The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-09-10
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
Among the Gold Gamblers.

gamblers OF New York Is from the ashinston
Republican. The time CONSUMED in its perusaI
will not be unprOftably spent
NEW YORK, July 10TH felt like studying
human nature IN Its worst form, and stopped in
among the gold gamblers yesterday. They form
IA very peculiar and distinct class Of persons
Daily they crowd into a little room, some twenty
by thirty feet, in Exchange Place. Others throng
and block the sidewalk. Here in this little room
you will find the men who have most u say
against arbitrary arrests and the Government,
whale daily struggling to destroy the nations
credit and give strength and influence 10 the
enemy. This little room was crowded beyond its
capacity the noise and confusion was bewilder-
ing. Such was the anxiety To see the gold reach
200 that each advancing step on the scale from
Its starting point up to 1913 was received with
acclamations of joy. The laws of demand and
supply had nothing To do with this quick rise in
the price Of gold. The whole thing was purely
speculative, controlled and managed by the yilest
OF means. There are men here who would have
sent up shouts of Joy over the downfall of their
country, and, indeed, sold it cheaper than Judas
did mis- master. 4 majority of those men are
persons of the meanest descriptiOn-men you
would not associate with for an hour-heartless,
eoulless, characterless. The balance are men il
would be a libel to call Americans. They are
men who have hung upon the outskirts of Ex-
change Place for years, gaining a living by
means not the most reputable.
The Herald has several times charged that
these gold gamblers were aided in their wicked
projects by Southerncrs in New York. | was not
inclined to give much attention to this charge
until yesterday. What L saw satisfied me that it
was correct. In this strange group | at once
recognized the faces of seven or eight men famil-
lar to me in the South as secessiOnists Of the
rankest kind. These men have u double purpose
here. They seek to make money out of our mis-
fortunes and TO add strength and power to the
rebellion. They have not the courage and man
illness to take the field in front. They skulk in
the rear, and make our free cities the center Of
their work Of destruction. Here, first among the
gold gamblers, | recognized the busy, restless,
disconnected fre-eater of 1850, who was ready to
go mad because the South did not secede then.
Here, too, / recognized the rampant destruction
ist of lSGO, whose only capital consisted of q
strange mixture of ignorance and self-compla-
ceucy. We had met before and knew each other
well. AT home their occupation was gone. And
now they had transferred their energies, and
were hourishiDg in the great commercial metro
polls of the free States. Think of it, men of the
free States, patriots. These men are here to
distress the poor, to destroy the credit of the
nation, to give information to those pirates
destroying our commerce on the seas, and to give
aid and strength to the enemy. Despicable as
the gold gambler will appear hereafter, these
men work a more dangerous influence on society
at the present time. They study to find out where
the nations vitality lies, and they aim the keenest
daggers at it.
I could not help asking myself how long men
~ NAS 49, 6PA1h NObiA
escape the halter. Their conduct here was IN
All their energies were bent to
giving a fictitious value to gold for political pur-
poses. Never before did | feel so strong a desire
10 use arbitrary power. / wanted the means to
arrest every one of these vagabonds and send
them IN u body somewhere where a reform in
their political morality could be worked out.
And yet what q howl would go forth against
arbitrary arrests did Lincoln but punish these
men as they deserve, and as men similarly en-
gagged would be punished in the South. For
such an act of justice Lincoln would most likely
be held up rs q despot by the World and Journal
Of Commerce. Judge Barnard (the friend and
companion Of Ben. WOODY would read another
homily on constitutional liberty from the bench
Belmont, the jew, would get indignant, and
Barlow, the Christian, would want to get up a
denunciation meeting. And yet L am of opinion
that any ~right-mindcd and patriotic citizen of
New York, the merchant particularly, would
heartily indorse any measure Lincoln might adopt
for the suppression Of this dangerous enemy in
our rear-eyen to sending the whole gang Of
gold gamblers and their Secesh friends TO air
their avaIice for three months in the old fort
down the harbor. What are these men but enc
mics who stab us in the back, while the more
carry on the work of destruction in our
Seeing what L have since L came to New
York, l begin to think that this signing and cry |
ing over constitutional liberty is the greatest
ever raised even in New York. would
not give much for the constitutional liberty that
ONAo OS ~ III wan II GdOh GlCh a I
August Belmont, Alphabet Barlow, Watts Sher-
man and Judge Barnard were strong. The
quality of It's apostles Is the true index to tire
of 4 party.
Bat l have wandered from the gold gamblers.
'' The id rebels find they cannot beat our army
in the field, and they have sent other fellows here
to destroy the credit of the Government at our
own door. This is only u part of the game they
have played from the beginning" This was
said by an old friend who accompanied me into
the room Of the gold gamblers. He had lived
many years in the South, and recognized the men
have described above. Like myself, he felt in
1ignant that such men should be permitted to
freely exert such a dangerous influence at our
door. How cad to think that SO many of
bur greatest interests must be endangered, COM
merce paralyzed, the poor made to suffer, and the
of the nation stabbed, and all through the
bad influence of this small clique of he~artless.
'ouless and characterless men. How sad to
ire pouring out their life blood for their country,
mere Corporal's guard of miserable sharpers
ire permitted to assemble every day in this free
to give strength and comfort TO the rebellion
Yes, these men are permitted to fix daily n stand
.rd on gold and to this standard, fictitious as it
$ very often, all the great interests of the coun-
~ are now made to bow.
New York merchants have no sympathy with
hese gold gamblers, whom they have come to
egard as an intolerable nuisance, deranging,
nd In some cases running their business. The
ligh-toned stock broker would not be seen in
he gold room, and would not think of associat-
ng with the gold gamblers. Both, however, are
ompelled to yield to the standard the gold gam
Ter has it in his power to fix to the precious
METAL. That power, so dangerous to the dearest
interests of the Government, should be taken
way from him. even If the strong hand of arbi-
rary power had to be called in.
] am inclined to believe, however, and | find
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