Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-20
CALCULATIONS VORTEX.
ANXIETY AND AGONY OF ALTERNATE
 ING HOPE AND DESPAIR.

ANXIETY AND AGONY OF ALTERNATE
 ING HOPE AND DESPAIR.
 Wall Street an Excellent School for the
 Study of Human Nature-How Ien.Are
 Swallowed Up fin the whirlpool-sev-
 eral Cases.
 have observed for years how money is swallowed up in the vortex of speculation. am continually going to Wall street. feel proof against it's temptations-as I like to watch it's currents and study human nat ure. of which it is an excellent school. I meet acuuaintances there from every part of the Union One day encounter Smith, of Denver, and inquire after Jones, of Omaha, who told me, three months before, that he had cleared $5OO,OO0 by his opera tionA
 "Jones? Oh, they've scalped him. That last bear attack on the market cleaned him out completely He has gone home without anything; and he had S4OO 900 or $500, ,OOO, msde by land speculation, when he came to New York two years ago"
 "I am very sorry for Jones" reply. "He was good fellow and full of energy"
  'tBut he wasn't quite smart enough for Wall street. told him last spring how he was going, but he wouldn't believe me- Now he wishes, fancy, that he had taken my advice A man has to get up pretty early in the morning to stand the racket down here.
 "Arent you afraid, Smith, that they'll get your scalp one of these daysf'
 'Not a bit. They've tried it often; but wear all my hair yet. know their ways. Pm too old a bird to be caught"
 Some months later I ran upon Brown, of Chicago, and after a little chat express the hope that Smith is flourisbing.
 ''Flourishinga Not exactly. Haven't you heard what happened to him? No? He went short on Reading and he got busted in short order. He's 30 poor that he's in @ cheap boarding house in Harlem. You remember what figure he used to cut at the Windsor2 He's trying to get up again; but he never can. His father left him handsome for tune ten years ago, and he couldn't raise $500 today. He's too hopeful, too reckless. He doesn't know when to take in sail."
 "But mayn't you be in the same condition some times The Stock Exchange is the most uncertain of places. A man of your pur- suits is always living on a mine."
 Don't bother about me. I watch these thieves They can't hurt me. I always sleep with one eye open, and they know it. Chi cago is sharper than New York. A man edu- cated there can get on anywhere. Robinson and I-you know Robinson, of St. Louis haven't got caught yet, and we don't intend to be. We're as wide awake as any of the boys, and they know it."
 Six months later am shaking hands with Robinson in Exchange place, and refer to Brown, hoping be is still prosperous.
 ict, hov hut foo ic fhof ho Sc broken down. That big tumble in Western Union hurt him irreparably, and he had a stroke of paralysis the next week, and he hasn't been down town since It was partial only but it makes Brown look old. He's grown fifteen years older since last June. His sudden success turned his head, and be vert in too deep. I'm afraid he hasn't much left. A man in Wall street has to learn when to be bold and when to be cau- tious, and Brown never learned this. It was one of the first lessons that I learned, and learned it thoroughly. I've been operating here six or seven years, and in that time I've seen scores of fellows ruined. But I've never been crippled even, and ascribe my uniform success to judgment. Some people call it luck. Bah, there's no such thing as luck"
 "But is not your judgment falliblea One can not always keep on the right side ot the marketp'
 "Few can; but I am one of the few"
 One evening, just after a week of great disturbance in stocks, a disturbance almost approaching panic, I ran upon a we'll known broker, many of whose customers are from the west. We fell to talking "f the disasters of the week, and he mentioned that Robinson had lost lot of money on Manhattan, and bis margined stocks had been sold out. "He must have lost several hundred thousand dol lars, may be $500, He is going to St. Louis to dispose of som real estate belong ing to his wife. who has e.iJire confidence 1T him and his ability, and with the new stake he will enter the street again"
 "You have been a stock broker a long while," l asked an acquaintance lately "what do you candidly think of speculation What is the result of your observationa h much money made in Wall streetq' "Almost nothing. Men who make in ons thing lose in another. I've been twenty-five years in the street, and of the hundreds wht have operated on margins through me I car l scarcely recall half dozen who have no suffered in the long run. The truth is nine teen out of every twenty men-perhap 1 thirty-nine out of forty-are gamblers b. constitution. And when they begin gam l bling they don't know when to leave off, N, 1 one can imagine what misery and crim w all SGreeC causes unless ne IS on Cne inside l I often wish l had gone into some othe business. have seen so much of the evil O speculation that never speculate myself" l Since then my broker friend has failed b, his rash attempt to keep up line of stock that had been dropping for months, and it i doubtful if he can resume. He is reported t. 1 me as desperate speculator for man of hi means, though for many years he was one o the most conservative members of the board
 The worst thing about Wall street is that i ruins men morally not less than financially The habit of speculating is as bad as dran l drinking or opium eating. No one knows when he begins, where he will end. A fr,l course of Wall street is apt tosap the founda tions of character, debauch the sentiments overthrow every principle. It begets wit ] the successful a lust of greed which nothin
 can satisfy, and with the unsuccessful sel contempt, morbid anxiety, shattered nerves l the agony of alternating hope and despair
 Wall street puts human nature in the gutter
 and keeps it there.-Junius Henri Browne i
 Globe-Democrat.
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