The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-10-25

w~herewithal to eat and drink and DO
clothed. This we al only attain by being
useful to others, or by persuading others
to impart of their substance to III under
tho conviction that in SO doing they are
bettering their wi condition. This Ii the
rationale Of speculation.
Not being willing to work for and be
practically useful to John Smith, you per-
suade John Smith that 1t Is for his advan-
tage to work for you, by purchasing with
current money certain chooses 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
a miracle and has created you unsellsh.
Conditions Of Success.
One Of tho great kings Of speculation in
the United States, when a boy In an inte-
rior town, and by no means born in the
purple. was ordered by his father to dig a
dozen post holes for a new fence. His active
intellect conceived q plan by which he
could avoid the muscular fatigue involved
In the task, and going to several Of his
playmates he proposed a game Of ~'slave."
1CJ VAlC OGIlAIS VI ulV HAulC lC WdS W DEO-
vide several spades and a 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 II 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
have supplied the sinews by which his rail-
roads have been laid and his safes filled
with bonds, and frequent cases Of exhaus-
tion lave occurred among them.
A university education is not a prepare
tory step to a life Of successful speculation.
As Valentino said to Sir Samson Legend
in Congreve's play, Get thee a chine of
steel and the shoulders of Atlas and then
look matrimony in the face" SO the philos-
opher may say to the ambitious money
hunter, Get thee a conscience Of adamant
and the assurance of Ananias and then
look speculation in the face"
He may 20 farther and lay it down as an
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
max the legal maxim caveat emptor his
guiding star; that he should follow q Sir
Edward Sugden in the theory that the
vendor is not bound to disclose defects, and
a Robert Macaire in the art of concealing
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 alb
solute confidence in himself. Such a 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 a nice
sense of honor, great scientific attachments
and the requirements of a classical educa-
ton or a cultivated taste for fine arts are OBJ
stacles to the speculator--he still requires,
and if successful usually possesses. intel
lectual ability Of high order. 1t is a mis-
lake 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,
1.-THE universe is a thoughto of God" showed
a 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 x
e%rtions, whether of muscle or a. mind. If
it is not beneath the dignity Of Deity to
create matter n make Laws for it, it is
not beneath the dignity of human beings
to devote their talents and time to it's i'm
provements and combinations.
Speculation, while it tends to conduct
away the moral principles from active rec
titude, fails to compensate by atfording any
enduring satisfaction. No measure Of at
tainment ever has completed thedesires. No
one has ever assigned a limit to the heap of
Chrysippus, says the Roman s~atirist. On
this truism there is 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 pos
sessions of the millionaire and the tramp
are precisely alike, each being infinitesimal
ly small. This fact, although not openly
expressed or recognized in 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
Wn}tU lllkSAU law DCCLAs uAb VIM III W
cupation is more detrimental to sound
thinking or destructive of human happi
ness. A person who passes his time ir
mourning over lost opportunities is already
on the high road to insanity. When hi
buttonholes o in the evening and de
plores his folly or shortsightedness in not
buying a thousand shares Of the x. Y. rail
way in the morning at 30 and selling tn.
same in the afternoon at par, you pity hin
as a victim of i'll regulated emotions Will,
you recoil from him as Il bore.
If the cure of such Il disease as that under
which he labors could be effected at all, il
would be by directing his attention to thu
fact that since daybreak in all parts of thu
world an infinite number of opportunitie!
for speculation have shown themselves, al
of which it would be impossible for an,
one person to avail of or even to become
acquainted with. If n must miss 900
of these, where is the hardship Of missing
1O,OO1? And if wealth consists in reducing
ones wants, certainly happiness Is oh
tanned by eliminating disappointments ant
regrets from our mental functions and on
emotions. Until this philosophy is pu'
into practice, the essayist in speculation
will always be torn by self inflicted sorrow:
and be the prey of a myriad pack of woltisl
miseries.
HENRY CLEws.
~oI ~