The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-11

1850 per cent until one day suspicion
got into the market, and down it all went
Laws Mississippi scheme-bury-
ing its protector and some Of the greatest
fnanciers in all France and was almost
as bad as a French revolution.
Sedate England took its chance in
1920. That was the south sea bubble.
They proposed to transfer all the gold of
Peru and Mexico and the islands Of the
sea to England. Five millions worth of
shares were put on the market at 1900 a
share. The books open, in a few days it
is all taken and twice the amount sub
scribed.
Excitement following excitement until
all kinds Of gambling projects came forth
under the wing Of this south sea enter
prise. There was a large company form
ed with great capital for providing fu-
nerals for all parts Of the land. Another
company with large capitaEf5,O OO, 600
Of capitalize develop q wheel in perpet-
ia motion. Another company with q
capital of 100000 to insure people
against loss by servants. Another COM
pany with f2,500,OOO capital to trans
plant walnut trees from Virginia to Eng.
land. Then, to cap the climax, a com
pany was formed for ga great undertak-
ilS, uuDOus " AuOW WudI II Is. AnQ,
10, 100000 in shares were offered at
f1OO a share. Books were opened at 8
o'clock in the morning and closed at 3
o'clock in the afternoon, n the FIRST day
it was all subscribed. "a great under
taking, nobody to know what it is"
An old magazine Of those days de-
scribes the scene Hunts Magazine). 1t
says: From morning until evening
Change alley was full to overfowing
with one dense, moving mass Of living
beings, composed Of the most i~ncongruous
materials and in all things save the mad
pursuit wherefor they were employed
utterly opposite in their principles and
feelings and far asunder in their stations
in life and the professions they follow.
Statesmen and clergymen deserted their
high stations to enter upon this great
theater Of speculation and gambling.
Churchmen and dissenters left their
fierce disputes and forget their wran-
glings upon church government in the deep
and hazardous game they were playing
for worldly treasures and for riches,
which, if gained, were liable to disappear
within an hour of their creation. Wings
and Tories buried their weapons Of polit-
ical warfare, discarded party animosities
and mingled together in kind and friendly
intercourse, each eXulting as their stocks
advanced in price and grumbling when
fortune frowned upon them. Lawyers,
physicians, merchants and travelling men
forsook their employment, neglected their
business, ~disregarded their engagements
to whirl along in the stream, to be at last
engulfed in the wild sea Of bankruptcy.
Females mixed with the crowd, forget
ting the station and employment which
nature had fitted them to adorn. and dealt
boldly and extensively and, like those by
whom they were surrounded, rose from
poverty to wealth and from that were
thrown down to beggary and want, and
all in one short week, and perhaps before
the evening which terminated the first
day of their speculation. Ladies Of high
rank, regardless of every appearance Of
dignity and blinded by the prevailing in
fatuation, drove to the shops Of their
milliners and haberdashers and there met
their stockholders, whom they regularly
employed and through whom extensive
sales were daily negotiated. In the midst
of the excitement all distinctions Of party
and religion and circumstances and char
acter were swallowed up"
The Largest Swind1es.
But it was left for our own country to
surpass all. about 81 years ago. We
have the highest mountains and the
greatest %cataracts and the longest rivers,
and. of course, we had to have the lar
gest swindle. One would have thought
that the nation had seen enough in that
direction during the morus multicaulis
excitement, when almost every man had
a bunch Of crawling silkworms in his
house, out of which he expected to make
a fortune. But all this excitement was
as nothing compared with what took
place in 1864 when a man near Titusville,
Pa, digging for a well struck oil. Twelve
hundred oil companies call for a bill
lion of stock. Prominent members OF
churches, as soon as a certain amount OF
stock was assigned them, saw it was
their privilege to become presidents OF
secretaries or members of the board OF
direction. Some of these companies new.
er had a foot Of ground, never expected
to have. Their entire equipment was 8
map Of a region where oil might be and
two walls Of grease, crude and clarified
People rushed down from all parts Of the
country by the first train and put their
hard earnings in the gulf. A young man
came down from the oil region Of Penn
sylvania utterly demented. having sold
LIS 1aEu dC u IdDulOuS price because IL
was supposed there might be oil there
coming to 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 any.
thing about the change! Then he step.
ped pack to the gas burner to light his
cigar with a 81 600 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 secretary of it. and then
there are three or four highly respected
protesting Christians in the board Of d.
rectors." They did not know that when
a professed Christian goes into STOCK
gambling be lies like sin. But alas fol-
the country. II became a tragedy. and a
thousand million dollars were swamned
There are families :ofay sitting in the
shadow of destitution who but for .ha,
great national outrage would have had
their cottages and their homesteads.
hold up before the young men these foul
great stock gambling schemes that they