Omaha daily bee., 1884-06-09

lOs per cent 10 PAT. Hence, ne WIN uelu Z
hundred livres of state debts-bough'
perhaps as low as 21t livres-could nov
realize 100 livres for them. EnormouI
fortunes were made. Public credit wa
miraculously restored by the paying o
the interest on the capital of this unior
of the bank with the risks and liabilities
Of a commercial company, not from it
profits-there we're none-but from Who'll
ly fictitious sources. The state of Lou
isiana was transferred to the western
company, and the valley of the Mississ
ippi became the theme and scene of the
widest speculation. France saw the op,
ulence of future centuries in her grasp,
and became vainglorious.
Laws bank worked marvels, winning
important favors continually, 1t monop.
olized the tobacco and slave trades; it had
the right of returning the gold, and in 1717
was elected the royal bank of France.
The Mississippi or Western company be.
came the company of the Indians. >
New shares were created and sold al
enormous rates and profits. The richest
parts of the valley were conceded to com
panies to entice emigration. Law himself
spent 1,500, 600 livres in the purchase of
q large prairie in Arkansas, where he
proposed to build a city. He bought and
sent to louisiana three hundred slaves,
and at his own expense sent large parties
from Germany and France to settle in
the valley. But in spite of it all, when,
in 1929, a Jesuit priest visited the colony,
there were butthirty Frenchmen. wretched
and poor, and they had been purposely
left by their ~absconding employers. When
stock holders thought their Golfers over
flowing, the company proposed the build
ing of Fort Charities, near Kaskasia Hi
nois. 1t was built in 1920 to protect the
French against the Spanish, with whom
they were at war. This added at one
time $4,000 shares to the company, and
for them there were $780, 900 applications.
Public feeling merged into frenzy, and
nemanded an increase of 300, 900 more
shares at five hundred livres each. Peo-
pie anxious to buy took apartments near
Laws house to know the result of their
negotiations, and rents, In that vicinity,
and sixteen thousand.
Law was in the zenith of fame, for.
tune, and splendor; high and low sought
him, and his house was surrounded. A
hump-backed man made large sums of
money by renting his hump as a writing
desk, and many ludicrous scenes are re-
corded. Law finally removed to the
Place Vendome and the large space
looked like a public market. This un
common prosperity increased manufact-
urers and every thing shared the general
rdvauce. Men who had earned fifteen
livres per day were earning sixty, and the
glare of prosperity was 30 dazzling that
it obscured the clouds that heralded an
approaching storm. In 1920 some specie
was demanded, and, behold, there was
non in the kingdom. Coin for more
than five hundred livres was declared ILL
egal tender. A council of of state was
called, and it was found that two thous-
and six hundred millions OF livres were
in circulation. The bank stopped pay
ment on the 9th of May, anc Law bare
ly escaped mob violence. He took ap-
artments with the Regent until he could
get out of France. His estates were con-
fiscated, and he diei OF Venice in ex-
treme poverty, in 1929. Such was the
fate of this schemer when his gorgeous
bubble burst.
The recent financial trouble in New
York will recall to many the great none
tary crisis of 1887, which has ever since
been known as "the great panic.' This
reached the business centers as well as
the banks, and was brought about by a
general extravaganza which pervaded all
classes. The excitement was so great in
western land speculation that lots were
bought in wholly undiscovered regions at
fabulous prices and large cities were sold
and peopled-on paper. 1t was simply
a land of mania and in its mad whirl
swallowed up all classes. The lawyer,
merchant, farmer, and arti-
san, each left his profession and became
a s%pcculator in a greater or less degree.
This desire to grow rich by land specu-
lation led thousands west, many of whom
never returned, and their homes cleaned
white on the fertile western soil, even as
the bones of emigrants bleached in the
valley of the Mississippi under the reign
of Crozat and Law. A similar state of
things, a mania for speculation of some
sort, has preceded every panic, that of
1920, 1887, 1867, 1873, and 1884. Lat
terly, however, it has been stock specu-
lation. The vast fortune of 5000, COO, 900
has been accumulated by w. ii. Van
derbilt within the last thirty years. 1t is
unparalleled in the history of the world.
The same is true of Jay Gould's $50, 0OO,-
600, and indeed of most men of vast for
tune in New York. The Astors are ex-
captions. Theirwealthis the accumulation
of generations, n uncle a butcher
leaving to the father of the present VIM.
b, Asror a fortune of SOC, 900. The for.
tune of the Astors does not exceed
$4,000, 900, which in comparison with
Vanderbllt's is a mere p~ittance. This
is indeed getting to be a land of ~luxery,
and for many, ease, and we will soon be
able to boast of large numbers of gentle
men of leisure" as the English call their
useless members of societp. We have al
ways had them, but as the bright young
American girl said in answer to the En-.
glishman's sneers at the scarcity of men
of leisure: 1--WE call them tramps."
Angostura Bitters. the world renowned
aDDetiZer and inyiporatnr Head NON, -.