Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-07-18
ishing the world with his fortunes and

MS forgerles; remember that famous man
who's whose steamboat and whose opera houses
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
| generation.
l have not so much admiration for the
French Empress who stood in her balcony
In Paris and addressed an excited mob
and quelled it as l have admiration for
that venerable banker on Wall Street who
IN 1854 stood on the steps of his moneyed
institution and quieted the fears of de.
positors and bade peace to the angry wave
OF commercial excitement
God did not allow the 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
eternal right all the affairs of your bust
ness life viii 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 theA,
but alss upon the fuctuation of the
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.
sedate England took its chance in
| 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 f300
a share. The books open, in 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
prise. There was a large company formed
with great capital for providing funerals
for all parts of the land. Another com
pany with large capital f5,0O0,C0o capi
tal-to develop wheel in perpetual mo.
ton; another company, with capital of
900 to insure people against loss by
servants; another company, with f2,500,
900 capital, to transplant walnut trees
from Virginia to England; then, to car
the climax, a company was formed for
what it is" And, 10, f6OOO5O in shares
were offered at fl00 share; books were
opened at 8 o'clock in the morning and
closed at 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 overhowing 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
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.
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
Tories buried their weapons of political
warfare, discarded party animosites and
mingled together in kind and friendly in
tercourse, each exuiting as. their stocks
advanced in price and grumbling when
fortune frowned upon them. Lawyers,
| physicians, merchants and travelling men
business, disregarded 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 adorn,
| and dealt boldly and extensively and, like
| those oy 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 theiIr, speculation, Ladies
ance of dignity and blinded by the pre-
vailing infatuation, drove to the shops of
| their millners 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 distinc-
| ton of party and religion and clrcum..
| stances and character were swallowed
| up
But it was left for our own country to
surpass it all about thirtyseven 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
a bunch of crawling silkworms IN his
| lOuse, OuI VI "lllCu uS CApGStCo W IiahS
a fortune. But all this excitement was
as nothing compared with what took
place in 1864, when man uear Iltusvllle,
| Penn, digging a well, struck oil. Twelve
hundred oil companies call for billion
of stock Prominent members 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 region
| where oil might be and two vials of
grease, crude and clarified. People rushed
down from all parts of the country by the
first tram 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 a hotel in Phiade-
phia at the time l was living there,
throwing $4,000 check to pay for his
MONDAY meal and saying he did not care
anything about the change! Then he