potos There was a
Diving Company which undertook to bring up prec-
Gus effects from shpwrecked vessels and which an
nounced that il had laid in stock OF wonderful ma
Chimes resembling complete suits OF armor In front
of the helmet was huge glass eye like that OF cy-
clos and out of the crest went pipe through Whlch
the air was 10 be admitted.
The whole process was exhibited on the Thames.
Fine gentlemen and fine ladies were invited TO the
show, were Hospitality regaled. and We're delighted
by seeing the divers in their panoply descend INTO
the river and return laden with old iron and ships
tackle. There was Greenland Fishing Company,
which could not fail 10 drive the Dutch Whalers and
| herring buses out of the Northern Ocean. There
was a Tanning Company which promised to furnish
leather superior to the best that was brought from
Turkey or Russia There was a society which I'M
dertook the Office CT giving gentlemen liberal edu
cation on low terms, and which assumed the sound
ing name of the Royal Academies Company. In a
ponpous advertisement it announced that the d.
! rectors of the Royal Academies Company had en-
gagged the best masters in every branch OF knowledge
and were about to issue twenty thousand tickets at
| twenty shilIings each.
There was to be lottery two thousand prizes
were to he drawn and the fortunate holders of the
prize were to be taught, at the charge of the Com
pany, Latin Greek, Hebrew French, Spanish comic
sections, trigonometry, heradry japanning, fortifca
tion book keeping. and the art of playing on the
theorObo, Some of these companies took large man
sons, and printed their advertisements IN glded let
ters Others, less Ostentatious, were content with
ink, and met at coffee houses in the neighborhood
of the Royal Exchange. Jonathans and Garraway's
were in constant ferment with brokers, buyers, sell
lers meetings of directors, meetings of proprietors
Time bargains soon came into fashion. Extensive
combinations were formed and monstrous fables were
circulated for the purpose of raising depressing
the price of shares.
Our country Witnessed for the first time those phe
mona with which long experience has made us
familiar. mania, of which the symptoms were es-
sentally the with those of the mania of 1920,
of the mania of 1926, of the mania of lS45, seized
the public mind An Impotence TO be rich, a con.
tempt fol those slow but sure gains which are the
proper reward ofndustry patience and thrills spread
through society. The spirit of the cogging dcers OF
Whtefiars took possession of the grave Senators OF
the City, Wardens of Trades, Deputies, Aldermen.
1t was much easier and much more lucrative to put
forth lying prospectus announcing new stock, to
persuade ignorant people that the dividends could
not fall short of twenty per cent. and to part with
five thousand pounds of this imaginary wealth for
ten thousand solid guneas, than to load ship with
a well chosen cargo for Virginia or the Levant.-
Every day some new bubble pulled into exist
ence, buoyant shone bright, BURST and was for
gotten.
The new form which covetousness had taken fur
nished the comic poets and satirists with excel
lent subject nor that subject less welcome to
them because of the most unscrupulous and
most successful Of the new race OF gamesers were
men in sad colored clothes and lank hair, men who
called cards the DEVILS books, men who thought 1t
sin and scandal to win or TO lose twopence over a
backgammon board. 1t in the last drama OF
Shadwe that the hypocrisy and knavery OF these
Spectators was for the first time, exposed to public
rdicule. He died in November, 1892, just before
the Stockholders came the stage; and the cpl
logue spoken by actor dressed IN deep mourn
ing. The best scene is that in which four or five
stern Nonconformists, clad in the full Puritan cos
tune, after discussing The prospects OF the Mouse
> trap Company and the Feakilling Company, exam
inc the question whether the godly may lawfully
e hold stock in company for bringing over Chimes
= rope dancers Considerable men have shares, say
one austeTe person in cropped har and bands; bu
n verify question whether it be lawful or not
i These doubts are removed by stout old Round
t head colonel who had fought at Marston Moor, AM
and who reminds his weaker brother that the saint
need not themselves the rope-dancing, and that
in all probability, there will be no ropedancing Il
e see The thing" he says {" is like to take tn
t shares will sell well and then shall not car
e whether the dancers come no." 1t is impor
Mt to observe that this scene exhibited and
o plauded before farthing Of the national debt ha
been contracted So i'll informed were the numerou
writer's who, at latter period ascrbed to the nation
al debt the existence of stock jobbng, and of all tn
r immoralities connected with stockiobbng. TIL
truth is, that society had, in the natural course g
its growth, reached point at which it was inevIta
It BILE that there should be sockobbing whether tEer
national debt not and inevitable also, thai
if there long and costly war, there should
a national debt.
i RELIGIOUS PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATEs.-Th
Rev. DR.. Baird has published pamphlet entite