The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-08-19
The Career Of a Boy Spectator.

Dumas wild story of the adventures of
the Count of Monte Cristo has been gen
orally regarded as an example of the ut
most extravaganza of romance. But the
plain, unvarnished history Of the career
of the boy speculator, Charles Kuchel, as
revealed to the public within the last few
days, discloses features scarcely less cX-
travagant and incredible than the strange
and high-wrought fiction of the renowned
French novelist. Here we have boy of
nineteen, without capital or available
means Of his own, going into the stock
market and operating on a scale scarcely
inferior to that of the King of Com
stock' or the chief magnates of Cali
fornia street. This adventurous and en-
tcrprising youth, mere brokers' clerk,
with no capital except his native audacity
and craft, rivaled in the magnitude Of
his stock transactions the veteran million
aires who are popularity supposed to con-
troll the market, make corners, and send
stock up or down according to their pleas
ure. His operations thus far ascer-
tanned during the first two weeks of
last January amounted to $157,00
while during the months of May and June
they figured up to the incredible sum of
$3.50, 600. His transactions from the be-
ginning of the year to the 21st of July
amounted to over 81, 100, 900. But these
figures, stunning as they may seem, only
cover his sales and purchases through two
brokers. He is known also to have OPP
Grated through others, and the full extent
of his stock dealings has not yet been as
certained. While carrying on business
upon this magnificent scale young Monte
Cristo lived like a prince of the blucst
blood. He drove hi gin spirited trotters on
the Cliff road, and is said to have been
the owner of no less than three dashing
double teams. He was gorgeously appar-
eled, Jared sumptuously every day, and
had the best of everything going that could
be obtained for money. There was moth.
ing niggardly about this precocious prod
igal. If lie lavished his money freely, it
was not all expended upon himself and
his individual pleasures. Only a few
weeks ago he sent his mother and sister
off upon European tour, and his main
solicitude when arrested seemed to be lest
they should hear of his disgrace.
The fact that the boy was able to con-
tinue such career so long undetected,
using the stocks and the credit of his en-
ployers on such an extensive scale, seems
inexplicable. If all brokers evince this
confiding and unsuspicious disposition
toward their clerks, they simply offer al
most irresistible temptations to dishon-
esty, and are in measure morally respon-
sible for the lapses of young persons in
their employment. L is also singular
that brokers should receive and execute
heavy orders from clerks without word
of notification to the supposed principal.
The excitements of stock gambling have a
fatal fascination. To live in hemidst of
it, and breathe its Circean atmosphere, is
a moral poison calculated to sap the foun-
dations of sober integrity. The habitual
contemplation of ventures which, if
successful, bring sudden aff1uence,
produces disgust for the patient and
industrious efforts, the economy and
self-denial by which wealth or CON-
petence can be safely and honestly
won. 1t kindles fever for speculation
which perturbs the conscience and the
judgment and makes men reckless in re-
gard to risks of means and even of repu-
tation. 1t induces, especially in the young,
mood in which they fall an easy prey to
temptation and opportunity. 1t is no
wonder that these reflections should have
suggested themselves forcibly to the de-
frauded broker, or that, when friend ap-
piled to him asking the situation made
vacant by Kuchel's detection for another
youth, he made answer: elf you have
boy that you care anything about, set him
at anything but the stock trade. Put him
into gambling den if you like, set him
to deal faro, but don't make brokers'
clerk of him. The real gambling will be
less trying to his morals than the base
California street imitation SanF Francisco
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