Connecticut western news., 1875-03-26
THE GAMBLING MANIA.
The silver Mining Stock Spcculations and the Sad Results Thereof.


 the Sad Results Thereof.
 eliminated on the Pacific coast about the beginning of the year. On the 4th of January, the three leading mines in lows: California at $790 per share, Con- solidated Virginia at $715, and Ophir at $315. From these dizzy attitudes, which had been reached by rapid flights, the stocks fell slowly until February 25, when they sold as follows: California at $53, Consolidated Virginia at ss430. and Ophir at $s75. There is world of trouble hid den behind these dry figures. Men who were reveling in wealth with California at $78O are beggars when it touches $53. did not wait for the stock to fall upon them; they were sold out before it touched bottom. We cannot tell, says an exchange, whether any of these stocks have touched bottom; but it does seem as if property which commanded such wide range of prices in a few weeks as that represented in this stock list, ought to have its lower limit somewhere in tho region of the small figures above quoted, unless the bottom of things is to drop out
 
 8 catastrophe that it would not seem worth while for the hapless owners to bother about the nominal prices at the foot of the precipice. Men who bought in when things were at their highest, and held on with borrowed money, are as poor as that speculator who declared that if steamboats were selling at 8 dollar and a half apiece he could not buy belaying pin. .
 Of course, there are some ahrewd peo- pie who sold early, and thereafter kept their hands out of the business. The newspapers talk of one self -distrustful man who, having "made his pile, put his profits into hard cash, and actually fled from the country, in mortal terror, lest he should be tempted to go into the whirlpool again and lose what he had gained. When this wise person, slow voyaging up the Nile, reads under the African sun the story of the misfortunes of his neighbors, he will hug himself be- cause he knew himself so well and got safely away with the spells of fortune.
 Others there were, probably, who did not feel obliged to run from the gam bling board, but stood, and looked at the wreck of other mems fortunes with the calm fortitude of Christian who holds nothing less feeting in value than golden double-eagles and government bonds. But the mass of buyers bought bonanza stocks Con a margin ''-that is to say, they borrowed money on the stocks which nominally stood in their names. When the fall began they borrowed more to keep their "margin" good. Still the decline kept on, and they were sold out at r1linous figures. Their fancied wealth disappeared like castle of mist before the san. The very small opera tors-servants and humble men who had made few thousands from @ few hun dreds-were not so likely to sell early. Unless they were smitten of some wild folly, they were out of the way when the collapse came. But tho heavier gam blers-the men of small means, great ex- pectations, and lucky beginnings to swift destruction, To these, life just now seems very empty; their enterprises of pith and moment are arrested; their plate, jewelry, houses, equipages, fine clothing, and good cheer have vanished like dream. Once they were rolling in wealth; now, they are, to use 8 local phrase, "sparring for square meal. :" Their riches have exhaled; at touch of the magician's wand their certificates of value, founded on the precious deposits of the frmest earth, turn into worthless scraps. The palace is left unbuilt.