The Portland daily press., 1880-04-23
A Day of Dupes.

An advertisement printed yesterday by q
New York city Journal is peculiar and forci-
BILE illustration of the temper of the time. Tho
creulousness of mankind has been laughed at
from the earliest ages, yet men go ON believing
the most incredible things; and especially il
the bait be money, the supply of fools who
make for the trap is never exhausted. Bacon
calls riches the baggage of virtue; and the un-
due desire for them is as truly the blunter Of
wisdom. 1t is noteworthy, however, that tho
public mind does not become gullible all OF q
sudden, but by graduated processes. In per-
spective the intervals between given points
may seem short, while in truth they are long
We may be sure, for example, that tsuch epochs
of insane fever as those of the tulip mania in
Holland and the South Sea Bubble in England
were not abruptly ushered in, but were led up
to by predatory alterations that initiated the
madness to come.
The advertisement named runs as follows:
81 have an invention by means of which can
propel o loaded car safely one thousand miles
an hour. desire to form stock company
with $4,000 or 100000, to pay for taking out
patents and putting the invention in opera
ton. Persons desirous to invest in the stock
may address," etc., etc. We have spoken of
this curious announcement as an illustration
of the temper Of the time; and it will be agreed
that such thing seems more natural, or less
out of place to-day than it would have seemed
some years ago. There have appeared. in rap
id succession, number of really surprising
inventions. Things have been done that the
vast majority of mankind have previously be-
lieved to be impossible. At the same time, q
long period of depression in business affairs
affairs has been interrupted by sharp change
for the better. Hence the public have had
their faculty of scepticism, SO to speak, Sc
riously impaired, while roseate light has
been diffused around by the revival of pros
perty. 1t is safe to say that considerable
number of persons who would once have
thrown aside the advertisement quoted with con-
tempt will read it now, if not with instant ac-
ceptance, at least with qualified unbelief; and
we suspect that not few persons will read it
more credulously still.
1t is aIwonder loving age, cycle embellished
add, with "tall" achievements; and the i'm
possible has happened Of late so often that it is
not surprising If a dazzled world puts faith in
its endless repetition. II Mr. Richard Adams
Locke could produce today parallel ,s tale etc to
tomorrow people in tens Of thousands to swal-
low it without winking Additional evidence
of this is found in abundance in the columns
already cited. The men with patents, the
owners of Golcondas in the shape of mines, the
projectors of schemes that will pay millions on
the investment of tens, the concoctors of i'm
practicable plans for visionary enterprises, are
now in full feather, and many Of them, we
can well imagine, are reaping fat rewards:
The number of fat advertisements published
in single New York newspaper that are
manifestly founded upon firm confidence in
human folly, and are mere snowy bats for
greed and credulity, would scarcely be cred
tied without close and critical examination.
We have selected what is perhaps the most
fragrant of these examples; but there are doz-
ems of others as preposterous, and worse, in the
sense that they are unredeemed by the possi-
bility of an honest purpose, or OF self-delusion,
which is conceivable as regards the case in
hand.
We have entered upon what may be termed
a day of dupes, a stage to which Mr.. Buckle
would assign aregular periodicity, and which on
his theory is to be looked for at intervals with
planetary bodies. Mems minds are afame
with the rage to grow suddenly rich; and the
wish continually fathers the thought that bids
them to believe in the incredible. 1t is the
harvest time for chevaliers or pilferers OF in
dustry, the jubilee of blowers of bladders,
:'salters'' of mines, and promoters Of cheatery
generally. The ideal man Of the moment
should combine the towering genius OF
Munchausen and Of Barnum, together
with the unscrupulousness of we'll
known Wall Street gentleman whom
we will not name; and without disre-
spect to the abilities Of other great showmen or
Operators" it may be added that there is no
lack among our countrymen OF plenty OF indi-
The deluge, to be sure, may come after them,
but they will have plundered their dupes to
their hearts content in good season before
that cataclysm arrives. Perhaps time may
to be. Perhaps when the advertiser men-
toned has propelled his loaded car safely
thousand miles an hour, fools will no longer
make haste to part with their substance or
knaves to fatten upon it. We doubt, however,
that the change will take place before them
N. Y. Evening Post. rla u tr t.