The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1879-06-30
The World in a Sling.

.r;,,,.,nh to triumph. Honors nave peen
showerea upon them, and partisans nave
st,nor,ed for advantage in pressing for po'
sitieu to fawn and cringe before the man o.
fortune and OF fortunate career. But some
fine morning has brought with it fatal DIS
aster and has plunged the tavoritc into ire
trieyab,e ruin. 1t has been so, and must
coDtiuuc so to be. AS it was in the begin
ming, so Ills now and ever shall be-.
We have had wonderful instances within
a few wears which should have taught us
valuable lessons. The case Of JAY COOKE
was one ,hst was disastrous to many peo'
nle and that swept away millions that were
riskcd upon the trust placed IN him ana MS
concentrations, and these millions were
swept away forever. There was the Won
drrfui case OF RAIsToS, OF California: a
case without parallel in this century OF
wonders, and yet is nearly forgotten, SO
promptly does the public mind rally from
disaster in this age OF unparalleled specu-
lation aud changes in fortune.
But still must the surprises in The Worid
OF fortune and finance 90 on. The material
for producing them is as abundant as ever
POSSIBLY more so than ever. The remark
able developments OF wealth, the changes
in values. and the revival OF business, all
tend TO bring on success; and suggest new
lines CT speculation and prospecting.
These will make surprises, and accumula-
tious, and disasters. So we shall not have
TO com,ain OF want OF financierlng sensa-
tions. There will be plenty OF them. and
although they will be sure to widen and
spread their effects over toe surface, they
are not likely TO do great deal Of harm, be-
cause The lessons OF the country are too nu-
mero,s and recent, and people have learned
how TO keep cautioned and with their bow
cr> well posted.
Nevertheless, il we are correct in looking
out for more activity and 4 better compen-
sation in business and commerce generally.
there will creep in upon enterprI.ing men
more or less of the spirit OF adventure, and
athc disposition to incur risks with the hope
OF gain. This will be the case Of business
generally; but your "Scopy" dealers who
seek the ways Of multiplying their capital
By TIE hundred thousand and the million
will have ways Of their own, and bold and |
intrepid movements that are suggested and
performed upon broad principles and |
s1rcWG calculations.
This is the class OF men who are prone to
,ctting "the world in Sling" and While |
they so often seem so to have it, sooner or |
later they are sure to find themselves alto
cether at fault. People OF less means ana
more limited strategy are apt to envy these
great operators" but they often hnd
their mistake, and their consolation, too,
bv discovering that their envy was alto
rc,hcr mistake, resulting from bad dis
position. and directed where there was
really nothing to envy. People often re-
gard the "great operators" as the
great boulders which grind the smaller
bodies like themselves rs they move
forward in the daily economy Of life.
That il another great error. These opera"
tors know better when they look into their
own accounts. They find that they are too
often themselves ground up instead OF as
si>ting themselves TO grind up less con-
siderable bodies. Indeed, there is plenty
of distress and crushing; but really the
great suffering, the great disappointment,
and the great disasters, are far more familiar
to the large operators than to other classes.
1t NAV be said that those great operators
are all the time helping to squander and dill
fuse wealth that has been, through cunning
and activity, not to use more incisive terms,
&c fbo np.ttN mol q
a blunGer and miscalculatc, and then comes
the loss and scatteration Of million or so,
maybe. OF course that goes TO help out
scarcity by ditfusing means that had been
concentrating and growing in hands whose
object was to keep it.
\ trait always apparent in the society OF
the "great operators is that they have
little or no community OF interest. There
is little sympathy ever manifested amongst
them for one another. They are ever on
the watch to detect the schemes OF each
other aud TO thwart them by counter. ac-
ton, and much delight is afforded when
ever discovery is made whereby the specu-
lations OF the day Of any operator are de-
foated and loss is entailed-thc greater the
more gratifying; so that man who may
think he has "the world in sling" in the
morning may lind himself sin sling be-
fore night.
When one thinks OF the immense extent
OF the operations OF capitalists and The
narrow margins and perlous chances which
mark them, the wonder is how often they
succeed. But we must remember that they
arc always perilous, and d mistake or sud-
den change OF values is followed by the
worst disasters. 1t must never be forgotten,
too, that in the strife for gains in financial
spcculations there is always the most deter
mined purpose to iniure, and, il possible,
to ruin rivals, and numerous as are disap-
pointments from ordinary causes, far great
er are the failures that are the result of de-
liberate and vicious strategies for personal
Injury.
The schemes and calculations that enter
into the movements Of great capitalists are
varied and comprehensive. 1t is impossi.
bic that they can be always perfected. All
these persons are rivals, and with so many
schemers in the field collisions must occur
and failures ensue. Almost all OF them are
at some time satisfied they have things all
their own way, and afterwards learn that
they haven't.