New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-22
INGENIOUS AND CONCLUSIVE.

| Such are the terms in which the re
ayune speaks OF reply to the objection
that some helders Of tickets III the cit,
debt tombola may not "get their none.
back" in less than half century. Th
refutation Of this doubt is embodied in
communication published in the Picaya7'e
from which we extract as follows:
The premium plan of settling the city'l
difficulties has been objected to by some OF
account of its stopping the regular receip
! OF interest At first sight this would seen
to be valid objection to the scheme; te
prove that it is not, let US take sample
case, that of man holding $1,000 bond al
present. For this he will get fifty twenty
dollar tickets. At the end of the first year
they will be worth, with accrued interest
| $3.50. Let him then cell two of his tickets
worth $50 each, and he will have SAP cash,
in lieu of interest, aud will still have forty
leaving his principal more than intact. OF
course, if one of the tickets is drawn the
necessity for selling would be obviated.
An extension Of this plan would realize a
| periodic amount that would be about the
| same regular interest.
The great battles of logic consist in agree
ing to the premises, and then establish
ing the conclusion by reasoning and proof.
The process by which General Bobadil
would have slain the whole army of the
enemy was irrefragable upon the admis-
sion OF the premises. Said Bobadil:
would take twenty four gentlemen, alto
gether or nearly equal to myself III skill
with the sword would challenge twenty
HI,A IF - n Ill ball
twenty five more; kill them
The simplest powers of multiplication
would show that the enemy might by this
process be annihilated within few weeks
That the enemy might not accept the
challenge; that they would send men to
the daily slaughter, or that Bobadil and
his men were invulnerable and infallible,
were never allowed to enter into the
validity of deductions which depended
wholly upon the primary concession.
In the paragraph above quoted it is as
sumed that a twenty dollar ticket bearing
five per cent may be sold for its face in
market. This fact established, the argu-
ment is at an end. The holder of bond
bearing six or eight per cent, having
more or less time to run, can not sell it,
according to our secretary of the city
treasury, for more than thirty to forty
cents on the dollar. Let him, however,
reduce the rate of interest to five per cent
and bet it on the "eagle bird by chance"
Of the bondholders' roulette, and it will |
rise to par and will command
its face in market. If this be true, the |
bondholder who can not sell his bonds |
without discount of fifty or sixty per
cent has only to cut them up into lottery
tickets, reduce the interest, postpone the
for halt century, and they will
bring par.
We dispute the premises, and deny that
/ bondholder can ''sell two of his tickets
worth twenty dollars each, and that he
will have torty-two dollars cash." Such
news on Carondelet street would produce a
for the city treasury, at which
lone so wonderful an advance could be
called.
The fallacy of the communication seems
o have puzzled the common sense of
he Picoyne, for it says editorially:
This argument is based, of course. on the
that the bonds under the pre-
mum plan will rise to par.
1t has, however, the financial hardihood
0 indorse the assumption of par sale of
hese tickets, and adds:
And such, we have no doubt, would be the
esult before the expiration OF the second
ear under management that appealed to
ne confidence OF the public
That management which shall appeal to
lie confidence of the public is safe provi-
}. 1t leaves wholly uncertain to what man.
cement is referred, and would thereby
ROW heavy responsibility upon the
cretary of the city treasury and Mr..
dler. These gentlemen have thus far
zen the only persons that have signed
cir names, with those of Baron Roths-
lid aud the New York building specu-
ton, to the bondholders' 10 ttery.