The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1901-07-30


who Is all the time tempted TO speculate
with them; that Is no place for a man TO
go who does not quite know whether the
laws OF the State forbid usury or patron.
lie 1t. Oh, how many men have risked
themselves in the vortex and gone down
for the simple reason their integrity had.
not been thoroughly established! Re
member poor Ketcham-how soon the
flying hoofs of his iron grays clattered
with him TO his destruction; remember
poor Gay. at thirty wears of age. aston
fishing the world with his fortunes and
his torgeries; remember that famous man
whose steamboat and whose opera houses
could not atone for his notorious rides
through Central Park in the face of
decent New York and whose behavior on
wall Street by its example has blasted
tens OF thousands of young men Of this
generations
have not so much admiration for the
french Empress who stood in her balcony
IN farls and addressed an excited mob
and quelled it as L have admiration for
that venerabl lie banker on Wall Street who
In 1854 stood on the steps of his moneyed
institution and quieted the fears of de-
positors and babe peace TO the angry wave
OF commercial excitement.
COD did not allow une lions to hurt
Daniel, and He will not allow the bears"
TO hurt you. Remember, my friend,
that all these scenes of business will soon
have passed away, and by the law of Gods
ness life will be adJudicated. Honesty
pays best for both worlds.
Again, l have to remark that Wall
Street is type throughout the country
OF legitimate speculation on the one
hand and of ruinous gambling on the
other. Almost every merchant Is to some
extent Spectator. 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,
kFN al H..
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
ware or dry goods. He who condemns all
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 prosperi-
ties of this country.
l720. 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 market at $500
share. The books open, in a few days
it is all taken and twice the amount sub
scribed.
Excitement following excitement until
all kinds of gambling projects came forth
under the wing of this South Sea enter
with great capital for providing funerals
for all parts of the land. Another com
pany with large capital R5 100000 CAPT.
tal-to develop q wheel in perpetual mo-
ton; another company, with capital of
E4,OOO,OOO to insure people against loss by
servants; another company, with 92 $780,
600 capital, TO transplant walnut trees
from Virginia to England; then, 10 cap
the climax, company was formed for
"a great interchangeable to know
ia Ia in oba
were offered at fl00 share; books were
opened at 9 o'clock in the morning and
closed at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and
the first day it was all subscribed. "a
great undertaking nobody to know what
An old magazine of those days de.
scribes the scene Hunts Magazine) 1t
says: From morning until evening
Change alley was full to overtiowing 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
ly opposite in their principles and feel
lngs and tar asunder in their stations in
lie and the professions they follow
Statesmen and clergymen deserted their
nigh 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,
II gained, were liable to disappear within
an hour of their creation. Wings aud
IoDs1B buried their weapons of political
warfare, discarded party auimosities and
mingled together in kind and friendly IN
tercourse, each eNulting as their stocks
advanced IN price and grumbling when
fortune frowred upon them. Lawyers,
physicians, merchants and travelling men
tOrSOOk their employment, neglected their
business, dsregarded their engagements
to whirl along in the stream, to 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 adoru,
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
ance Of dignity and blinded by the pre-
vailing infatuation, drove to the shops of
their milliners and haberdasher5 and
there met their stOckbrokers whom they
regularly employed and through whom
extensive sales were daily negotiated. In
the midst OF the excitement all distinc-
ton of party and religion and circum-
stances and character were swallowed
up
But it was left fo- our own country to
surpass it all about thirty-seven years
ago. We have the highest mountains aud
the greatest cataracts and the longest
rivers, and of course we had 20 have the
largest swindle. One would have thought
that the nation had seen enough IN that
direction during the morous multicauls
excitement, when almost every man had
a bunch OF crawling siikWOrms in his