The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1901-12-06

AlIlI IT WAS lf4A AUA UMA NNN ll fUMII ~
+ TO surpass all. about 81 years AGO. We
have the highest mountains and the
F greatest cataracts and The longest r.v-
ers. and. of course. we had to have Inc
/ largest swindle One would have
/ thought that the nation had seen
enough I'm that direction during the
morus multicaulis excitement. when
+ almost every man had bunch Of
crawling silkworms i'm his house. ont
of which he expected 10 make "a for
tune. But all this excitement was
as nothing compared with what took
place in 1864 when a man near Titus-
vile, Pa, digging for a well. struck
oil. Twelve hundred oil companies
call for a billion Of stock. Prone
inent members Of churches. as soon as
q certain amount of stock was as
signed them. saw it was their privilege
10 become presidents or secretaries or
members of the board of direction.
Some of these companies never had
foot Of ground. never expected to have.
Their entire equipment was a map Of
region where oil might be and two
vial, of grease. crude and clarified
People rushed down from all parts ~
the country by the first train and put
their hard earnings i'm the gulf \
young man came down from the oil re-
gions of Pennsylvania utterly dement,
ed. having sold his farm at fabulous
price because ii was supposed that
there might be oil there-comng 10 a
hotel in Philadelphia at the time ! was
living there. throwing down a $1,000
check to pay for his MONDAY meal and
saying he did not care anything about
the change. Then he stepped back TO
the gas burner to light his Cigar with
$1,000 note. Utterly insane.
The good Christian people said;
"This company must be all right,
because Elder So-and-so is president
of it, and Elder So-and-so is secre-
tary of it, and then there are three
or four highly respected processing
Christians in the board of direct
ors." They did not know that when
a professed Christian goes into
stock gambling he lies like sin. But
alas for the country. II became a
tragedy, and a thousand million dol
lars were swamped. There are fami-
lies to-day sitting i'm the shadow
of destitution who but for that
great national outrage would have
had their cottages and their
homesteads. l hold up before
the young men these four great
stock gambling schemes that they
may see 10 what length men
will go smitten of this passion, and
/ want TO show them how all the
best interests of society are against
il. and God is against it and will
condemn il for time and condemn it
for eternity. / do not dwell upon
the frenzied speculations in Wall
street last month. You all have
enough remembrance of that fnan-
cial horror. / only want you TO
know that it was in a procession of
monetary frenzes, some of which
have passed and others are TO come.
o men Of Wall street and of all
streets. stand back from nefarious
enterprises, join that great COM
pany of Christian men who are
maintaining their integrity notwiih-
standing all the pressure of tempta-
ton. In the morning. when you
open business in the brokers' office
or in the banking house. ask Gods
blessing, and when yom close il pro-
nounce benediction upon it. \
kind Of business that men cannot
engage in without prayer is no busi-
ness for you. | wish that the words
Of George Peabody, uttered in the
hearing of the people of his native
town-Danvers, Mass.-I wish that
those words could be uttered in the
hearing of all the young men
throughout the land. lie said:
Though Providence has granted me
unvaried and universal success in
the pursuit Of fortune in other lands I
am still in heart the humble boy /
who left yonder unpretending dwell /
ing There is not youth within /
the sound of my voice whose early |
opportunities and advantages are /
not very much greater than were /
my own, and / have since achieved 7
nothing that is impossible TO The /
most humble boy among you.
George Peabody's success in busi- /
ness was not more remarkable than /
his integrity and his great-hearied I
benevolence. pray upon you Gods /
projecting and prospering blessing. /
hope you may all make fortunes /
for time and fortunes for eternity. /
Some day when you come out OF /
your place of business and you 20 /
to the clearing house or the place I
of custom or the bank or your own /
home-as You come out of your place /
of business just look up at the clock /
i'm the tower and see by the move /
ment of the hands how your life is /
rapidly going away and be reminded /
of the fact that before Gods throne |
Of ineNorable judgment you must yet /
give account of what you have done /
since the day you sold the first yard 4
of cloth or the first pound Of sugar. D
] pray for you all prosperity Stand .
close bv Christ. and Christ will stand /
close by you. The greater the tempia-
tion the more magnificent the re- /
ward. But. alas. for the stock gam
bler-what will he do in the judg- I
mcnt? That day will settle every
thing. That 10 the stock gambler /