The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-11-25

i pressure becomes serious the lenders never
hesitate to turn on the screws They have
been charging seven per cent. interest, and
1-32 Of one per cent. a day usury for good
many days in succession for month or two
past, and once or twice the rate got up to 1-16
day premium. That you see is about 90 per
cent per annum, which is lively rate to pay
for counters to gamble with, for that is about
what it amounts to.
The market has been in greater state of
excitement since the 7th of October than it
ever was before, except possibly during the
paper money frenzy in 1864, when there be-
gan to be doubts in tinid minds whether the
currency was intrinsicaly good for anything,
and everybody was IN a hurry to get rid of it.
Prices have been going up at a tremendous
rate till they got so high as to astonish every
body. And yet curiously enough the more
they advanced the greater was the eagerness
to buy them. The Oldest dealers in Wall
street give it as their experience that the pub
lc will not buy stocks freely until they be-
come very dear. Then they rush in with ire
pressible impetuosity and help to fan the flame
which too often consumes them at hast.
If it was fair game" as the phrase goes,
they would stand better chance; bpt unfor-
tunately there is no end of icckeying and
thmble rigging in the street. and all sorts Of
rumors are invented and circulated to exalt or
depress the market as may happen to be the
purpose of the originators of them. This week
the effort was to bring about heavy decline,
and there certainly were reasons enough why
there should be one. The quotations had been
rising steadily for weeks and had reached
dizzy height. The least agitation was likely
TO send them downward. Holders had become
so nervous that they were keenly susceptible
to dispiriting influences. Credits had been so
disturbed that they were not able to bear
great deal more strain. The most incredible
stories were listened to and believed by
frightened crowd of men, who saw before
them the danger of having all their margins
swallowed up in an hour, and who hurried to
sell out in the faint hope of saving something
out of the impending wreck Imagine such
multitude throngng the Exchange inside and
outside, elbowing each other in the corridors,
blocking up the streets in front and rear.
frantically offering to sell this, that and the
other stock in such chorus of shrill and deaf
ening yels that the Tower of Babel must
have been Quaker meeting in comparison.
The goth and 2lst-Thursday and Friday
were the occasions of the widest scenes. On
the latter day the excitement touched the ex-
tremest point and spent itself in one great con-
vulsive movement. For the present there is
quiet again, but there may be recurrence of
the turbulent scene at any moment. There
are abundant elements to provoke it. Prices
were still very high, merely reckoning them at
the minimum figures of the week. Neverthe
less they have leaped back again to very near
the extravagant rates at which they ruled be-
fore the break occurred. Stocks are dangerous
to invest in even if the parties who buy them
have the cash wherewithal to pay for them and
can lay them away and hold them. 1t is much
more likely that they will realize loss than
profit from trading in them. However, that's
exclusively their own affair. If they pay their
money they can take their choice. We have
the authority of the proverb for that. But
anybody who will use his capital in margins
and buy shares that are already enormously
dear, in the chance of their becoming still
more so, incurring the risk all the while of be-
ing unceremoniously sold out and cleaned out,
displays such density of idiocy that it is a
wonder how ON earth he ever became possessed
of any funds He must have inherited what
he has, but then the parties who bequeathed it
to him were sngularly deficient in Judgment
and foresight, one would suppose, to give the
control of money to so weak-minded and guilt
BILE person.
As the result of the weeks tornado there are
hecatombs of unhappy sufferers who went
down to Wall street to find a short cut to affiu-
ence and have gone out Of it with empty pock-
cts and sad hearts. Per contra, there are
smaller number of clever sharpers who are
feeling very rich for the present, and are hold
ing high revel in the saloons of Delmonico's
and the Hotel Brunswick. The next turn Of
the wheel of fortune may send them down, but
they are accustomed to reverSes 1t is part of
the philosophy of your Thoroughbred gamester
to make the most of his opportunities while
luck favors him, and to endure reverses with
every outward show of nonchalance 1t is not
often that those who acquire wealth suddenly
succeed in retaining it permanently. The same
spirit of adventure that lured them into the
operations by which they acquired it, will
tempt them sooner or later to venture into en-
terprises that will involve the loss of it. "Slow
and sure,'' is pretty good motto in the long
run. There are more believers in it in this
city than there were ten days since. These
stock speculations do have an inviting appear
ance to those who only think of the winning
side and never of the losing. But it is good
thing to remember that the losses average
about the same as the profits and that there
are in point OF numbers ten who fail to one
who succeeds. The successful ones get ton
times their share. And then the commissions
of the brokers amount to vast sums. There
are great many of them, and their calling
must be considered highly lucrative, for seat
in Board of Brokers can be sold at any time
for 900 or more, and the pressure to get in
to that body is so great that there are always
more applicants than can be accommodated. 1t
is anything but pleasant institution to do
business in. The uproar in Change hours is
deafening. should think tending menage-
rie would be preferable if feeding the animals
was not one of the services required. On the
whole, think it is pretty good advice to give
to everybody: "Keep out of Wall street, but
if you won't do that, don't trade in it on bor-
rowed capital. YARMOUTH.
Magazine Notices.
10 fo, TOao -, hat