The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-01-12

humanity is SO touching, / tII.k, so significant
OF mortal frailty, as to see inn yence riot where
there has been most strength, especially when
the desire still subssts, after the acuity has de-
parted. We cannot refrain from plying even
| the brokendown raee-horse, ssbo, surned ont to
die, yet pricks up his ears a, the drums tap,
and hobbies grooming along, IS if ne still yearn-
ed for the often-past goal. This it is which
gives its strange psthos to the fate IL Jasper Lose
| ~, in Sir Edward Bulwers Kite novel and we
feel the thing so perceptibly, sinsply because
we see its workings everywha'e ssaong our iei-
| lows. Who can contemplate witkeut pain the
| dwelling of the once famousorator; the doting
nonsense of the farrenowred author the
wrinkled ugliness of the once r.igning belle !;
Bean Brummell IN shady coat AID dirty night
cap; the brilliant eonverser's party2ed tongue;
the once active soldier, all be2ritsten, limp and
| rheumatic? SO il was now With; Beale Lloyd,
at work. Great and farkns .wn banker as he
was eminent for an imaginative; excellence of
invention, that, obsying the sws If calculation
and the principiessof finance HAL enabled him
| to originate mature, and ACCOMPLISH some OF
the NEST daring monetary prcject4 that had ever
startled the most enterprising cit,o the globe;
peculiarly famous for his ability i, giving char
acter and prominence to unknowa or obscure
undertakings he had yet never, IN the days Of
his greatest elevation, and most adventurous
action, conceived, worked out, or put into
figures, any financial projec.s thst could COM
pare, in originality, grandeur, or iextent, with
the schemes which now lay riptered out upon
his desk, ready to be set in Tlosfps. But alas
like the old mathematician. helad the lever
there, and the fulcrum, and b., power was
weighed and estimated to a minJm, but-who
could find him Pow Sro3 Mere was no
stand-poin possible; and se-t5e world must
abide unmoved, the gigantic SCENES fall, still
born, to the ground
Not that Mr. Lloyd had s.et r.ade this dis
covery. Up to this time, he had confined him
self to the development and nsturing of his
various plans, which were 10 interlace with,
and interact upon each other, and thus mutu.
ally acquire strength and powsr to succeed.
| Not until he had perfectly workt them all out,
and satisfactorily determined thr order Of their
succession, would he startls tis, world with
them. And such schemes the.xgrre, to be sureI
His capital was large, but, 5tt being quite
enough for his purposes, he ns,st FIRST add a lit
tie to it. How? First, he hsA Inatured plan
by which, given certain anslnr Of capital, he
could not do otherwise than vim the game of
Farol Armed with this pr jid, Rupert was to
be dispatched to Baden, to & eai the gamblers
there. This would give him, say 1890, 900 more.
Second, it was truth, demonsr,.nle by figures,
that in series of bets upon the English horse
races, assuming that they were conducted with
out fraud, ones book could t5so arranged, (by
taking per centage of hDsss@ against the
I" field" as to make the proportion of loss to
gain as 2 to 3. Upon this point, he was about
to open q correspondence with London "bet-
ting Office" Third, by a strict recourse to the
calculus of Probabilities le issd discovered,
and proved, beyond cavil, a snethod by which
he could (by risking only 30 ;sr cent? win
one prize in every three draxingsof the Ham
burg lottery-thus having he assurance of a
profit of over two hundred oer gent, in a fire.
quently recurring and per- lanea,t institution
Fourth. He argued, that, nee he had fallen
to the lowest depth, since Shere was no plus
ultra of degradation for hi (, sntl as the sweet
est, most delicate perfumsk- are mostly made
, from the Glthiest, foulest odcscl things, so il
would be proper for him to use shatever base
means to restore himself Size, once elevated
again to his former pinnac<9, 10 could both
wash his hands forever of the vae connections
and also make proper restitesons where he had
done wrong or inflicted in us And the result
, of this sophistic reasoning vi determination
, to embark for while in the = ~ xradei to dis
patch four ships to the COS gf Africa, and
land four oargoes of slaves snes in Cuba, one
, in Texas, one in South CaroHnaeone In Mlssis
, sippi. If taco of these vescsls vent safe, his
i profit would be six fold-if az. OF them succeed
, ed, he would have no need ignew the infa
, NOUS adventure. Fifth. TtSs 'plans, all Of
which we're the result of whas u had satisfied
himself was q rational and cor let application
6 of the law of probability tosaa ters OF chance
, he set apart, scheduled as prfir, mary. When
, his original capital should have. ,Sen augment
, ed, in these ways, until he 4was put in posses
sion of million and halt Of dollars, unen
numbered, lin addition to wh$t he had set apart
for the maintenance of his E,mAy in Genoa
he was then to embark upot-th{; grand specu
latve seas of Europe, and to he could not
, conquer back what he hae los. His plans
were as follows a million, toNise is counters,
in speculation half million Ii serve as cor
rupfion fund.- to forward his int sests. For ex
, ample--he would have his m;vn. ready, say te
buy shares in the Credit lsob,{ier. With q
hundred thousand or two hundred thousand
dollars, he would procure fal Geographic re-
ports, which would depress ~ bhrket? " The
Emperor is very i'll at Rsarri.z;" or "the
Prince Napoleon has had a skious fall-in
iured internally;" or sour arnE has suffered
reverse near Varna." These fumors might
beat down the market from ! 90 20 per cent
But, even in the lowest event. with his immense
,, margin of million, be could double his CAPT
, tai at every venture, and, with small risk, re
store himself to his formef position, before
many mOntns nad gone Dy.
Full of these distempered and outrageous
views, the unhappy man had labored on during
, the month, developing all fhe intricacies and
minutiae of his schemes, with accuracy, q
consistency, a skill, and a gigantic industry,
which was only approached by the stupenaous
enormity, extravaganza, and irrationality, of the
premises upon which he based his whole fabric
But though, so far, there was method in his
madness" we cannot doubt that he ,oas insane
upon financial subjects; and the bearings Of
such a monomania are too Familiarity known to
every reader, for us to have need of pausing to
explain, or of studying to apologize. We have
only to do with these extravagances OF Beals
Lloyd, SO far forth as they, and their study, and
manipulation, were part of his life in the OHb
liette. They were never attempted to be car
ried out; they were never even copied, moi
transmitted abroad mere fungi of the dungeon,
ind of the distempered brain of its occupant
the sole importance they have in our eyes is
the partial light reflected from them upon the
mental and moral condition of their unhappy
originator.
And the most triAing reflection upon the
substance Of these schemes cannot fail to con-
vince us that Lloyd had grown mad, so far as
business was concerned. Apart from the wild
impractlcability of the schemes themselves, their
CHARACTER proves this fact, irresistibly. Here was
man, who, because of q dishonest act, which
his circumstances, his position, his temptations,
rendered almost yenial, was plunged into con-
dition of shame, agony, despair, that made nm
shun his fellows, made him hate the light, gave
him the desire of suicide without the courage
to attempt it. and SO shocked, shattered, over
turned his mind and soul, that he was in mo-
mentary danger of becoming maniac. And
4 vot we find this very man, in the very extrem-