Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-29
THE eAMB-1Na SPIRIT.

men OF the danger OF that KIND OF invest
ment. There are comparatively few Cali
fornians who have not at some time had
personal experience of the tendencies of
such speculation. Yet it appears that not.
withstanding all the warnings of the past
it is almost as easy as ever to persuade the
community into stalking its money upon
even the most palpable swindles, and that
though those who gamble are indig-
nant when they lose, their i'll for
tune has practically no effect in
teaching them wisdom for the future
The only conclusion to be reached from
such facts is that the gambling spirit is i'm
planted too deep for removal, and that at
least generation will have to die out be-
fore it can be overcome. 1t is of course
useless to point out the i'll effects of this
disposition to gamble. None understand
these i'll effects better than the habitual
sufferers from their own folly. 1t is, how
ever, worth noting that while there are
many people who put their money into
stocks without understanding the real ma
ture of the transactions they are gambling
upon, those who generally raise the loudest
outcry over their losses are not so innocent.
OF the larger operators who get caught in
these g deals nearly all are trapped di-
rectly through their own greed. 1t will be
found on investigation that they ''went in /"
expecting to ruin some of their neighbors
that they were fully prepared to take every
thing they could get hold of; and that in
short it is with them a case of diamond
scut diamond" OF course no sympathy
is deserved by men of this stamp, nor in
fact is sympathy due to any man who
speculates in stocks at this time of day.
Nobody has any excuse for ignorance as to
the nature of stock ideals" and those
who choose to shut their eyes to the danger
they are running, and go stolidly forward,
deserve all the punishment they are pretty
sure to receive. The worst evils of stock
gambling, however, do not fall upon what
may be called the professional gamblers,
because it would be positive benefit to
the community if this whole class were SO
completely bankrupted as to be compelled
to abandon the business and seek some
honest and respectable means of earning
living. The community suffers most
through the effects of the gambling spirit
upon the industrial classes, and her, the
consequences are extremely bad. There
are thousands of mechanics and persons
with small fixed incomes who have SO
habituated themselves to stock gambling
that they cannot give it up. Every dollar
they can save out of their earnings goes TO
their brokers, and if after paying out
hundred dollars they once in while make
fifty, they are encouraged to go on in the
same way for another year. When there
is a "boom in the market this class
rushes frantically to invest, and as it cannot
afford the costly luxury of the higher
priced stocks, its little earnings are in
vested in those wildcat shares which the
brokers assure their customers will be car
ried up with the big mines.
When, as in Sierra Nevada, the collapse
comes, an immense number of small gam
blers are always caught out in the side
stocks, and lose everything. Somehow the
fact that other people have made large
gains, however, prevents them from being
discouraged, and instead of abandoning the
fatal attraction they go to work and earn
more money, TO be flung away at the nex-
"boom in the same manner. The ulti-
mate outcome of this kind of thing is to
destroy stability and persistence in society.
The poor man is never content with the
present, nor does he look forward tran
GULLY to the legitimate results of steady
industry. Though by patient perseverance
he could insure himself all necessary COM
forts and conveniences and pleasures, he
prefers to live hand-to-mouth life, and
to deceive himself with magnificent ex-
pectations which are never realized. In
several of the italian States before the
unifcation of Italy it was the custom of the
Government to raise taxes by means of lot
teries. 1t was an easy method, for it
brought out the money of the people much
quicker than the usual modes. But in so
doing it implanted the gambling spirit in
their natures, and the results have been
most calamitous. In the kingdom of
Naples the lottery system was extremely
popular, and it finally ruined the common
people, destroying in them all inclination
for steady and continuous work, fostering
idIeness and foolish dreams of opulence,
and converting them into passionate gam.
blers, who probably carried the specula.
tive spirit farther than it had ever before
gone in community. Now what hap
pened in Naples and other parts of Italy
may happen in California, and has hap
pened already to some extent in San Fran
cisco. Impatience of the results of
steady industry finds expression in
what is called Sandlottism. The COM
mon sentiment of dislike to the
rich which has been observed here of
late years is natural concomitant of the
gambling spirit. Men do not care to de-
vote themselves to lives of toll, and while
they cannot earn a subsistence without
work, and while their feeble speculations
fail to return them any profits. they be.
come more and more soured and disguised
with the whole framework of society, and
less capable of being good and sober citi.
zens. If those who are most concerned in
the preservation of law and order realized
their own interests, they would assuredly
not lend their influence in any way to the
promotion of stock gambling, but would
on the contrary use all their efforts to dis.
countenance and abolish it, as one of the
most dangerous and demoralizing of vices
GRANT AND BLAINE.
A strange story is telegraphed about
Grants animosity to Blaine. 1t is said
that the former deeply resents the latter's
course in regard to the Chicago Conven-
ton, and that he has carried his resent.