The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1885-12-03
MONEY MANIA.
BY MARION ]. vERDERY.

AOuo' w nth OlIC CACIClSCS IedSOlld-
bic energy in pursuance of any profit
able purpose we call him industrious.
There has been no room on the
| stage of business life during the last
decade for any but the middle man of
this triple classification. The first
and even the last named characters
have been pushed off the boards by
this leading man in the drama of the
F.; day. No retroactive power is neces-
sary to put US back into a Golden
Age" The present is emphatically
an epoch of that character. Society
opens its door with bow and smile
when riches rap; politics bend to the
unclean touch of bribery; and even
professors of religion are often times
more Indifferent to the beauty of
holiness than to the glitter OF gold.
Children are growing up with an in
satiate greed for grain, while parents
are tretting out the evening of their
lives because they have not harvested
more from the field of fortune.
This dominating ambition for mon
ey has revolutionized all methods of
business. Totally destructive ct con-
servatism, it tramples under foot all
laws of supply and demand, ignores
the equitable margin between cost of
production and price of commodities,
and rudely disturbs all just relations
between labor and capital.
1t has so infatuated the farmer that
instead of anxiously reckoning his
harvest by the smile of the seasons,
he now neglects the actual product of
his field to watch the ftful huctua-
tons on the floor of the Chicago
Board of Trade or the New York Cot
ton Exchange. The merchant is no
longer satisfied with reasonable re-
turns from fair bargains, but is for
ever craving a speculative advantage
in some particular line of goods.
Doctors and lawyers neglect their pa
tients and clients-yea, and even
priests and preachers are sometimes
distracted from their holy ordinances
by this Cresus-craze- and become
tangled in modern methods of money
making.
The spirit of the age is clamorous
tor some badge of fortune. All the
sweet simplicity that once symbolized
the true Joy and virtuous charm of
home has been sacrificed to COR
geous magnifcence of palatial envi-
ronments.
Buildings without crack or crevice,
and with scarce mark of weather
stain, are rudely torn down in spir-
it of reckless waste, only to make
room for grander structures that shall
better advertise the wealth of their
owners. Alas, even our women,
whose powers of fascination should
be in refined thought and virtuous
grace, in these days count their hopes
of conquest by the cost of their gar
ments.
Realizing the inadequacy of sub
stantlal treasure to the in0rdinate
passion for wealth, shrewd and
schemlng men have concocted every
conceivable method to supply the in
satiable craving. Genius has spent
its inventive force trying to make ten
dollars appear where only one dollar
really was, and so consummate has
been the delusion in many instances
that thousands of short-sighted inno-
cents have been ruinously gulled by
trlckery. 1t has been impossible to
stretch the strides of real enchant-
ment pari passu with the Impotence
for monetary acquisition, hence the
reckless system of stock watering
and excessive bond issues. Figures
have been dragged from their fast
nesses of truth and made to do decep-
tive pranks to catch the unsuspecting
public" In the prosecution of such
methods for gain, men cease to CON
slider the real value of any property
so long as their greed is gratified by
u vast expansion of face values.
The South furnishes comparatively
few instances of,remarkable imitation,
but recall one that by its incalcula-
bic scale entities it to high place in
the record Of such financial legerde-
main. Writing in part from memory
beg the liberty of approximate fig
ures in my statement of the case.
In 1879 certain stock in South
ern railroad sold as low as $40 per
share, and at that time the capital
stock Of the company was only ST.
100000 This property attracting
the attention Of spectators, they
bought largely of the stock at low
figures, and then proceeded to null
tiply the obligations Of the company
and float them in open market.
At that time Wall street was glad
to accept and list any offerings that
had even the semblance Of stocks
and bonds. Consequently the pro-
jectors Of this scheme had an oppor-
i II