The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-21
while the head may be of brass, tho feet
are sure to be of clay.

hOMCNcT, We uO. LII Cuc IlrSU DluCe,
the Homeric gods did not do it. They passed
their days in feasting, wrangling and very
improper lovemaking They did not specu-
late in shares because shares were not Mt that
time known to mankind, and the deities of
antiquity never anticipated human acquire
ments. Whatever men knew and did,
those things their gods knew and did And
in the next place, we are not permitted to
sit still. Nearly all of us must continually
be up and doing If we would possess the
wherewithal to eat and drink and be
clothed. This we can only attain by being
useful to others, or by persuadinR others
to impart of their substance to us under
the conviction that in SO doing they arc
lettering their own condition. This is the
rationale of speculation
Not being willing to work for and be
practically useful to John Smith, you per-
suade John Smith that it Is for his advan-
tage to work for you, by purchasing with
current money certain "choses in action"
which have conspicuous value, and which
you are benevolently inclined to part with.
That in his capacity of mouse he does not
spy the cat lurking under the meal is be-
cause he is hungry and doesn't trouble him
self to look, or that being selfish himself he
somehow imagines that nature has worked
miracle and has created you unselfish.
conditions OF Success.
One of the great kings of speculation in
the United States, when q boy in an inte-
rior town, and by no means born in the
purple, was ordered by his father to dig
dozen post holes for new fence His active
intellect conceived plan by which he
could avoid the muscular fatigue involved
in the task, and going to several of his
playmates he proposed game of ''slave"
by the terms of the game he was to pro-
vide several spades and long whip, and
while they were digging holes at fixed
distances in earnest he was to pass from
one to another with simulated angry words
and loud crackings of the whip. BY even
Ing the holes were dug, and the boys had
gone home from their fun at the new game
fully as tired as IL they had been working.
Since that time numerous small capital
lists, eager for gain, have played slave" at
the bidding Of this keen INTELLECT: They
lave Supplied the sIhews by which his rail-
roads have been laid and his safes filled
with bonds, and frequent cases of exhaus-
ton have occurred among them.
A university education is not a prepara
tory step to n life of successful speculation.
AS Valentine said to Sir Samson Legend
In Congreve's play, Get thee chine of
steel and the shoulders of Atlas and then
look matrimony in the face" so the phiios-
opher may say to the ambitious money
hunter, Get thee conscience of adamant
| and the assurance of Ananias and then
look speculation in the face"
He may go farther and lay it down as nm
| essential condition of success that the
operator should dismiss those scruples that
look far ahead and that warn the public
against possible disaster; that he should
make the legal maxim caveat emptor his
| pni1inIr Stur. TINT ha cl, fol
Edward Sugden in the theory that the
| vendor is not bound to disclose defects, and
| Robert Macaire in the art of conceal g,
! them; that he must believe no representa-
| lions and not be too ready to accept the
conclusions of his own eyesight, while he
must labor to impress upon all other per
| sons the wisdom and utility of placing al,-
| solute confidence in himself Such n one
will find plenty Of allies with capital and
with the willingness to make war under
the same flag with him.
Not an Enduring Satisfaction.
| 1t must be admitted that although nice
sense of honor, great scientific attachments
and the requirements of classical educa-
ton or cultivated taste for fine arts are OBJ
| stacles tothe speculator-he still requires.
and if successful usually possesses. intel.
lectual ability of high ORDER 1t is n mis-
| take to suppose that the greater the intel
| lect the more it concerns itself with alb
| stractions. The proper objects of intellec-
tual forces are material. The poet who said.
THE universe is thought of God, ;" showed
profound sense of the dignity of material
things. Matter, that which we can touch
| and measure and use and which all men
| desire, affords the true field for human ex
ertions, whether of muscle or of mind. IL
1t is not beneath the dignity of Deity to
create matter and make laws for it, it is
not beneath the dignity of human beings
| to devote their talents and time to its i'm
| provements and combinations.
Speculation, while it tends to conduct
away the moral principles from active rec
titude, fails to compensate by affording any
enduring satisfaction. No measure of at
tainment ever has completed the desires. No
one has ever assigned limit to the heap of
| Chrysippus, says the Roman satirist On
| this truism there's no need to enlarge The
domain of matter being infinitely large,
any acquisition of any portion of it must be
infinitely small, and in comparison with
that which has no limits the limited DOS
sessions of the millionaire and the tramp
are precisely alike, each being infinitesimal-
ly small. This fact, although not openly
expressed or recognized i'll terms, is at the
bottom of the Unsuitable passion for never
ceasing accumulation that dominates all
men who speculate
Lost Opportunities.
Speculation has this unfortunate effect
upon numerous imperfectly balanced
minds-that it causes them to dwell on
what might have been, than which no oc-
cupation is more detrimental to sound
thinking or destructive of human happi-
ness. A person who passes his time in
mourning over lost opportunities is already
on the high road to insanity. When he
buttonholes you in the evening and de-
plores his folly or shortsightedness in not
buying thousand shares of the X. Y. rail