The Globe-republican., 1901-06-13

dollar that he makes is just as bright
and fair and honest dollar as the dol
lar earned by the day 1aborer- But
here we must draw the line between
legitimate speculation and ruinous
gambling You a stock operator with
out any property behind you, financial
~ irresponsible, sell 500 of nothing
and get paid for it. You sell 100 shares
at $4,000 at so days If at the end of
80 days you can get the scrip for So 900,
you have made a thousand. If at the
end of 80 days you have to pay $1,000,
then You have lost a thousand Now
that is Ticking in fiction; that Is
betting on chances; that involves the
spirit of gambling much as anything
that ever goes on in the lowest gambi-
ing hell
Historical Gambling Scheme.
But France must have its gambling
expedition, and that was in 1116- John
Laws Mississippi scheme, it 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 and
drop it in France Excitement be-
yond anything that had yet been
seen in the world. Three hundred
thousand applicants for shares Ex-
element 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 1850
per cent, until one day suspicion got
into the market, and down it all went
John Laws Mississippi scheme
1lIlTv nd Of
greatest f1nanciers in all France. and
was almost as bad as a French revolu-
ton
Sedate England took its chance in
1920. That the South Sea bubble
They proposed to transfer all the gold
of Peru and Mexico and the islands of
the to England. Five millions
worth of shares were put the mar
ket at $500 a 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
| capita1-35 ,OOO, 900 of capitalize de-
velop a wheel in perpetual motion An
| other company with a capital of Ga
oOO, 900 to insure people against loss by
| servants. Another company with g.
| 500, 900 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.
| 6 600 ,O0O in shares were offered at
| 6 100 share. Books were opened at
! O'Clock in the morning and closed at
| 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and the first
day it was all subscribed "A great
/ n .f.,Iy tn lyT1n VI at
! it is
The Largest swindIes.
| But it 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 aim est every man had a bunch of
crawling silkworIns in his house, out
of which he expected to make a for
tune But all this excitement was as
nothing com pared with what took
| place in 1864 when a man near Titus
! Vile Pa. digging for well, struck oil.
| Twelve hundred oil companies call for
! a billion of stock. Prominent mem
| bers of churches, as soon a certain
! amount of stock 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 foot of
| ground, never expected to have. Their
! entire equipment was a map of a 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 a hotel in Phila-
! de1phia at the time 1 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
! $1,000 note Utterly insane
Prayer for Success
o men of Wall street and of all
streets, stand back from the nefarious
/ 1ajT