The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-03-29
week, and he mentioned that Robinson

=
and his margined stocks had been sold
out. He must have lost several hun
dred thousand dollars, may be $500, 000
He is going to St. Louis to dispose OF
some real estate belonging to his wife,
who has entire confidence in him and
his ability, and with the new stake he
will enter the street again
''You have been stock broker long
while. / asked an acquaintance lately,
''what do you candidly think of specu-
lation? What is the result of your OBJ
servation? Is much money made in
Wall street?'
almost nothing. Men who make
in one thing lose in another. I've been
twenty-five years in the street, and OF
the hundreds who have operated on
margins through me l can scarcely re.
call half dozen who have not suffered
in the long run. If men generally
were prudent and sensible, it would be
unfortunate for us brokers; we'd have
mighty little business. But they are
not. and never will be. l frequently
advise my friends not to speculate; but
it does no good. They learn nothing
by the experience of others. and next to
nothing by their own. The truth is. nine
teen out of every twenty men-perhaps
thirty-nine out of forty-are gamblers
by constitution. And when they begin
gambling they don't know when to
leave off. No one can imagine what
n1isely and crime Wall street causes un-
less he is on the inside. / often wish /
had gone into some other business. l
have seen so much of the evil of specu-
lation that l never speculate myself" J"
Since then my broker friend has
failed by his rash attempt to keep up q
line of stocks that had been dropping
for months, and it is doubtful if he can
resume. He is reported to me as a
desperate specuiator for man of his
means, though for many years he was
one of the most conservative members
of the board.
The worst thing about wall street is
| that it ruins men morally not less than
financially. The habit of speculation
is as bad as dram drinking or opium
eating. No one knows. when he be-
gins, where he will end. A full course
of Wall street is apt to sap the founda-
tions of character. debauch the senti-
ments, overthrow every principle. 1t
begets with the successful lust OF
greed which nothing can satisfy, and
with the unsuccessful self-contempt,
morbid anxiety. shattered nerves, the
agony of alternating hope and despair.
Wall street puts human nature in the
gutter and keeps it there. Its history
is record of feverishness, infatuation,
failure, transgression. remorse, dis
grace and suicide. When trusting
men defaults, or blows out his brains,
the stock market is generally discovered
to be the cause. Not one hundredth
part of the mischief it does is divulged
Its tainted names and shattered repu
tations only occasionally come to th'
surface. / might give instances that
would startle. Proud men. pure women
conscientious clergymen. upright Judge!
are swept away by it. Innocent fami
lies all over the land are blasted by it
Its breath is poisonous, its touch il
deadly. Outside it is fair and attrac
tive; its buildings are stately, impres
sive, sumptuous; its frequenters ele
giant, attractive, plausible. But inside
is the life and spirit that Calvin at
tributed to hell. Henri Bro,0 ne
in 81. Louis Globe Democrat.