The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-24
THE LESSON OF PANIOS.
From the N. Y. Tribune.

=
The periodical braying in the mortar of
that class of beings upon whom the operation
has been called Intellectual by high autho-
rity, took place in Wall street on Wednesday.
A knot of cool and determined gamblers con-
spired to spoil a number of their confreres
by buying in open market a greater amount
of certain stock than existed. The preimi-
nary measures of this plot were taken with
such skill and good fortune that upon the
morning of Wednesday this combination had
bought of the securities of corporation
whose capital stock amounted to 10000
shares the enormous quantity of 273,0 900. If
the conspiracy had been carried squarely
through the day the sellers would have been
at the mercy of the buyers, and the
latter might have exacted any price
they saw fit for the stocks in their posses
sion, and those which they had con-
tracted for. But at this very point the or
ganization showed its element of weakness
The old maxim of ''honor among thieves is
a very silly one, and is only used by those
who know nothing of rogues or too much of
them. In a ransaction which is in it's nature
dishonest and illegal, there is no guarantee
against treason among those who are engaged
in it. The maxim of all despotisms that
where there are three rebels there is one in
former, is true one; and the same tendency
of human nature provides in Wall street that
| where there is pool there are ''double-
| bankers" In this case, the one portion of
the combination found to their horror, on the
morning of decision, that their associates de-
| clined to keep engagements, and it is cur
rently reported and believed that many of
them were busily engaged on Tuesday in un-
loading the securities which the rest were en-
ergetically buying according to agreement.
The edifce of plunder reared with such inf
mite care and pain was found to be under
mined before it was completed, and it came
down with a crash and fracas that ruined
some of the builders and spread confusion
and dismay ameng hundreds of disinterested
bystanders.
On Thursday the lesson was so fresh and so
impressive that it was needed. Buyers for
investment were timid and sensitive. Amid
the wreck and debris with which the street
was Uttered, it did not seem safe for any one
to engage in the pastime which had been
shown TO be so disastrous the day before In
the abandonment of the hour, the implements
of the gamblers were exposed for the time to
inspection; and the public, after handling
the loaded dice and the marked cards, was
naturally somewhat slow to lay down its
money in game which had betrayed all its
reckless rascality But this caution will not
\ last more than day or two. The disorder
of the excited gsmesters will disappear. The
marked cards will be shutf1ed so deftly the
gudgeons will not see their differential backs.
| The loaded dice will be shaken so gayly thai
their rattle will seem like the soul of fail
play, and the fever of gambling, checked for
an instant by this quick shower-bath of panic,
will 90 on as before, burning out the nervous
systems and the moral nature of all engaged
in it. t r...rI...
Occurrences like those we have just wit
messed are not in any sense to be deplored
1t would be we'll for the community at large
if they could become so frequent and so fla
grant as to convince the dullest of the inhe
rent unwholesome and dishonest character o
the whole scheme of stock gambling, OF
which they are the fullest illustration. If The
timid and nervous spectators, who form thu
large majority of the material upon which
these predatory operators base their CRANE
combinations, could be only convinced tina
when they enter into conspiracy to roll
others, their accomplices are bent on pluuder
ing them also with strict impartiality, it woul(
cease to be so easy to organize these briganC
. gangs Until the business circles generally ar
filled with this conviction there is little hop,
, for a reform in the street There is unfortu
! nately, great deal of human nature left il
: the commercial world, and as long as il seem
! probable that A. and b. can lie in wait 70
: o. and spoil him of his shekels, there vii
+ lie made these unholy alliances. But from
r the hour when it becomes impossible for thes
) two rogues to trust each other in their rob
berries, the road will be safer to the innocen
J wayfarer.