The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-02-11
THE SILVER MINE MANIA.
To-day Poor-To-morrow n Carriage aud
Laces and Finery-Next Day ------

Lpces and Fiuery-Next Day ------
Things have been in such whirl
hereabouts recently, writes q San Fran
cisco correspondent, that one hardly
knows who he is or what he is, whether
millionaire or an ordinary individual,
as millionaires are now therule, and "or-
dinary people" the exception. L never
before so thoroughly realized how re-
spectacle it is to be poor. 1t is posi-
lively SO; for wealth-not common
matter of few hundred thousands, but
millions-is as glibly discussed as if the
people had been Graded in gold and sill
yer. The big fortunes that have been
made here lately are really astounding,
and to listen to how so and so made q
hundred thousand yesterday ON an in
vestment of five thousand, how the
"ring" must have cleared couple of
millions 80 far this week, is like reading
the " Arabian Nights" You can't most
always tell, either, who has been specu-
lating; in fact, it is almost impossible to
find anybody who has not, Rigid bust
ness men who frown at stock speculations
are "in y; ministers, the servant girls,
the clerks, the lame, the halt, the blind,
are all in stocks. They hear of such
large profits from small investments that
they cannot resist. [ know of not one
but fifty instances where poor people,
from an investment of q few hundreds,
have been raisedto affiuence ina day. The
cook in our house came to me day or
two since to ask me to PLACE take care of
her money. Supposing she had few
months wages 1 consented, whereupon
she brought me bag containing five
thousand dollars. "Hello, Bridget" I"
said I, "where did you get all this r"
Made it in Ophir, your honor. L
day at three hundred dollars, and here's
the money, sir" L looked at her. She
didn't look much like a stock sharp.
Said 1, "Bridget, who got you into
stocks2" "Me sister, sir, who lives wild
Mr.. Brown, the broker; and she heard
him say at the table, when she was wait
in, that Ophir was bound to go up, and
she tould me, sir, and we put our money
together and bought it, and to-day we
sold it and got the money" "And did
your sister make an equal amount 2"
Eyes, sir, just the same" On the spur
of the moment 1 was about proposing
partnership-a three-handed game, Pod
gers, Bridget & Mary-the business to
be conducted jointly, by Mary with her
ears, Bridget with her tongue, and self
as manipulation, it is needless to say,
Bridget and Mary furnishing the capital.
L confess felt myself very small. There
was that ,mromantic, slightly pockmafk-
ed, pug-nosed Bridget, with not half the
brains ought to have, nor one fraction
of the opportunity, had made more
money in proportion to herrequirements
and capital in q few days than /, with all
my supposed knowledge of business and
chances, could in lifetime. What a
swell Bridget would cut in the ould coun-
thry with her five thousand.
know q broker whom heard yester-
day bid siXty-seven dollars a share for all
the stock of one mine, for his own per-
sonal account, amounting to over two
millions, who two years ago was merely
q crrbstone broker and appeared on the
street with his coat buttoned up to his
chin because he had no shirt; whose
whole wealth at home was straw mat
tress, one chair, one stool, few tin
plates, fork or two, and wife cooped
up in one miserable little room to help
him enjoy all this splendor, and go
hungry, as she did. L saw her yesterday
in a splendid crimson-lined clarence,
going down town, with the tallest hat
and feather that brushed the flies from
the carriage-top; such camels-hair on
her arm and such lace trimming on her
dress and generally and minutely got
up regardless but withal, lady born
and bred, and she carried it like aqueen.
l stopped and looked at the whole pic
ture, and L mused; / may safely say l
felt glad. "What change 70 L said to
myself " that's right, my little woman;
you have had it mighty rough, and you
just go it now; just take your revenge ON
the goddess for her previous scurvy
treatment. What n glorious satisfac-
dragged down to poverty, and who
shared his lot unmurmuringly (what an
awful long word), by his own energy, his
own hands and brains, placed, in a brief
period, to the top of the giddy pinnacle
of prosperity that summing up of all
earthly bliss to a woman, a better car
riage.than any other womans, wider and
finer lace founces, a set of furs un-
equaled, and a camel's-hair that makes
people turn around in the street and look
after her. Lives there a woman with
soul SO dead, who, to herself, has not
said, "This is happiness" They are
poor, weak creatures, and have their lit
tie failings. These are harmless. There
is no sin in all that. If we fellows do no
worse, then we are n great deal better
than have any reliable account of.