The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1879-01-05
STOCK SPECULATYONs.
THE MANIA AS IT EXISTS ON THE PACIFIC
COAsT.-MALE AND FEMALE, OLD AND
YOUNG, CRAZY TOGETHER.
From the Philadelphia Press.

From the Philadelphia Press.
San Francisco December 15.-Stocks stocks
| stocks. We suppose no other word in the Eng.
lish language has, during the past month
been SO often used in this State as the above
Not the stocks of Paul and Silas, who could
sing while their feet were in them. Oh, no
Those were feathery bapds compared with the
ones that bind here They fettered only the
feet, but allowed the spirit to soar, while these
| all the freshness, the aroma and the purity out
of life. The man in Bunyan's Pilgrims Pro-
gress, bending with the muck rake over the
pile of rubbish in search of straw and scraps,
crown of beauty Of inestimable value, and in
vain endeavoring to induce him to look up and
their feverish impatience to make money, and
make it at bound, are losing all the sweet
nesses of life, are forgetting to cultivate the
graoes of patience, charity, long-suffering, and
children, and are, Esau-like closing their eyes
upon all the beauties of the higher, the spirit
ual life, for q mere mess of pottege. The stock
mania is not confined to the stock brokers or to
the male portion of the community.
Lovely woman, hoary-hesded man, the priest
and the servant, the saint and the sinner, the
all alike affected with the stock disease which,
like leprosy, is incurable ; but which, worse
than leprosy. often destroys soul we'll as
body. The Coroner, in his annual report said:
while the increase in the population had been
but 25 per cent, the increase in the number of
suicides had been 81 per cent, and this he be-
lieved to bs caused by the rise and fall of min
ing stocks" One of their own papers says (:
tine practice of specializing in stocks as car
ried on in California is gambling of the most
direct and undisguised character. IL is gambl-
with the sole distinction that, whereas, in q |
square faro game the player has some distant |
prospect of winning, those who gamble in |
stocks are 10 nine cases out of ten certain to |
lose. It is the most reckless foolish. insen ate
kind of gambling. DAbblets in stocks become |
with the slow progress of legitimate
pursuits. They grow ont of keeping with their
They look npon their present
position as merely ephemersl. They are con-
stantly anticipating the time when they will
be- millionnares. All the virtues and blessings
are dis,ipated and dispelled before
;he feversh breath of the demon of gambling.
rhe domestic affections withsr and die under
;he pestilentisl tff1nenoe. Women are more
more reckless gamblers. They are prepared to
take everything they possess in moments of
'xoitement. There are plenty of San Francis
10 brokers whose most profitable business is
lone with servants and mechanics. There are
housAnds,' may, tens of thousands. of working {
nen and women, who put every dollar of their | :
iard earnings into stocks. and who, for the |
most part, lose it ALL The god of our idolatry
8 stocks. By stocks.we swear. In stocks we 7
i've, and move, aud have our being, 1t is our
tandard of morality, of social position, of ex-
ellepce in all respects. Perhaps we'sbaIl never
id ourselves of this curse, bat meanwhile
egard for the truth compels us to insist upon
be fact that IL IS curse ana nObnlnE eIee."
he AIta said, q few days ago: "B 9echer may
reach there is no hell, bat had he held stocks
u n margin he would think today that one
ad been manufactured to order and without
otice, just for marginal people. His doctrine
mo heIr would, within the past twenty four
ours, be turned into the strongest faith that
lere is one" Californisns live in q constant =
ate of regret. They regret If they sell, or n
icy regret if they hold. How can it be other !
ise when the variations in the price OF stock
one day are sometimes from 2o to so per
mt Is it any wonder that Ten went mad
no owned Sierra Nevada in jane at 81 per tn
lare, sold it at q small advance, and in few II
eeks saw il go up to $3.50 Since then it il
Is gone down to $33, causing, as Pat one Il
our elevator boys. says, ruin, panic and tn tn
saster to thousands. Pat is one of the At
,ry few who bear their fortunes and misfor- Dr.
mes philosophically. Last July he invested . &c
lndred dollars in four or five hundred shares a.
wild cat stock in Union Consolidated. In be
,tober he sold and realized over $4,000. He pr
ID it in hard, shining, yellow gold, counting Pu
over in the corner of the elevator. We said, ]
Fat, you had better invest in Government an
ndR; they're safe and cure" Bot Pat bad col
o fever bad, and be tnrnsd his clean, bright sol
Inoy into Gould g. Curry, and to-day aa be rs rs
- A 4 few shares Of Gayajo, . Wildcat -, ~