The true northerner., 1873-10-10
A FABLE OF FINANCE.
nY A rRoKrN nnokEn.


There was rich banker in Wall street renowned,
With clerks a small army and desks around;
His offices stately presented a mass
OF fancy black walnut and costly pate-glass
(CuoRus-Properly rebuking impertinent curiosity
as To matter of strictly private concern;
In the banking. insurance, or railroadiug line,
'ris the custom your rivals in style 10 outshinei
But If pressed with the question Whence cometh
must answer-Ri-tooral, ri-tooral, li-dayD
This banker received the deposits of those
Who wanted them safe from burglarious foes;
And likewise of people with funds To iavest
In ventures returning the interest best.
,cuoprs-Explaining how you pay your interest
upon the deposits left with you, and yet make
a small stake by the generous transaction:
When you give me your riches to Keep tul you CALL
In a stock or a loan do put them out all,
But supposing stock falls, or the loans lost-you
say?
Then it's-Tooral, ri-looral, r-toora li-day y
No end Of accounts in this manner came in
OF anxious to save and of anxious TO win;
And ev'ry one said, what fortune must be
Inolosed in the vaults OF this mans treasury:
(cuoRus-showlng that therein exists trihing er-
ror, scarcely worth mentioning:
II is quite banking custom such fortune TO lend.
To a railroad or bank for its next dividend;
Then if all goes on well there's usurious pay.
If it doesn't-Ri-tooral, ri-tooral, li-dayD
At last this rich banker in finances skilled
With schemes for highway most novel was filled ;
The to be called, when its tracks were all laid,
The NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
Coolly setting forth the geography of this
great undertaking, and its sources OF rich
revenue:
Twas from Pole unto Pole that this highway should
To the great open Sea of the Arctic, you know;
Many tourists take up, bears and seals bring away,
a-frporal ll-da
He called on the rich to subscribe for the shares
And also the poor who would be millionaires
Twas iut'rest i'll gold they would pay in trice,
Secured 10y good bond and mortgage on lee.
(CHoRUs-Defning the great ease of manner with
which aforesaid interest could be paid
From the money paid down for the stock, he could
meet
All the int'rest prescribed, till the road was COM
pete;
And, at last, if the work didn't happen to pay,
Why the shares were-Ri-tooral, ri-tooral, li-day
With praise ol the scheme eyry paper full,
And each mOney-edtor in ii a " bull -
Twill greatly develop our country they said.
And show if John Franklin's alive or is dead.
(CHoRUs-Delicately intimating why journalism is
never backward in encouraging noble pub
lie enterprise of this nature:
There journals sanguine of railroad success,
That part of the stock they themselves may pos
sess;
And if how they came by it you'd have them be-
tray,
They will tell you-R-tooral, ri-tooral, li-day p
The bankers depositors caught at the thing,
And cried, let US into this collaborating ring;
And did the people all over the land.
Who other stocks had, or the money, on hand
tCHoRUs- Expressive of the child-like trust reposed
in the wisdom and honor of the few 10y the
many:
of
TO an enterprise lend their respectable names,
It must surely be just what its managers say
or the signers are-Tooral, ri-tooral, li-day y
Then ten Savings Banks purchased shares in it,
too
And banks os all kinds bought the stock as it grew
And model Trust Companies took it in trade
Ti.is versal-AIid-Boundry-U -Up-Crade
ICHoRUs-Indicating the jndicious policy followed
by such institutions in such case:
Ii your Trust-institution, your bank, or its like,
On a.good speculation believes it can strike,
1t is not slow to reap what it can in that way:
Though 1t ometimes-Ri-tooral, ri-ooral, li-day y
At last there were millions invested therein
And waiting for trips on the road 90 begin,
When some one discovered, and told, with bawl,
No road of the kind had been buided at all
happened that the II. L. VI. B. L. q. first
built:
In the cost Of proclaiming that bonds for sale,
And of working the market that holders shant fail,
such very large sum is exhausted, some way,
That the railroad itself is-Ri-tooral, li-day j
Down tumbled the stock with rush. at the sound
And banks, brokers, buyers, in frenzy We're found
And when to the banker the multitude went,
They found he'd suspended" and paid not a
cent
QCHoRUs-To be sung with great animation in tn,
nearest Bankrupt Court:
There are railroads too many this day in the land
And the stock of the best scarcely profits the hand
But TO buy into more, with the hope that they'll
pay,
Is a-rooral, ri-tooral, ri-tooral. li-day y
-O,pheus c. Kerr, in the Nelc York Graphic