The Portland daily press., 1872-11-26


nal process. A civil sutton however just his
claim, is certain to be subjected to such inter-
mnable delays, such wearisome hindrances,
such unreasonable expenses, that if he nomi-
nally wins, he actually loses, and prosecu-
tor on criminal complaint frequently fares
worse than the culprit. For example, a
countryman, falling prey to the innumera-
bic sharpers who infest our high ways, if he
causes the arrest OF his despoer, is pretty
sure to be locked up in the House of Deten-
ton as witness, while the thief is released
on bail. The latter, aided by counsel will find
some way to silence The imprisoned witness,
already sick of his bargain, and forgetting
his original grievances, in his eagerness to es-
cape from his prison house. 1t is easy to see
that this mode of dealing, affords certain
degree OF impunity to swindlers and they can
calculate with tolerabe accuracy the chances
OF getting clear in every case where they en-
trap an unwary stranger, and extort money
from him by the ingenious devices in which
they are such adopts.
What we need is an entire renovation of
every department of law. We want judges
who will deem it a matter of conscience to
keep their cs>lenders clear, and lawyers who
will press every suit to trial with proper des-
patch and refuse to betray their clients by
granting every delay which may be asked for
by the other side.
Once upon time there was Supreme Court
Judge named Gridley from the interior of the
State, who infused such vigor into the admin
istration of justice the he gained the sobri-
quet of the ''Steam Judge" know moth
iy with which he despatched business was ex-
tremely commendable.
The farce of the week was enacted by ser-
tain stock gamblers-the Bulls being repre-
sented by Jay Gould, Horace F. Clarke mr.
Vanderbilt's son-in-law) and Augustus Schell
(late chairman of the Democratic National
Committed -anl the Bears by Daniel Drew,
and Henry N. Smith. Smith until quite re-
Gently had been confederate and confidante
of Gould. Of course in these relations he
became possessed of a great many dangerous
secrets. Wall Street ignores the old adage
about "honor among thieves and Smith
doesn't hesitate to bctray Gould as soon as he
has quarrelled with him. So he communi-
Gates to the Erie Railway Directory the par
ticulars of the way in which Gould robbed
that corporation. Thereupon Gould is ar
rested, but with all that Difference to wealth
however i'll gotten, which our polite Sheriff
exhibited in the cases of the Ring thieves.
He is released on the bail bonds of Clarke
ana Schell and returns to Wall Street to
squeeze his informing ex-partner and the
pious Drew by corner in North Western
common stock. At last advices the losses of
Smith and Drew were reckoned by millions,
but the general opinion is that they will new
Or pay them, there being no law to compel
paymant,an reputation involving no graver
penalty than loss of seats in the Stock-Ex-
change. Probably some innocent outsiders,
who have been imprudent enough to sell
stock dear at Is, for 200 or so in the belief
that it could soon be repurchased at some
thing near its value will get captured, and re-
tire from the arena of this Bull and Bear fight
wiser, sadder and poorer, than when they en-
tered it.
These gambling operations would simply
afford amusement to the public at large,
were it not for their baneful influence upon
general morality. 1t is this open exhibition
OF sharp practice and ignoble trickery that
payes the way to defalcations and embezzle..
ments among young men entrusted with
l1, nv.I
gamesters in stock, to try their chances of ac-
quirng fortune suddenly by the same means.
Ii the history of defaulters could be written,
we should doubtless find that many life had
been blighted, many good name swept
away, by reading in the newspapers accounts
of the ingenious methods whereby the
Goulds, Drews, Vanderbilts and Smiths had
over-reached each other by their gigantic
stock operations.
One of the greatest curiosities of Wall
who looks as if his sands of life were fast
running out, he is nevertheless a marvel of
industry and his passion for increasing his
store seems to have taken complete possess
ion of him. His resources are boundless,
and there are no arts of trickery with
which he it not familiar. Years ago he was
Treasurer of the Erie Railway. In that
capacity his operations in the stock were fab
ulously large, and his devices for initiating or
depressing the price of it, as his interests
dictated, earned for him the reputation of
being one of the shrswdest as well as one of
the most INSCRIPTIONS men in the city. One
would suppose people would be shy of deal
ing with such cunning old flint, but some
how or other he has always found victims.
Once in while his opponents have fancied
they had him in their power. Fisk and
Gould took turn at him and were entirely
confident they should bleed him, but he con-
trived to get out of their clutches unhurt.
Even Vanderbilt found him hard subject to
practice upon. He has led such charmed
life in the stockjobbing fraternity that every
body believes he will wrigsle through any
thing. The example of such a man is ire
trievably bad. Gambling is vice, whether
it be practised in open day upon the street, or
at night in the glded palaces of oath street
whether it consists Of buying and selling
stocks or dealing faro. Idoubt whether the for
msr is not the more reprehensible of the two;
for the faro player pursues his calling much
more openly than the stock speculator. He
scorns to play with loaded dice and makes it
a point of honor to pay if he loses. He
prides himself on keeping his word. If his
business places him outside of the protection
of the law, he disdains to invoke it, to ss-
cape any unfortunate consequences of an
unlucky turn of the cards. Your Wall street
gamtster. on the contrary, when he finds
himself caught in the meshes OF somebody
else's trap is very likely to snap his fingers in
the face of his creditors and tauntingly ex-
claim Don't you wish yon may get it ?"
Mr.. Drew has one other weakness besides
passion for gaming in the stock exchange.
He endows the Methodist church. He has a
theological seminary named for him. He
has bestowed large sum of money upon it,
and the only donations of which the public
have any knowledge from his purse go the
Methodist cause. He is said to be devout
man on Sundays. l leave your readers to
point the moral of this wide divergence be-
tween his secular and religious peculiarities,
the one leading him to prey for six days of
the week, and the other to pray on the
seventh.
Minister Washburne is to receive q hand
some CONF liment from the citizens of New
York on the 4th of Dec. 1t was at first in
tended to entertain him at dinner but his
friends turned up in such numbers that it has
been found necessary to change the affair in
to a reception. The elegant theatre of the
ITnio r ot,Jb will no w. ~