The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-09-11
HITS AND MISSES.
CONTRIBUTED BY A. sPARRER.
"De omni re sci5iI ct qui5usdam aliis'-

CONTRIBUTED BY A. sPARRER.
"De omni re sci5i6 ct Qui6usdam aliis.''-
Verify Solomon was wiser for more tina,
his own day and generation when he wrot'
in the long ago "there is no new thing unde
the sun"
We have fallen uto the habit of talking
abou! this world as old, but if so by the right
of years, she, at least, has found the fountain
ofyouth, for to-day she shows the same un
sophisticated, guieless. youthful face thai
sniet on old Solomon's wise sayings.
-
This is verified by recent developments il
London police court, where vengeance has
overtaken that handy fellow who SO neatly
pocketed cool one hundred thousand dol
lars in Baltimore year or two since.
That so vain delusion rs he philosopher
stone could I've successfully worked in these
lays of boosted enlightenment battles credu-
lily.
Truly such n fact is more wonderful than
all the romantic tales of eastern lore, where
the hoary headed magician in flowing robes
centuries from q magic book, nlutters over the
mysterious crucible and mystifes by incan-
tations dire and fateful.
We are grateful to the past for these de-
lightful "reminiscences We find it hard to look
at them In the light of actual fact and VERT
able history they are part and parcel of that
dream world where We imprison our vain
imaginings.
But this Baltimore affair has very modern
flavor.
Two shrewd reputable business men, niue
teenth century men and Americans too, they
Invest their hard-earned thousands in the rep
reservations Of hustling young man. Mark
the change in accessories, the denouement is
about the same as in the days of Hermes
Trismegistus and Albertus Magnus.
This young man employs no artifice nor
device with which to be-fuddle. All is open
and above-board.
Just an ordinary dwelling room, the thee
men in earnest conversation; not half 80 mys-
terious as a political caucus, and est IL posi-
be? Scarcely more fraudulent.
Then the gold drops in, few pieces at
promised standard. r
And so the thing runs ON, until at the end
of few weeks, these exceedingly up-to-snuff
old men have converted their available funds
into good hard gold pieces, and this cool
headed alchemist soon has them all into his
pot in the cellar.
Still all strictly in the line of business and
very modern. ers "a
No incantations, no fuss, just the bare eel
lar, regular apple butter sort of pot, and
few chemicals.
Ii is really less exciting and far safer than
Wall street.
So the young man covers up the pot, leaves
it for three weeks simmer, and that is the
last of him and alas when in the course
business our friends look into the POI, they
find il is the last OF their 100000.
And SO we find these popular decisions are
among the few things which never 60 out of
fashion.
Alchemy, like many another vain pursuit,
embodied elements of truth, upon which men
stumbled while seeking the Elusive philoso-
piers stone and elixir of life. .-
These ignes fatui lured thousands to mad
ness and death, while fulfilling their par! in
the economy of nature.
Like the wind that bloweth where it list
eth, they came from we know not where.
The same inevitable law that produced the
orusadao hyr ubiob tuuo continents nd manu-
thrones were AIKEN, floods the country with
foundations of jack stones, peg tops, hoop and
ball. By these miniature world is enthral
ed, and while the frenzy lasts, it is as soul
absorbing as The Mississippi scheme.
80
This last with the South Sea bubble, the
Tulip mania which ravaged phlegmatic Hol-
land, the gold and oil fever of our later times,
all had financial basis Not 50 toe Cru
eades.
Born of u holy impulse, they were 'nurtur-
ed by vice aud rapine and precipitsted mil
lions into famine and war.
For every arm welding The sword for the
Holy City and fair chivalric, there were ten
merely hurrying with the throng, blind, help
less, fighting, cruel.
The momentum acquired by such avalan-
ches is appalling. Man is powerless to stay
them, and it is only the rejecting light of his
tory that can open up their inner significance.
The Crusades were fever that drained
Europe TO the dregs of rottenness which
was eating to her core. The East used dras-
tic remedies, but she infused into these vast
ed life-centres the beginnings of new and
stronger civilization.
The reflex influence of calamitits preserves
the equilibrium of the world.
The madness that drained the resources of
government often |, # a residuum of caution
and virtue with which to rehsbIlilale the ma
ton.
Like an electrical storm such frehzies puri-
fly the atmosphere, but sometimes at fearful
cost.
Mkt to rainbow-tinted silver bubble
blown from within and from without the
camp, our latest cloud comes from the grain
market.
Optimists throughout the land are sound
ing abroad the bugle note of prosperity; one
tells Us there will be such "a cyclone of pros
perty that We will have to tie our hats on" !;
another that American farmers ought 10
realize that they have the world under their
thumb; while another equally hopeful adds
the proviso "if some fellows out West do not
get up big wheat corner and spoil it,"
Just here lies our danger. Is the sentiment
of the many strong enough to calmly await
legitimate business methods and to be con-
tent with a fair and generous profit on the
harvest vouchsafed; or is the country to be
swept by sirocco of speculation. which will
react in the inevitable financial panic?
*x*
'Tis pity, the pastoral beauty of a land
overlooking with her righteousness of crops
should be withered and scorched by the spec.
ulative fever which consumes nation.
Millions of bushels garnered by man from
the bounteous bosom of nature-these same
millions controlled by one man and the click
of his instrument.
*x*
A late trial DEVELOPED good deal of talk