Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-06-13
The amount sui.ser.nnd.


forth under the wing of this south sea
enterprise. There was a large compa.
ny formed with great capital for pro.
viding funerals for all parts of the
land. Another company with large cap
ital f5,0O0,Oo0 capitalize develop
wheel In perpetual motion; another
company, with a capital of f4.000,O00,
to insure people against loss by sery-
ants; another company, with f2,50O,O00
capital, to transplant walnut trees from
Virginia to England; then. to cap the
climax, company was formed for "a
great undertaking - nobody to know
what it Is" And, 10, 100000 In shares
were offered at f100 a share; books
were opened at 8 o'clock in the morn
ing and closed at o'clock In the after
noon, and the first day it was all sub
scribed. "A great undertaking-nobody
to know what it ISL
An old magazine of those days de-
scribes the scene (Hunt's Magazine).
1t says: "From morning until evening
Change alley was full to overlooking
with one dense, moving mass of living
beings, composed of the most incon-
gruous materials and In all things save
the mad pursuit whereof they were
employed utterly opposite in their prin-
ciples and feelings and far asunder In
their stations in life and the profess
sions 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 forgot their wranglings upon
church government in the deep and
hazardous game they were playing for
worldly treasures and for riches,
which, If gained, We're liable to disap-
pear within an hour of their creation.
Wings and Tories buried their weapons
of political warfare, discarded party
animosities and mingled together in
kind and friendly intercourse, each ex-
ulting as their stocks advanced In
price and grumbling when fortune
frowned upon them. Lawyers, ply
sicians, merchants and travelling men
forsook their employment, neglected
their business, disregarded their en-
gagements to whirl along in the stream,
to be at last engulfed in the wild sea
of bankruptcy. Females mixed with
the crowd, forgetting the station and
employment which nature had fitted
them to adorn, and dealt boldly and ex-
tensively 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 prevail
ing infatuation, 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 nego-
tiated. In the midst of the excitement
all distinctions Of party and religion
and circumstances and character were
swallowed up
Condemned by God.
But 1t 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 riv-
ers, and of course we had to have the
largest swindle. One would have
thought that the nation had seen
enough in that direction during the
morus multicaulis excitement, when al.
most every man had bunch Of crawl
ing silkwo 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, dig
ging a well, struck oil. Twelve hun
bred oil companies call for a billion
of stock. Prominent members of
churches, as soon as certain amount
of stock was assigned them, saw
it was their privilege to become pres
idents 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 q map of region
where oil might be and two walls of
grease, crude and clarified. People
rushed down from all parts of the coun-
try 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
! his farm at fabulous price because 1t
| was supposed there might be oil there
coming to a hotel in Philadelphia at
| the time l 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 a thousand dollar
note. Utterly insane!
The good Christian people said, ''This
| company must be all right, because
Elder So-and-so Is president of 1t, and
Elder So-and-so Is secretary of 1t, and
| then there are three or four highly re-
| spected processing Christians In the
board Of directors" They did not know
that when a professed Christian goes
into stock gambling he lies like sin.
i But alas for the country! 1t became
| tragedy, and a thousand million dollars
wereswamped. There are families today
sitting in the shadow of restitution
who but for that great national out
rage would have had their cottages and
their homesteads. 1 hold up before the
| young men these four great stock gam
bling schemes that they may see to
| what length men Will go Smitten or
| this passion, and l want to show them
! how all the best interests of society are
| against 1t and God Is against 1t and
| will condemn 1t for time and condemn
it for eternity. l do not dwell upon the
| frenzied speculations In Wall street
last month. You all have enough re-
membrance of that financial horror.
| only want Won TO know that 1t was in a
procession of monetary frenzies, some
of which have passed and others are to
| come.
| The Day of Accounting.
| o men of Wall street and of all
streets, stand back from nefarious en-
terprises, join that great company Of
| Christian men who are maintaining
their integrity Notwithstanding all the
pressure of temptation. In the morn
ing, when you open business in the