The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1857-06-04
From the Pittsburgh Gazette.
SPECULATION.

a
SPECULATION.
The rage for growing suddenly rich is
sort of madness that appears to take pos
ion Of the people about every fifteen or
twenty years. Unwilling to wait Tor the
sure and steady gains ofcareful industry
and fruitful economy, they risk their pros
poets even for life of comfort. Tree from
the coroding care incident to llfe oil deot'
unon tie cast of die, the rise OF fancy
stocks, the continued appreciation in the
price of lands which they have never
seen, Of town lots, which have no ex
istence except on paper, of Mississippi
bubbles and South Sea shares. It is now
Just about twenty years since the mania
for land speculation ragged in the Eastern
States much fercer even than now in the
Western. Vast tracks of rocks, pools and
blasted timber facetiously called /" wild
lands." were held at fabulous prices.
They were bought to-day for $1,000 per
acre and sold to morrow for $1,000. No
detail as to quality, situation or real val
ne was demanded. All the purchaser
asked was. a general idea of the plot, as.
run by the compass, that he might have
some limits, whereby to describe it to his
next customer. Frequently, land cover
ed BY the waters of Lake were sold at
enormous prices. Many swindlers who
who never owned foot of land came in
10 possession of almost fabulous amounts
OF gold by selling paper town which had
no more existence than Sancho Panza's
Island Of Barataria, or Sir Thomas More's
Utopia. Mill privileges without water,
garden lots where there there was no soil,
pastures without grass, timber lands
where tree never took root, such were the
wild fances for which gold was given.
Men in full chase pursued the phantom
wealth. until they too frequently found a
mad house and strait jacket. The man
ia was epidemic.
Z The bubble was expanded by thou
sands of ambitious blowers. All 9TH
er business was suspended to puff this
windy nothing into unwonted size and
span. Itabsorbed into it whatsoever came
within its sphere. 1t was to the finances
of the country maelstrom that sucked
in everything which came within touch Of
its influence. Honest debts were left un-
paid that the money might be devoted to
speculation. Manufacturers languished.
ships lay idly at the wharves, the farmer
forsook the plow and the field TO talk about
thepriceof lots in Aroostook or Penobscot,
and thus while all the avenues ofproduc-
ton were choked up, the bubble grew
larger and larger and the madmen kept
still putting away Tit. AT last it burst.
A hundred had grown rich; thousand.
yea ten thousand were beggared. Then
to accustom the hand that had grown soft
and tender by months of idleness and
money-making. to the axe. the plane, the
saw, the plow--that was the hard part of
it. and many who in the height of success
had rolled in carriages and wallowed in
wealth, would not return to productive
labor, and so the country lost many a
good worker who would have contributed
to its substantial wealth by pushing some
honest business in the paths of industry
lttook years for the country to recover
from this blow as all the world knows
Its fnancies were derauged; trade had
stagnated or flowed in unhealthy chan
'nels. 1t was as when a man recovers
from fever; months, years are needed
to replace the fibre and muscle which dis
ease has wasted away.
Is anything like the matter we have
been describing about to occur again?
How is il that we hear of FIVE heavy fail
ures in the city Of Boston in a single day,
and all their newspapers and all their
people complaining that they cannot col
lect the moneys due them in the North
west because what has heretofore embark
ed in business there, is now invested in
lands? We may add that this speculation
is not confined to the matterof land. All
kinds of speculations have been started.
A. has made fortune in day; B. tries
his hand at the same; the picture OF sud-
den wealth dazzles; the curse pronounced
against him who hasteth to be rich is up
eon him. We trust that there is time yet
to restrict this over-haste, this over trad
ing, this wildly venturesome spirit with
in due bounds before it shall result in a
catastrophe. The legitimate wants of
trade, the high price of labor in the truly
valuable centres of business and of man
ufacturer must and will attract from the
doubtful investments, money which has
flowed thither while yet there was every
prospect Of a sure return.
There are other causes Of regret for the
present apparently unhealthy state Of the
public mind in the matter tof speculation
in lands. hgives to the American people
a sort of nomadic character. No sooner
ia home found a nloca ,-o.o,aJ f.o,., ~ =