The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1901-07-30
CURSE OF SPECULATION.
Or. Talmage Draws Lessons From
Gambling Crazes Which Have
Swept Over the World.
Integrity and Vlllainy in Wall Street-.Mouey
Is a Gold Breasted Bird With
Silver Beak.
ICopyrIght le1l

the financial ruin of other days; Proverbs
XIII, 3, Riches certainly make them
selves wings; they fly away as an eagle
toward heaven"
Money is gold breasted bird with
silver beak. 1t alights on the office
desk or in the counting room or on tho
parlor centre table. Men and women
stand and admire it. They do not notice
that 1T has wings larger than ravens,
larger than hamingo's, larger then an
eagles One wave of the hand OF mis-.
fortune, and it spreads its beautiful
plumage and Is gone, "as an eagle toward
heaven, my textbook says, though some
times l think it goes in the other direc.
ton.
What verihcation we have had OF
the flying capacity of riches in Wall
Street! And Wall Street is one of the
longest streets in all the world 1t does
not begin at the foot of Trinity Church,
New York, and end at the East River, as
many suppose. 1t reaches through all
our American cities and across the seas
Encouraged by the revival of trade and
by the fact that Wall Street disasters OF
other years were so far back as to be
forgotten, spectators run up the stocks
from point TO point until innocent people
on the outside suppose that the stocks
would always continue to ascend They
gather IN from all parts of the country
Large sums of money are taken into
Wall Street and small sums of money
warn of a great many who were on
their way thither, for the sadness OF the
thing Is that great many of the young
men OF our cities who save little money
for the purpose of starting themselves
In business and who have $500 or $1,000
or $1,000 or $4,000 go into Wall Street
and lose all. And if there was a time for
the pulpit to speak out in regard to GER
tain kinds OF nefarious enterprises now
Is the time.
Stocks rose and fell, and now they
begin to rise again, and they will fall
again until thousands of young men will
be ruined unless the printing press and
the pulpit give emphatic utterance. My
counsel Is to countrymen, so far as they
may hear of this discourse, if they have
surplus, to invest it in first mortgages
and IN moneyed institutions which, though
paying comparatively small interest, are
sound and safe beyond dispute, and to
stand clear of the Wall Street vortex
where so many have been swamped and
swallowed. What u compliment 1t is to
the healthy condition of our country that
these recent disasters have in no wise
depressed tradel l thank God that Wall
Streets capacity to blast this country
has gone forever.
Across the island of New York in
1853 wall made of stone and earth
and cannon mounted was built to keep of
the savages. Along by that wall a street
was laid out, and as the street followed
the line of the wall it was appropriately
called Wall Street. 1t IS narrow, it is
unarchitectural, and yet its history il
unique Excepting Lombard street, Lon
don, it IS the mightest street on this
planet. There the Government of the
United States was born. There Washing
ton held his levees. There Mrs. Adams
and Mrs Caldwell and Mrs Knox and
other brilliant women of the Revolution
displayed their charms. There Wither-
SON and jonathan Edwards and George
Whitefeld sometimes preached. There
DR.. Mason chIded Alexander Hamilton
for writing the Constitution of the Uni
ted States without any God in it. There
negroes were sold in the slave mart
There criminals were harnessed TO wheel
barrows and, like beasts of burden, com
PEELED 70 draw or were lashed through
the streets behind carts to which they
were fastened. There fortunes have come
10 coronation or burial since the day
when reckless spectators in powdered
hair and silver shoe buckles lodged Du
gan, the Governor-General of His Maj
esty, clear down 20 yesterday at o'clock
The history of Wall Street Is to a GER
tain extent the financial, commercial,
agricultural, mining. literary, artistic,
moral and religious history of this coun
try. There are the best men in this
country, and there are the worst Every.
thing from answering integrity TO tip.
top scOundrellsm-everyth from heav.
en- born charity TO bloodless Shylock
ism | want to put the plow in at the
curbstone of Trinity and drive il clear
through to Wall Street ferry, and so it
shall 90 If the horses are strong enough
to draw the pillow.
First of all, Wall Street stands as a
type in this country for tried integrity
and the most outrageous vilainy Farm
ers who have only a few hundred dol
lars worth of produce 90 put on the mar
ket have but little 10 test their eharac-
ter, but put a man into the seven times
heated furnace Of Wall Street excite
ment and he either comes out a Shadrach,
with hair unsnged, or he IS burned into
black moral cindeT. No bali way work
about It. If l wanted 20 find integrity
bombprOof. / would 80 among the bank
ers and merchants of Wall Street, yet be-
cause there have been such villainies enact.
ed there at different times some men
have supposed that II is a great financial
debauchery, and they hardly dare go
near the street OF walk up and down it
unless they have buttoned up their last
pocket and had their lives insured or re.
| hgiOusly crossed themselves. Yet If you
start at either end Of the street and
read the business signs you will find the
names OF more men of integrity and
| Christian benevOlence than you can find
| IN the same space in any street Of any
| of our cities. When the Christian com.
mission and the sanitary commission
| wanted money 10 send medicine and band.
ages TO the wounded when breadstuffs
/ were wanted for furnishing IrelRpd when
/ colleges were 60 be endowed and churches
/ were to be supported and missionary so.
/ cietics were 20 be equippd for their work
/ OF sending the gospel all around , the
/ world, the first street 60 respond \ has
/ been Wall Street, and the largest
| sPonses IN all the land have COM
| Wall Street.