The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-09-26
Buchu Banking-The Quacks of the
Financial Family.

the signs of its prosperity on the broad faces
Of rocky projections along the banks of the
rivers and on the sides of railroad cuttings.
walls, on the fronts of unfinished buildings
and on the edges of the fagstones of its innu-
merable and unfailing qualities. We learn
OF it's wonderful cures of all diseases and of its
magical effects upon the constitution through
the medium of paid newspaper puffs, dis
played advertisements and shabby pamphlets.
To be sure, whether it comes in the forms of
pills or liquids, of plasters or embrocations,
buchu is short lived probably because people
discover the fraud and stop the supplies.
Yet, while your buchu vender lasts he lords
it with the best in the land, puts on the airs
of baron, becomes as pompous as million
naire and as patronizing as the mock duke
in the play. He boldly proclaims his nos
trlm the best in the world and pockets the
pennies of fools with an air of condescension
becoming prime minister or Credit Mobi-
lier Congressman. When he explodes he goes
up in balloon-sometimes to one place and
sometimes to another.
There is q financial buchu as we'll as a medi-
cal buchu, and their qualities are identical.
Your Jay Cookies and Clews are your genuine
buchu bankers, the charlatans of the financial
family, and they are familiar with all the
tricks Of the trade. Talk to them about the
solidity and responsibility of the regular prac-
titioner! Stuff and nonsense! They know
how to letter the rocks and paste the walls
and border the cutters. They are up to a
move or two in securing newspaper puffs.
They understand the value of large type in
advertising their universal remedy You can't
teach them anything about the language of the
ducks-quack auack quack
Here is one of the advertisements through
the medium of which your buchu bankers
attain eminence and accomplish success. Its
promises are certainly of most tempting
character. How can o man with money in his
pocket resist it's appeal? ''The buchu bank
has the honor to present to the public new
and most desirable issue Of government bonds,
to be procured only ct the buchu bank The
advantages of this investment are such as will
excite establishment; particulars at the buchu
bank. The demand for these bonds has been
wonderful at the buchu bank. If the public
desire to secure any number of the very few
bonds that have not already been bespoken by
foreign houses of eminence and prominent
capitalists, they must apply early at the
buchu bank" Here is another specimen Of
financial buchuism: -''The buchu bank, hav-
ing consented to bring to the notice of the
public the subject of the new loan about to be
negotiated by the North and South Pole
Railroad Company on their seventh mortgage
bonds, now begs to offer these bonds to cap
italists on such favorable terms as can only
be obtained at the buchu bank. This popular
line of railway, which has been warmly
favored by Congress, extends over sixteen
thousand miles of fertile country and has
already twenty-five miles of its road COM
pleted Its seventh mortgage bonds offer
safe and profitable investment for large and
small capitalists, and can be procured in any
amounts on early application to the buchu
bank" Glorious in the conspicuousness Of
large type and followed by fattering notices
of the buchu financial institution and its
wonderful success in placing loans, what
wonder if these quack advertisements gull the
people into the belief that buchu banking is
an astonishing success? What wonder that
politicians kiss the shoe-buckles of the buchu
empiric and regard him with all the rev.
erence due to wealth, whether it comes from
broad acres or buchu?
As we have said, buchu is short-lived be-
cause its humbug is soon exploded The
failure Of Cooke, Clews and the other financial
quacks only comes later than might have been
expected, for people think more Of their money
than of their constitution, and are more
prompt to discover the charlatan who would
ruin their bank account than to recognize the
quack who would ruin their health. Besides,
some Of the buchu bankers have had to deal
with the cool, cautious and sensible inanciers
of Europe, who can smell buchu at great dis
lance, and who have laughed at its vendors
and beaten them at their own game. Hence,
the wonder is not that the buchu banks
have failed now but that they did not fail
long ago. 1t would have been better for the
reputation of the nation if they had been
sooner wiped out Of existence. At home they
have been dragging into the vortex of ruin
thousands of victims who have been foolishly
misled by their glitter and display. In Eu-
rope, where American credit and honor should
be especially cherished, we have found them
lying in wait for such unsophisticated Ameri
cans as might happen to fall into their hands
for plucking. Their false pretences have been
almost amusing to read Their general
failure, commencing with the upstart house of
the Cookies is o public advantage, for it
restores strength and safety to the sound in
stitutions of the country. The component
parts must now fall away, and nothing will
remain to Jay Cooke but his empty pack.
He must go out Of the buchu business and
retire with his brother fnanciers of the same
school. Let them depart in peace. They
4 - al ,.o1it IL