Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-06-04
SPECULATION IN WASHINGTON.

Oh lN w
An Almost Universal Mania-Bucket-
Shops and Money-Lenders-TheP Passion
for "Public Life"
In no city, perhaps, considering its
size, is the spirit of speculation so rife
as in Washington, says letter to the
New York Tribune. Especially true is
this of speculation in a small way.
Among the thousands of government
employees receiving on an average from
5000 to $4,000 year, there are very
few [ venture to say, who have not at
one time or another taken a "hyer" at
stocks or dabbled in wheat. The OPP
portunities for doing SO are many.
The temptations to increase their little
income by some lucky hit is not always
withstood, and the victims who are
''bitten" at an early stage of the game
do not always benefit by the lesson
taught them. The spirit of gambling
extends TO the army and navy, and
even some of the foreign diplomats,
attaches principally, whose way of
eking out a living is as much a problem
to them perhaps as to others, have
caught the fever and are seen at times
to make their way into "bucket-shops"
and kindred institutions. The latter
in certain quarters are as plentiful as
groggeries in the Fourth Ward in New
York Some of them are highly re-
spectable-looking concerns. You
wouldn't suspect them of doing any
thing but legitimate banking bust
ness. Others carry on their trade
might almost say profession without
the least attempt to conceal it. Flam-
ing signs announce to the passer-by
that So & So are ready to take orders
for stocks on a margin of l per cent.
In windows your will see screens which
inform the public that private wires
offer special facilities for the transac-
ton of business-viz., the fleeing of
the innocents. No wonder, then, that
with such temptations thrown into
their way, women, and clergymen even,
walk into meshes out of which they
cannot hope to find their way without
being ruined in reputation or bringing
disgrace upon themselves and others.
To think that Congress has success
fully put stop to the '10-per-centers,'
as they are commonly called, the men
that lend money to government clerks
upon assignment of their salaries in
advance at the rate of 10 per cent.
month, is to suppose something very
erroneous. The business of those
marks is in as fourishing condition
IS ever. It was only yesterday that
ne of them mortgaged his house, his
urniture, and everything upon which
e could possibly raise money at per
emit, in order to be able to lend it out
gain at 10 per cent. a month. The
government it is true, does not recog-
ize any more the validity of pay
ouchers assigned to others in advance
the time when they fall due, but the
,hylocks apparently are willing to take
he risk, and, so far as I can hear, have
@ reason to regret their willingness to
rust the honesty of their victims. It
needless to say that most of the
1oney lent out by them finds its way
ato their own pockets within twenty
our hours after having left them, they
eng for the greater part either owners
{ or partners in "bucket-shops."
Some very curious skeletons might
e brought to light if you could but
,eer into the closets of some of the
,eople high in the employ of the gov
rnment. How many of them, I won
Ter, manage to keep up the style of
living they do on the salary they re-
eeive. They were not rich when they
entered Office. Their wives did not
bring them handsome dowries. To
suspect their integrity would be doing
them a gross injustice. But to spec
ulate little bit, Ell! Trade, maybe,
upon a superior knowledge of affairs
which their official position may give
them. Is it, after all, SO very wrong?
Is it, at any rate, considered SO by
many of them?
Without wishing to moralize any
further in this line, cannot help re-
marking what horrible thing the off
cial register is. 1t tells you at once
every public mans income, or, in a
majority of cases, very nearly SO. You
can not help expressing some aston1sh-
men at how Mr.. and Mrs. X, at whose
house you dined the other day, can
afford to entertain SO handsomely
Turning to page 1896 you run down
YOUR finger until you come to friend
KS name, and opposite it you find
sS1 200" Well, [ declare! you ex-
claim. how X. manages TO dress those
girls Of his is q rnystery-and, by Joye!
There Is W. Look here: He gets only
$1,000, and lest week he gave an enter
tainment which must have cost al
ieastNwen, I wouldn't like to mention
the figure. Let's see what z. gets. I
know the rs pay at least $1,000 rent
for their house, not to mention the
wages they give their big, greasy por-
ter whom they pass in the presence OF
all their friends as family servant (has
been in the family ever since ne was
picaninny, sir, z. says; played with him