New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-12-26
A YOUNG MAN LATELY LANDED.
JOHN PAUL MAKES FEW REMARKS
APROPOS OF WALL STREET.

The above advertisement I find in a morning
paper But Wall Street just now is full OF young
men "lately landed, -. though generally they do
not advertise that they And by the strong
and emphatic language they use, one would say
| they are "excellent linguists' boo. Some are
looking for "situations' others for cheap shot
guns. And all the while Pm wondering who
| landed them
It can scarcely be Mr. Gould. In younger
and unregenerate days. when That distinguished
fnancier consorted with "Cammacs' this thing
were possible But to the gentleman of this
particular period, frank and guileess as Board
OF Public Works suspicion does mob even point
IL is we'll known that he has retired from the
turmoil and sweat and worry OF "the street. {; for
he says SO. And that his days are spent In
bowling over the waters In the swift Atalanta
his nights in his back parlor reading Greek His
tory everybody knows. That he nowadays
spends any time I'm bowling any OF his fellows
over, no one suspects. And that Mr.. Sage has
retired from his three-legged stool and spends The
most OF his time behind a lean horse which ne
is endeavoring to train into another Jay l-see
any one can see who gets up as early as I do and
watches the good old gentleman jogging out to the
Park every morning. He may possibly have
few "puts' and "calls' in his buggy-box, but his
spreads are on the road now and not on the
market Mr. Newcomb is above suspicion-any
Zone who fancies that he would do a mean thing
must know him deal better than do And Mr.
White Is a deacon. Being Congressman leaves
him somewhat open to suspicion, but as YET ne
| has not taken his seat 1t may be that ne mas
taken IL into his head to "st down on tho mar
Setp but until he says that he has not shall con
| tinue TO believe that he has not. Drew Is dead ;
Henry Smith about as powcrless TO do mischief
| the main difference being that he isn't buried
Cammack is mob buried either, but he's married.
which amounts TO about the same thing. Yet
the public has again been landed The plaintive
bleat Of the lamb is loud in thc land, and his
golden fleece, as SO oft before, yet again adorns
| the ursine altar
| One can but sympathize when misfortune comes
upon ones fellows. But one tires OF perennlally
putting ones handkerchief 10 ones eye and squeez-
ing briny tears out Of reservoirs we'll nigh wrung
| dry, season after season. And with all the
| Ubiquitous laws that have been put upon us,
| know of none compelling one TO buy stocks or
| put up his pocket money az margin with broker
When the merchant leaves his counter, the car
pointer his bench, the preacher his pufph, the
seamstress her needle, to stake flyer in the
Street. it Is of his her volition alone Each
knows it to be perilous business not one OF
thcm ventures for sweet charity's sake-the hope
OF gain alone impeis The idea is to buy few
shares Of something-no matter what, no matter
| whether il intrinsically be worth anything or
nothing-hold IL little while and then sell out
| to some else at aproft. That loss must come
upon some one in the end all know but no one
intends to be that particular onethe last man In;
| when bhc collapse comes Us IL certainly VIII, we
will have skipped and some one else will be stand
| in9 in the door Milo did not intend to be caught
when he put his fingers into the cleft OF bhat
tempting piece Of oak, but he was. The immoral
L. hat oh ba
this thing goes in with the avowcd intention OF
cunningly slipping out and leaving some one else
| DO suffer And since some must in the end
| be left holding the bag, why not YOU my good
| sir as well any other?
This perhaps explains the reason why, amid all
the noble charities that the philanthropy OF the
age has seen fit to found, no asylum has yet been
provided for the shorn and impoverished Lamb.
If the wind be tempered TO him IL is by the mercy
OF providence alone and human or humane agen-
cics have nothing to do with it. "Good bye,
friend" said the coon TO the fox. wen meet
at the hatters" Sooner or later, be they never
so cunning they generally do. Eyen the waliest
| are trapped
| The wind blOwetb where it iistcth-rbut no man
lSnoweth what is listed on the Stock Exchange.
| Caveat Emptor II you do not altogether cave
| you'll be emptier when you come out than when
you went in.
The wee which Wall Street principally works is
with those who trade on margins. IL is difficult
to buy anything at a price to which 1t will not
again swing "in the whirligig of time" what
ever may be it's depressons in the meanwhile.
But the tremendous swings OF the pendulum
knock traders out. They are slugged The
wisdom of biting off no more than one can chew
is exemphfed In buying stocks quite as well rs
| in reading sermons. But the Bull Is curious
creature 1t seems impossible for him to have
enough of good thing He will never admit
! that stocks are up. No matter what the altitude
he will tell you that they have only "JusJ begun
| to 60 up" And then his horn is exalted. lie
snaps his fingers-it would better preserve the
metaphor perhaps to say kicks up his heels-at
| CammaclS of Gould he speaks c0ntemptuously !;
Of what Sage or the Vandebilts doing he
would not care to be informed. greater than
| they is in tle market the Great American Pub
| lie is buying |" But change comes when things
are at the worst. The Bull of yesterday Is The
| yerest hefer calf Of to-day. While creatures
more conspicuous for brains than horns are buy
| ing no is selling, just as before he was buying
| when the less beefy were selling. For the gen.
oral pubc-and the general public is but n bun
| embodiment-dOes not know cannot believe
that stocks going up until they have gone
nor that they are going down until they are
| down and about ready to start on an up grade
The public never knows when to buy But syn
dicates and construction companies always do
| And more than that-they know the time to sell
| And this is when they can Here they borrow
| an idea from tho counsel which the good Mr.
Greeley gave when appealed to by the county COM
ittee for advice as TO the best time for cutting
hog-y olxes.
| Upon one thing you may confidently depend !;
! These great guns of the financial world give
! points and do not take them. When it is whis-
| pered around that stock is going up it is not,
| generally speaking, because the holder OF that
stock wishes to buy any more OF ID. The chances
are more than even that he's DESTROYS Of selling.
And though Mr.. Gould and Mr.. Sage and slr.
Field and Mr. Newcomb and Mr. White all
| very good and great and beney oent men. they
gamble on their own hook and their operations
are not conducted wholly with view of enrichng