The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-10

the game for its own sake, and then he felt
himself poorer man than Vanderbilt. we
would not do him the injustice to suppose he
could not control the demons he had evoked,
and that the partners he had used in former
campaigns, approaching his courage and
conduct, insisted on his leading them to fresh
victories. Be that as it may, he decided on
deliberate attack, and picked out the biggest
man in America, his old enemy Commodore
Vanderbilt. The commodore is rumored TO
possess property to the value of SIG, 900, 600;
he could count upon the influence
that amount of capital must represent In an
aristocracy of wealth, and on the hosts OF
allies the veteran had attached by long lie
of almost unbroken success. The antagonists
were not ill-matched, and the result battle
of the giants. Ordinary investors, even
moderate spectators, when they came to look
after their scraps of property, were drawn
into it whether they liked or not. But they
counted for cyphers. At each gigantic stride
of advance or retreat the combatants crushed
them under their feet by hundreds. The
nominal gold sales of q single day amounted
to 325, 600, 900 dollars; the actual bullion that
changed hands to 1000, 600 dollars; the possi-
BILE bullion within reach and call to 20, 600, 600
dollars Never, perhaps, was there so sub
lime an assertion of the great principle of
credit, Of the legitimate facilities accorded to
commerce in an energetic community. That
was something like battle, and speculation
could boast of its fanatics and its martyrs.
Pending ultimate results, for the time the
combatants thought nothing of their own
wounds, only Of the injury they could do their
enemies. Thanks to the suddenness of the
onset and the excellence of the combinations
that have gainedhim his sobriquet of the Admi-
raj, Fisk's S audacity came near being justified by
success. But, like many other great COM
manders, be found what promised to be q
glorious victory was changed to disastrous
defeat by the impetuosity of his troops In
stead of contenting themselves with occupy
ing the field, capturing the enemys guns,
and debating their own terms, Fisks friends
insisted upon following their adversaries to
utter annihilation. A fraternal government
had thrown down its truncheon without pro-
ducing the slightest effect, now it interposed
its force mdjCotTe for the protection of the
weaker-friends of its own. The hosts of
Fisk were panic-stricken, to the utter discom-
future of their leaders. Some of them fell on
their swords, or, more prosaically, hanged
themselves. 1t is impossible not to feel for
the bitter disappointment of the commander
in-chief, but the history of the battles relates
that he was equal to either fortune, and all
that an able general could do he did. He
utterly declined to meet his obligations. He
repudiated the contracts made for him by his
agents. He disowned all connection with
to the promptitude with which he executed
this strategical movement in retreat,
will not improbably survive to fight
another day, and be formidable enemy
again. We fear much is lost, but his honor
is safe. Excited small investors, whose miser-
able little fortunes have been wrecked by his
necessities, threatened him indeed with the
last penalty of the law. The allies who say
he has swindled them, in the first violence of
~. e HI,
solvency loaded him with abuse. But in the
depths of their hearts we may depend upon it
that the one and the other do full justice to
his 'cuteness, and, like the hill tribes who
worship the Devil, are likely for the future to
hold him in higher reverence than ever. We
do not quarrel with their natural enthusiasm,
although we scarcely share it, 1t is to her
spectators that America owes her growing
greatness; it is better for the promise of her
future that they should err on the side of
rashness, and patriotic units should be proud
to be ruined for the general good. Still even
in the holiest of wars we may spare tear to
the dead and wounded that strew the battle
field. There is good deal of private incon-
venience represented by Government Sc
curities fuctuating per cent, while rail-
way stocks sink by 30, and miscellaneous
scrip sells for waste paper The victims may
have found it temporarily soothing, the spec
tacle of some of Mr.. Fisk S agents suspending
| themselves and others suspending payment.
| But that comfort will pass, and leave them to
regrets periodically renewed at the terms their
annual dividends used to fall due. Then the
further question arises-where can prudent
| American invest? 1t is much as if he was
driven to choose site for his residence on a
quaking bog of different degrees of tenacity.
The very Government stocks may go down six
per cent. or more at the nod of Mr.. Fisk,
while apparently any director may qualify
himself at common law to help himself just as
he pleases to his constituents money. The
difference between the countries seems to be
this-the English may speculate, but the
| Americans must. On the whole, although
our system may cramp the national growth
and narrow the field Of enterprise, perhaps il
is the better calculated in the long run tc
ensure the happiness of the many.