Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-07-05

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aecnned. success alone pegets idoiatry. |
Often men who have been prosperous,
who have had seats at the board and |
had following, tumble and sustain
hurts beyond healing. Conscious that
they cannot recover, they still limp
around-they are known as lame ducks
held to their old haunts by the CRATE
ful, torturesome memory of the past.
Their figures are melancholy, depressing.
They are ghosts of their former selves.
Countenance. dress, manner are wofully
altered. Their look is detected. distrust-
ful, half appealing, half submissivc--the
look that comes from permanent failure,
from expectations crushed. There is
something pitiful in their shabby gen.
tility, in their hollow effort to appear
what they have been. Many Of their old
associates are kind to them, aid them in
little ways. But they seldom last. They
cannot bear the modification OF ire
trievable defeat. They are missed for a
few days, then their death is announced.
Perhaps q subscription is raised to bury
them decently. Poor Jones has gone.
He couldn't have cared to live--he had
lost his grip. Let's take drink. West
ern Unions up two points
The street keeps brave outside. ltseems
30 pleasant under the sunshine, SO pros
porous, SO promising. What vast wealth
1t has, what tcmptationsit ii offersl Brown
and Thompson, Smith and Robinson had
almost nothing when they began, and
see where they are now! Beautiful town
houses, villas at Newport, carriages,
boxes ut the opera, sumptuous entertain
ments--yes: but where arc the hundreds
of others that fell while they rose? The
many never think Of the defeated, who
are not to be counted in the reckoning Of
hope. 1t appears very easy to make
money there. Watch the market; get a
few points; venture boldly and the thing
Is done. The thing is done, done every
day; hut how? Not as the venturer
hopes and desires once in twenty times.
Contrary TO popular opinion, the great
mass of spectators, big and little, lose
in the street in the long run. The out
come Of gambling is generally disas-
trous under all conditions and in all
places.
| II is natural that the battlefield Of the
bulls and bears should externally COM
mand interest and admiration. Every
thing moves so smoothly and regularly.
Everybody is so neatly and elegantly at
tired, so agreeable in manners, SO buoy
ant, so cheerful; even when most excited
it Is quiet sort of excitement. The
brokers appear, whether old or young,
like boys at play. Americans possess n
degree of stoicism that other peoples
cannot reach. They smile ut ruin; jest
on tho brink of the grave. The street is
eminently stoical; but stoicism cannot
annul the perils and terrors of gambling.
The street Is leprous rs to speculation.
Albeit IL shows but financial strife, "A
daily rush and crush and commotion, a
frantic effort to win Mt all hazards, 1t in
cludes the gravest questions Of morals
Nobody can estimate thesu of unhappi
ness it causes annually mot here alone and
in the large cities, but In every nook and
corner of the land, directly and indi
rectly. More than half the defalcations
in the east may be traced to speculation:
there. We may know the crimes it en-
genders by newspaper reports; but the
silent suffering, the moral deterioration
the blasted hopes, the conquered virtue
we can never know. But tho street i,
less Responsible uilan tne Weuhncss VI MI
manity. The street is here because th'
metropolis is here. Every great city il
Europe has similar evil, growing on
of the greed for money, which canno
be removed while mankind is what it is
Tho mass Of men are gamblers when tn
lust of gain is aroused, and the habi
formed, it is stronger than principle o
pleading.
The street. like some mighty monste
of fable, devours every week hundred
who dare to triAe with it. But no on
learns by the experience Of others or b.
his own. Fresh victims are ever forth
coming, and they go the way of doom
serene and smiling, as the host OF thei
predecessors have done. While tho wifi
walls in agony; while tho children ar
deserted; while the pistol of the suicid
sounds; while the defaulter flies fror
justice, Wall street, which has wrongh
those tragedies, looks innocent and stat
Trinity invites to PRAYER.