The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1888-05-12
WALL STREET.

The Moral and Financial Wrecks
Caused by Speculation.
Experience is q dear school, but
fools will learn in no other" is con-
tinually quoted. If fools. or men the
reverse of fools, as ordinarily consid-
cred. would but learn there, it would
be fortunate. But they won't Every
day proves it. He who is made wiser,
who changes his conduct who sees his
past folly, after q single bitter expert
ence, is one in thousand. The ma
jority OF men do not mend their ways
or morals with any common amount of
experience. They still believe. SO SAN
guine are they, SO incapable of self
understanding. that what has not
yet happened to them, will certainly
happen. II they but persevere, the
greatest improbability, they think, will
be overcome, the apparent impossi-
BILE will occur, the presumably miracu-
lous will come to pass. What we want
to believe, we are nearly sure Of Our
ardent desires are interpreted as a
foreshadowing of the future.
All this is constantly exemplified in
Wall street. which ruins fifty men at
least where the ruin of one man is gen.
orally known. The evil that it does,
not only there, but throughout the
country, is seldom suspected. Its bale
full influences reaches the remotest cor
ners of the republic. It is continually
sapping the means and morals of thou
sands. No one lmagines what a host
Of persons-for both sexes are included
-expend all their surplus in putting
up margins on particular stocks. These
operate, as rule, in small way, sell
dom losing largely, because they have
not much to lose; but the aggregate
amount they leave annually in the
street is enormous. Many of them do
not know the detriment they sus-
tain; they are inclined to believe that
In the main they are successful, for
they remember only their profits. They
do not realize the truth that not one in
hundred men takes out of the street
in the end as much as he carries there.
The brokers are well aware Of this, but
1t is not to their interest to bruit it.
They do not care to discourage their
customers. Their policy is to stimu-
late the gambling spirit, which is more
or less in every human breast. The
hundreds of members Of the Stock
Board must live-at least they think
they husband their living is derived
from the putters up Of margins With
out these the bulk of brokers would be
obliged to discontinue business.
Scarcely any defaulter or embezzler
in any part of the land but owes his
crime directly to speculation in Wall
street, and examination of his accounts
reveals this.
Were it not for hope Wall street
would be deserted. The experience of
tens of thousands deters no one from
trying to avoid The quicksands in which
they have been lost Each man is con-
WINGED that he knows better, that he is
shrewder. more intelligent than his
neighbor. Hope. plus egotism, drives
most spectators on to their fate. You
can tell them nothing; they are aware
of it all They are infatuated by their
own vanity, and their superabundance
OF expectation. They go the same
round; arrive at the same end; meet
the same fate. Yet each has the
temerity to believe that he will prove
the exception.
Many OF these ovcr-confident specu-
lators come from New England, the
South and West, and often with large
sums of money, though not large
enough to achieve what they are con-
tinually attempting. A quarter or half
million is great deal of money in
the country. and comfortable amount
anywhere under any ordinary circum-
stances. But for operating in the
stock market it is insignificant. The
adventures do not understand this,
however. They do not remember
that certain mon in Wall street can
command $50.000.OO0 to 800, ooo,-
900. and much more in combine
ton. and that the longest purse
generally wins in commercial as well
rs in other contests. He who can not,
or does not buy thing outright who
does not own and control it, is never
safe. whatever the actual value of the
thing. Supposing that gold were not
the standard; that some speculator had
purchased 10000 American eagles on
margin. and that they should fall to
fifty per cent discount II he could
not make his margin good he would be
sold ont albeit absolutely sure that the
eagles were worth ten dollars Not to