Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-06-14

Again, | have to remark Ihao "on
Street is a type throughout the country
of legitimate speculation on the one
hand and of ruinous gambling on tne
other. Almost every merchant is 10 some
extent Spectator. He depends not ohiy
upon the difference between the wholei
sale price at which he gets the goods ana
but also upon the fuctuation OF the
markets. Ii the markets greatly sink, ne
greatly loses. 1t is as honest to deal IN
Stocks as to deal in iron or coal or har "a,
ware or dry goods. He who condemns all
stock dealings as though they were IN
iouitous simply shows his own ignorance
Stop all legitimate speculation IN TINS
country. and you stop all banks, you
stop all factories, you stop all storehouses'
you stop all the great financial prosper
ties of this country.
Sedate England took its chance, IN
l72O. That was the South Sea buppie:
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 t3O0
a share. The books open, in few days
it is all taken and twice the amount SUB
scribed. q;
Excitement following excitement Until
all kinds of gambling projects came fortn
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 5000, 600 capt.
tal-to develop wheel in perpetual mo.
ton; another company, with capital OF
$4,000. 900 to insure people against loss by
servants; another company, with t2,5OO,'
600 capital, to transplant walnut trees
from Virginia to England; then, to cap
the climax, a company was formed Tor
"a great ndertaking-nObody to know
what it is" And, 10, 100000 in shares
were offered at flOO a share; books were
opened at 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 old magazine of those days de.
scrbes the scene Hunts 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 incongruous ma
terials and in all things save the mad
pursuit whereof they were employed utter
ings 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
theatre 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, were liable to disappear within
an hour of their creation. Wings and
Tor; ID buried their weapons of political
warfare, discarded party animoslties and
mingled together In kind and friendly IN
tercourse, 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
to whirl along in the stream, tt, be at
last engulfed 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 of their speculation. Ladies
of high rank, regardless of every appear
ance of dignity and blinded by the pre-.
vailing 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 multicaulis
excitement, when almost every man had
bunch of crawling silkworms in his
house, out of which he expected to make
fortune. But all this excitement was
as nothing compared with what took
place in 1864, when man near Titusviile,
Penn, digging well, struck oil. Twelve
hundred oil companies call for billion
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 a loot OF
ground, never expected to have. Their
entire equipment was a map OF 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 Pennsylvania utterly demented,
having sold his farm at fabulous price
because it was supposed there might be
oil there-coming to hotel in Philadel-
phia at the time 1 was living there,
throwing a $4,000 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 thousand dollar note. Ut
terly 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 profess.
ing Christians in the board OF directors,
They did not know that when professeed
Christian goes into stock gambling ne
lies like sin. But alas for the country! 1t
became tragedy, and thousand million
dollars were swamped. There are famllles
to-day sitting in the shadow Of destitu-
ton who but for that great national out.
rage would have had their cottages and
their homesteads. I hold up before the
Young men these four great stock gam
bling schemes that they may see to what
length men will 60 smitten of this pas.
sion, and 1 want to show them how. all
tie best interests of society are against
it and God is against it and will condemn
it for time and condemn it for eternity.
/ do not dwell upon the frenzied specula-
tions in Wall Street last month. You
have enough remembrance of that inan-
cial horror. I only want you to know
that it was in procession of monetary
frenzies, some of which have passed and
others are to come.