Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-08-16
THE SECRET OF WALL STREET.
Interesting Data Concerning the Early
and Late Occurrences Upon 1t.

Interesting Data Concerning the Early
and Late Occurrences Upon 1t.
Across the island of New York III 1885 a
wall of earth and stone was built, wall
cannon mounted, to keep back the savages
Along this wall ran n street, and as the
street kept the line ofthe wall, it was appro-
priately called Wall street. Short, narrow,
unarchitectural, and yet uniquein its history,
and excepting Lombard street, London, the
mightiest street in the world. There the
United States Government was born. There
Washington held his levees. There Mrs.
Adams and Mrs. Arnold, and Mrs. Cald-
well and Mrs. Knox. and other brilliant
women of the Revolution, displayed their
charms There preached Witherspoon,
Jonathan Edwards and George Whitetield.
There Dr.. John Mason chided Alexander
Hamilton for writing the Constitution with
out any God in it. There negroes were
sold in the slave-maTt. There criminals
were harnessed to wheelharrows and COM
PEELED to draw burdens There they were
dashed through the street behind carts to
which they were fastened. That street has
seen the coronation and the burial of ten
thousand fortunes. The abode of Just the
oppoSites- integrity and tip
top scoundrelisn, heaven-descended charity
and bloodless Shylocllism. The history of
commerce of America. | would like to
put the plOwshare in at the curbstone in
front of Trinity Church, and drive clear
through to Wall-street ferry, and 50 it shall
90 if the horses are strong enough TO draw
the pillow. We are all stunned with the re-
cent defalcations in Wall street, and there
is no more absorbing question in America
to-day than this: What caused Black
Wednesdays what caused Black Fri
dav? p what has caused all the black days of
| financial disaster with which Wall street
| has been connected for the last forty years?
Some say it is the credit system. Some
thing back of that. Some say it is the
spirit of gambling ever and anon becoming
| epidemic Something back of that. Some
say it is the sudden shrinkage in the value
| of securities, which even the most honest
and intelligent men could not have fore
seen. Something back OF that. | will
| give you the primal cause of all these dis
| turbanceS. tits the extravaganza of modern
society, which impels a man to spend more
money than he can honestly MAKE, and he
goes into Wall street in order to get the
| purposes of immediate display, and some
| times the man is to blame and sometimes
| his wife and Oftener both. Five thousand
dollars income, ten thousand dollars, twenty
| thousand dollars income, is not enough for
d man W hNNP up AlAS sly 10 VI ilNlliS liz
proposes, and therefore be steers his bark
| toward the maelstrom. Other men have
suddenly snatchcd up fifty or hundred
| thousand dollars-why not he? The pres
| ent income of the man not being large
| enough, he must move earth and hell to
catch up with his neighbor Others have
, country-scat-so must he. Others have ex-
| travagant catererS-so must he Others
have palatial reSidences-sO must he. Ex
travagance is the cause of all the defalca-
lions of the last forty years, and if you will
go through the history of all the great
panics and all the great financial disturb
ances, no sooner have you found the story
| than right back OF it you find the story of
how many horses the man had, how many
carriages the man had, how many resi-
dences in the country the man had, how
many banquets the man gave-always, and
not one exception for the last forty years,
either directly or indirectly, extravaganza
the cause Dr. Talmage, in Lcslie's Sun
day Magazine for September.