Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-12-24

demic crszes. The word "rink" is
modern, having found its way into
| Webster's supplement half dozen
years ago, as covered hall into which
water Was let and frozen for skating
purposes. and also as a foored arena
for roller skating. From being pas.
time for little girls on sidewalks, it
has suddenly famed into universal
| pastime. Whole communities are in.
fected and Kinks rival churches in
numbers and attendance. Divines,
and even legislators stand aghast at
| the suddenness, violenco and uniyerN,
salty of this new epidemic. 1t is only
smother evidence of the predisposi-
ton of humanity to crazes.
la the way of amusement, for g.
time everything ran to croquee, now
| lawn tennis is in the ascendant. The
bicycle had its turn. and it is vet a
| problem whether it will subside into
one of the worlds recognized modes
of locomotion or whether it will die
| out and be succeeded by some other
temporary celebrity. No man is per
fectly sane. If one is not naturally
cranky IN streaks, he is at least liable
70 fits of crankiness. The wisest of
! men do some things in the course of
their lives that show them TO be tenn
porarily ''oH their base" and make
| their friends wonder if they are not
getting ready for the lunatic asylum.
Every man counts certain 6oings of
his own among his mistakes in life,"
when he followed impulses that, In
| the light OF subsequent reh+c ION.
seemed unaccountable, perhaps irresis $
| tible.
Sympathetic crazes are far more
common than individual. Men are
gregarious like sheep If one goes
over a wall the whole fieck follows. /.
it is to plunge into a ditch on the
other side. An army is routed if YOU
can only start q panic in the ranks.
Law and order are overturned In the
crowded city if you excite and spread
the mobocratic fever on stirring
question. Under the influence of
sympathetlc fear strong men act like
children. There are crazes of every
variety in style, social, civil, political,
religious crazes IN fashion, crszes In
amusement, business crazes, monev
crazes, and each has its crowd of fol-
lowers and fanatics. Like the inmates
of mad house, each ignores his own
malady and wonders at the craziness
of his nei ghbor.
At the beginning of the last century
the gigantic speculation known as the
Southeast bubble crazed all England.
Shares went up in few weeks from
e100 to FL, 900. 1t lasted only one sea-
son, from April to September, 1920, but
| thousands Of families were reduced to
5eggary and the Directors punished.
Small consolation to the multitudes
| who had been ruined by the Infamous
frauds. Another stupendoIs swindle
Cf the same area was George Laws
Mississippi scheme. The shares Of the
company were sold for while at six
| ty times their original value. Inevi-
table ram and collapse followed and
the originator, once regarded as the
prince of fnanciers, died in poverty
and disgrace few years later.
| The spread of the stock gambling
crazs is one of the most notable of our
later insanities, due to two causes,
mainly, the innate love of haz ard and
It's games on the one hand and COW
etons desire to be rich on the other The
spread of this craze is as unaccount-
| able as that of toboggan, or the roll
Ter rink. Gambling is forbidden by
law, lotteries are interdicted, but the
agencies, rills to Wall street, estab-,
| l1shed all through the country, enable
new corners and children, clerks and
servants, to invest their earnings and
very soon their stealings, In gambling
ventures In stocks, till The whole COM
munlty is infested by the mania for
sudden wealth.
The spread of this infection during
the last few years among bank cash.
iers, Presidents and holders of funds,
and the corresponding fraud and ras-
callty are at once astonishing aad
alarming Every now and then
whole communities are baggared by
the collapse of trusted bank, and q
worse feature than the loss of the
money is the wreck of confidence in
man-above ali the shock to all OUT
ward professions af honesty and re-
ligion. The highwayman is dreaded
outlaw who takes what you happen
to have about you at the moment; the
burglar is vulgar thief, who raids
your premises and takes what ne can
lay his hands on ia h.sty visit; the
banker, perhaps an archbishop, a
church elder, q Sunday-school super
lntendent, kindly takes charge of
your all. You trust hira as you would
the angel Gabriel, and in trice he
scoops" it all, and beggars you as no
chance burglar or highwayman would
think of doing. The detected burglar
or highwayman goes to states prison
under heavy sentence the respectable
swindler Or defaulter for a light per-
iod, or he escapes altogether. except
now and then when Fish or Ward
commits enormities that compela
prompt punishment. Swift and sure
justice on offenders in high places can
alone check the tendency to the dis
tocition 70 ar,ratncn mi Of the b. I'd 90 I'm