The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-06-26
hero of the bank and hero of the Stock

hand and of ruinous gambling on the
other. Almost every merchant is to some
extent speculator. He depends not only
upon the difference between the whole:
sale price at which he gets the goods, and
the retail at which he disposes of them,
but also upon the huctuation OF the
markets. If the markets greatly sink, he
greatly loses. 1t is as honest to deal in
stocks as to deal in iron or coal or hard.
stock dealings as though they were in.
iquitous simply shows his own ignorance.
Stop all legitimate speculation in this
country, and you stop all banks, you
stop all factories, you stop all storehouses,
you stop all the great financial prosperl-
ties of this country.
A stock dealer is only commission
merchant under another name. He gets
his commission on one style of goods. You,
the grocer, get your commission on anoth-
er style Of goods. The dollar that he
makes is just as bright and fair and hon
est a dollar as the dollar earned by the
day laborer. :.
But here we must draw the line be.
tween legitimate specul and ruinous
gambling. You, stock operator without
any property behind you, financially If.
responsible, sell 500 of nothing and get
paid for it. You sell lOO. shares at $4,000
at thirty days. If at the. end Of thirty
days you get the scrip for $4,000, you
have made o thousand. If at the end OF
thirty to s&ey dyl oss 1iTs tbonsanR tS pay S that eRe
traficking in fiction. That is betting on
chances. That involves the spirit of
gambling as much as anything that ever
goes on in the lowest gambling hell.
At certain times almost every prosper.
GUS merchant wakes up, and. he says:
"Now, I have been successful in my line
of trade, and I have tolerable income.
I think I shall 50 down to Wall Street
and treble it in three weeks. There's my
neinhbor. He was in the same line Of
business. He has his 100000 or $500 900
from the simple fact he went into Wall
Street. I think I shall go, too" Here
they come, retired merchants. who want
to get q little excitement in their lethar.
gic veins. Here they come, the trustees
OF great property, to fool everything away.
Five hundred temporary tents built to
accommodate the people until they could
have opportunity of interviewing John
Law. a lady of great fashion had her
coachman upset her near the place where
John Law was passing in order that she
might have an interview with that BEN
eyolent and sympathetic gentleman! .,
Stocks went up to 2O5o per cent, until
and down it all went-John Laws Mis-
sissippi scheme-burying its protector
and some of the greatest fnanciers in all
France, and was almost as bad as q
French revolution. -.
Excitement following excitement until
all kinds of gambling projects came forth
under the wing of this South Sea enter.
prise. There was large company formed
with great capital for providing funerals
for all parts of the land. Another com
pany with large capital f5 100000 capi'
tal-to develop a wheel in perpetual mo.
ton; another company, with capital OF
S4,000,000 to insure people against loss by
servants; another company, with f2,5O0,'
900 capital, to transplant walnut trees
from Virginia to England; then, to cap
the climax, a company was. formed for
"a great undertaking-nobody to know
what it is" And, 10, 100000 in shares
were offered at sl00 share; books were
opened at 9 o'clock in the morning and
closed at 8 o'clock in the afternoon, and
the first day it was all subscribed. "a
great undertaking-nobody to know what
It isl"
An cd magazine of those days de.
scribes the scene (Hunt's Magazine). 1t
says: From morning until evening
Change alley was full to oyeraowing with
one dense, moving mass of living beings,
composed of the most incongruous ma,
terials and in all things save the mad
pursuit whereof they were employed utter
iy opposite in their principles and feel
ings and far asunder in their stations in
life and the professions they follow
Statesmen and clcrgymen deserted their
high stations to enter upon this great
theatre of speculation and gambling
Churchmen and dissenters left their
fierce disputes and forgot their wranglinge
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 political!
warfare, discarded party animositles and
mingled together in kind and friendly IN.
tercourse, each exulting as their stocks
advanced in price and grumbing when
fortune frowned upon them. Lawyers
physicians, merchants and travelling mel
forsook their employment, neglected then
business, disregarded their engagements
to whirl along in the stream, to be at
last englllfed in the wild sea OF bank
ruptcy. Females mixed with the, crowd.
forgetting 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 per.
haps before the evening which terminated
the first day CT their speculation. Ladies
of high rank, regardless of every appear
anca of dignity and blinded by the pre-.
yailing 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 negotiated. In
the midst of the excitement all dlstinc'
ton of party and religion and circum,,
stances and character were swallowed
up"
But it was left for our own country to
surpass it all about thirty-seven years
ago. We have the highest mountains and
the greatest cataracts and the, longest
rivers, 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 morous multlcaullss
excitement, when almost every man had
q bunch of crawling silkworms in bis
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 TitnsvlIle
Penn, digging we'll, straGk oil. Twelve I'VE: We
hundred oil companies call tor oiiiion
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 or secretaries or
members of the board of direction. Some.
Of these companies never had foot Of
ground, never expected to have. Their Iheir
entire equipment was a map of a region
where oil might be and two ,vials OF
grease, crude and clarified. People rushed
down from all parts OF the country Dy 'is a.
first train and put their hard earnings Id
the gulf. -, -,
region of Pennsylvania utterly demented,
having sold his farm at fabulous price