The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1901-06-14


mission on another style OF goods. inc
dollar that he makes is just as bright
and fair and honest dollar as the dol
lar earned by the day laborer. But
here We must draw the line between
legitimate speculation and ruinous
gambling. You, a stock operator with
out any property behind you, financial
ly irresponsible, sell 500 Of nothing
and get paid for 1t. You sell 100 shares
at $4,000 at 30 days. II at the END Oh
30 days you can get the scrip for Ss,Ooo,
you have made a thousand. If at the
end of 30 days you have to pay ll,ooo,
then you have lost thousand. NOW
that is trafficking in fiction; that Is
betting on chances; that involves the
spirit of gambling as much as anything
that ever goes on in the lowest gampl-
ing hell.
Historical Gambling Scheme.
But France must have its gambling
expedition, and that was in ZIG. John
Laws Mississippi scheme, 1t was call
ed. The French had heard that this
American continent was built out OF
solid gold, and the project was
to take it across the ocean ana
drop it in France. Excitement be-
yond anything that had yet been
seen in the world. Three hundred
thousand applicants for shares. tx
citement so great that sometimes the
mounted military had to dispense the
crowds that had come to buy the stock.
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 benevolent and sympathetic
gentleman. Stocks went up to 2,O5O
per cent, until one day suspicion got
into the market, and down it all went
John Laws Mississippi scheme
burying its protector and some of the
greatest financiers in all France, and
was almost as bad as a French reyolu-
ton
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 mar
ket at 6 800 share. The books open,
in a few days it was all taken and
twice the amount subscribed.
Excitement followed excitement I'M
til all kinds of gambling projects came
forth under the wing of this South Sea
enterprise. There was a large COM
pany formed with great capital for pro-
viding funerals for all parts OF the
land Another company with large
capital 100000 of capitalize de-
velop a wheel in perpetual notion An
other company with capital of G4,-
600, 1000 to insure people against loss by
servants. Another company with e.
100000 capital to transplant walnut
trees from Virginia to England. Then,
to cap the climax, company was
formed for "a great undertaking, no
body to know what it is" And, 10,
G600,000 in shares were offered at
G100 a 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. ga great
undertaking, nobody to know what
it is"
The Largest Swindles.
But it was left for our own country
to surpass 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 dur
ing the morus multicaulis excitement,
when almost every man had bunch of
crawling silkworms in his house, out
of which he expected to make for
tune. But all this excitement was as
nothing compared with what took
place in 1864 when a man near Titus
VILE. Pa. digging for well, struck oil.
Twelve Oll companies Nhil AOA
a billion of stock. Prominent mem
bers of churches, as soon as 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
entire equipment was map of re-
gion 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 regions of
Pennsylvania utterly demented. having
sold his farm at a fabulous price be-
cause it was supposed there might be
oil there-coming to hotel in Phila-
delphia 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
81 900 note. Utterly insane.
Prayer for Success.