The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-30

with the rosy anticipations of the gentlemen
who are tumbling stocks up and down Wall
street in this active fashion. OF course it
would afford us the highest qualification if we
could see in the movements of the street the
evidences of that serene and wholesome
activity which attends true business pros
pcrity. and which we have long waited to see.
All the indications of the past few weeks lead
us to anticipate business spring of exceed
ing promise and value. The winter has been
unusually hard. The depression that came
with the panic was too serious in its character
10 any longer affect the nerves of people as
elastic and enterprising as our own. The de-
mands for new supplies from various parts
OF the country, the necessity for construct
ing railways and other large industries,
the anticipations of rich harvests and the
fact that while Congress has done nothing
/ specially advantageous in strengthening the
finances it still abstained from any violent
interference with commerce, all tended to
encourage our people and to lead to the
! opening of q prosperous and wholesome
spring. Our only fear in giving expression to
these anticipations has been that the clique
of desperate spectators and gamblers in Wall
street would take advantage of the situation
and profit by this activity and this natural
/ and wholesome growth of trade for their own
/ gain. Therefore, while directing the atten-
! ton Of our merchants to the true processes of
! business advantage, we have steadily warned
them against dealing in the Big Bonanza
shares which for two or three months past
have occupied the attention of Wall street.
The wisdom of this advice will be seen. we
think, in studying the history of the market
for the past few days During the last week
the number of shares sold in the street aver
aged three hundred and fifty thousand day.
Yesterday this number increased. There was
q sudden rise in values, attepded with rumors
that one spec nlator had been caught in
"corner" and that another was furnishing
him for his temerity. All business interests
responded in sympathy to this feeling The
gold market was unsettled, foreign exchange
was in q feverish and excited condition, all
the relations of commerce were interrupted,
and Wall street. instead of being, as it should
be, natural channel of necessary and healthy
business, was gorged with masses OF specu-
lative interests, ''puts" and ''calls, 'bear"
struggling with ''bull" and s'bull" endeavor-
ing to kill ''bear.'' One rumor succeeds
rious way, desperation, distrust, dishonesty is
the rule, and behind all two or three auda-
cous spectators, who pull the wires for their
own advantage and prey upon the street,
and through the street upon mercantile in
terests, for their own gain. If we look back
at the history of Wall street since the begin
ming of the year we find desperate purpose
on the part of certain operators to give false
value to stocks that have long been justly
under suspicion. The ''Blg Bonanza" specu-
lation, as it was called, in Nevada, came from
the ingenious efforts of the owners of certain
| mine to give it an Incredible value. To this
end stories were slowly and steadily put in
! circulation describing new "discoveries, and
/ finally leading the imagination of the people
up to the point of believing that within this
mine there was enough money to pay the
national debt; in other words, that it con-
tanned gold worth thousands of millions.
! There is nothing easier than to lead the popu-
lar imagination in matters of this kind, as
those who have made study Of the history of
these schemes can testify. There was the
South Sea bubble, the Tulipomanla, the Mis-
sisslppi scheme of Law, the Northern Pacific
Railway and thousands of others we could
mention to show what, by dint of steady as
surance and The publication Of highly colored,
attractive stories, people can be induced to
buy with their money for the gain of specula-
tors and reckless operators. The same policy
which gives quack medicine worldwide repu-
tation as the curer Of every i'll of the human
system and enables its owner to amass an
enormous fortune from its sale is the policy
which made tho success Of the Big Bonanza
in Nevada. The shares were sold the owners
Of the mine reaped large gains, and the people
who have bought these shares have been lett
to mourn the folly which led them to invest
their money upon the fraudulent misrepresen-
tations OF dishonest gambling Adventures.
Nothing can be more deplorable in its re-
suits than for people to be led by the same
influences in New York to commit the same
folly. AS we have said, nothing would crafty
us more than to regard the operations in Wall
street for the last few days as an indication of
a heavy advance in trade. But we DO not see
the relation between a large part of the BUSH
ness done in Wall street and the natural oper-
atoms of commerce. We find thousands Of
shares-or what arc supposed to be shares
sold in the way of puts and "cails" for
professedly gambling purposes. We find that
the newspapers have beon steadily filed with
stories calculated TO affec, the value Of these
shares which, on their face, are untrue. We
find that all the ingenious machinery Of Wall
street has been devoted to giving them q fever
ish value. Yet, if we look behind the in
erests which are thus driven on in
this mad way, what do we find? Are these
| the shares that an honest business man