Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-11-15
A Graphic Picture OF tho Rage for
Speculation Among the Southern
From the Wilmington IN. o. Journal.

From the wilmington IN. VI journal
AS fortunes can no longer be made in a
day out of the National Treasury, the eager
money seekers have taken to making it out
of each other. The rage of speculation
excitement is too mild word-which has
seized upon the community, and is fast
making US a nation of stock jobbers, has
never been equaled since the days of John
Law during the French Regency of the Due
D'Orleans. The Exchange and their ap.
proaches are already crowded with fren-
zied throug of eager speculators, as was the
Rue de Quincamtoix of old. Streets are
blocked up by q mass so frenZied by the
general passion for gain that almost all re-
gard for individual safety and respect for
personal propriety seems lost. The stranger
goes to take look at the spectators at
the hour of exchange as he does at col.
lection of wild beasts at feeding time, and
comes away with the same impression,
namely, that in their hunger to get their
fill they are ready to devour each other
The prudent Citizen turns the street, and
shuns the pMce as dangerous to his morals
and his person. If not tempted to risk his
fortune, he is sure to be so hustled bY the
unruly crowd as to spoil his temper or his
clothes, and endanger his limbs or life.
When the passions Depreciation, how
ever obvious the fatal consequences, has
once tevered the blood of q people, it I'M
fortunately is seldom checked except by it's
own retributive effect of exhaustion. The
homilies of the pulpit, the daily warnings
of the press, and the demonstrations of
political economy are unheeded by ears
ringing with the jubilaut shouts of the IA
vorites of fortune. When they hear of
one who was bankrupt but few months
since, but now counts by millions his for.
fortune, made in q short half year at the
exchange, or rather on ''the street." or on
the higbway-for his credit never was
clean enough for admission to the fastidi-
GUS company of gentlemen at "the Board"
when they hear of another who was but
yesterday vender of apples and peanuts
at the street corner, and is to-day by for
tuuate speculations the possessor of hmm.
dreds of DISQUALIFICATION they hear of
these and the like, as we all do every day,
they are 10th to turn from so brilliant ex-
amples of success to listen to the sober
prudence, moreover, is hourly becoming
fainter and fainter, drowned as it is in the
general shout of triumph. Prudence, it is
feared, will soon cease altogether, for want
of listener, from uttering further warn.
ings, and leave to retributive justice to
vindicate natural law, the abuse of which
she could not prevent.
The mania of speculation is Wondrously
contagious, especially among q people as
gregarious and sympathetic as We are.
What touches one is apt to be felt by all.
1t may not be long before our women shall
he seen, as in the times of John Law in
France, and of the South Sea bubble in
England, trailing their silks and satins in
the dust of the exchange, aud raising their
voice in its din of excited barter. Already
the spirit of speculation 30 pervades the
community, that the rise aud fall of stocks
is the most common topic Of daily CONVEX.
sation in our houses during the hours of
leisure, if hours of leisure we can be said
to have when they are filed with the
thoughts and talks of business. Some of
our women are already infected with the
prevailing passion of money making, as
they have been long with that of spending
it.
"WhRHs the price of gold to day, my
dear2" escapes from the pretty mouths Of
your wife before she has impressed the
habitual kiss of connubial welcome upon
your expectant lips. II you are specula.
tor, as you probably are In common with
most Of your fellow citizens at this mo.
ment, and have made q good day of 1t, you
answer blandly and don't complain or the
loss of the coDjugal embrace. Ifyou have
been unlucky and want consolation, and
seek what you have q right TO expect but
don't find, yop mourn oyer the loss, and
conclude probably, With St. Paul, that
money or rather the love oft. is the root |
OF all evil J-iE H efsp