Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-02-21
Traps for the Unwary.

PAOihASSt ho Aes" OI Will GuIOW .tIC 1dSSO
around his feet, no broker will be lay
ing an unseen cable toward him. But
In our day there is hardly any man
whose Circumstances become good, who
has money lying in the bank, but he
finds himself the center of very delicate
and beautiful attentions. Persons far
from common in their character will
suddenly take an interest in his mind
the evenings, and his prints and books
looked over by some person of the most
appreciative mind, whose taste will be
commended by all the family. This
pursuit will probably go on for months,
and during all that time not word be
said about any speculation. Indeed, if
that question comes up the young per-
son will energetically denounce specu-
lation in any form.
I have had brokers do the same thing
That is the way the most careful seduc-
tons are planned. The Superintendent
of the great Lunatic Asylum near e
ca told me that on one &C aston we'll
bred woman. OF a family not ID for their
religious principles, was sent to the
asylum for having made sorry tres
pass. The Sup erintendent inquired
what argument had availed with his
guest. ''Prayer," was the answer. So
with the brokers. They dissuade froa
speculation as terrible tn ng down to
TIE very moment they get the order.
Now, if a man were to lay trap
for another to swindle him at game of
faro, it would be subject of legal pro-
ceedings. ..--.
Old-fsshioned gambling was really
broken up by the confidence games set
up on gamblers. John Chamberlain
one day told me that regular gam ling
was of no value, ''because," said he,
''the men who will play cards have
been marked by a set of spoilers, who
cheat them and break them under cover
of putting them INFO job to break
somebody else.'' He gave me an in
stance of a town in Pennsylvania.
where there was man who had all his
life gambled more or less, with various
luck. A spotter went to him and said:
81 am going to deal the faro game in
this town tomorrow. You come, and
make your bets high, and I will throw
the game to YOU" The man bet more
than his usual wont, and his money was
taken from him. The gambler re-
turned and said: 81 was watched yes
terday, and could not throw you the
game: but | have got it all right .or to-
morrow if you will come in, and you
shall win back what you lost to-day.
and three times as much more" At
the second performance the man in the
country was cleaned out. Chamber
lain said that regular gambling was
broken up except among sporting men
by the universally of these cheats.
So has stock gambling been broken
up by the tricks played on the small
operators only by the bigger ones,
but by many of their brokers. In the
Hutchinson case some time ago, we saw
where the finest young operator that
ever came into the street was absolutely
ruined by his broker. But outrageous
instances of villiany like this would not
destroy speculate n. 1t was the under
standing that l, the big fish in the
street were play g cross-tires upon all
the little fish that stopped speculation
here, except among professionals. a
good while ago. A man with little
money had no chance at all. He found
the large owners and developers of
these properties to be exceedingly demo-
cratic people, and they would talk to
him at the Windsor Hotel or at Del
monico's with as much fatherhood as if
were capa5le of taking his little money,
Just the same.
So the attendance around Wall street
has for a good while been that OF pro-
fessional flats and Incorporate fellows
who are stuck on the street and can get
nowhere else. Occasionally some ener-
new scheme, which he tries upon the
Int bn
around him a few friends to make
pool and put up some one stock. Some
years ago an old newspaper friend of
mine got into one of these pools, and the
stock it was supporting went up abou.
200 per cent. His ha its for the tim,
were knocked all to pieces. He was
not sober dav or night. Finally the
pool attempted to unload; but the mo-
ment they took shin lie out of the roof
the roof fell on their heads. My ac-
quaintance said to me, when [ saw him
sober: 1.-The only regret have about
that speculation is that / did not buy
some new clothes when we had the
stock up The difference between the
$4,000 he thought he lad made and
new suit of clothes was pathetic and
ludicrous.
These pools failed after time to at
tract anybody, and then construction
companies got to be organized to clean
out the unwary. The construction
company is the very Credit Mobilier
thing which made an excitement about
ten years ago. Congress having voted
to two corporations great deal of
money to build the Pacific Railroad. the
builders found that they could make
money by contracting with themselves
instead of with regular contractors, be-
cause the Government had been too
liberal, and there would be large
division on the ground floor. That de-
vice seems to have been just what was
wanted in America; and while the press
was declaim.ng about the horrors of
Credit Mobilier, every prominent rail-
road that has been built since that day
had Credit Mobilier of it's own. a
~ The theory was just this: The Con-
struction Company dazed the intellects
of a large proportion of the speculators,
Just as the members of Congress who