Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-01

| there was Joined that Of all Europe. The
population of Paris doubled. The prices OF
! labor and commodities trebled In day
| There was now none willing to be called ar
| tisan. Every man was broker In stocks
| Bubbles, bubbles, dreams. fantasies-these
| were the things all carried In their hands
and in their hearts. These made the obJeci
Of their desire, of their pursuit unimagina.
| bly, passionate and frenzied.
With a leap from the somberness Of the
reign Of Louis all France went to the ex.
| IRENE of levity Costumes changed. Man
| ners, but late devout, grew debonair Nor.
ais. once lax, now grew yet more lax. The
| blaze and tinsel the music and the rouge
| the wine, the flowing. uncounted gold-al
Paris might have been called colder
brothel of deiirious delight, tenanted by a
| people utterly gone mad.
| 1t was a house made of bubbles. Its
| domes were Of bubbles. Its roof was OF
| bubbles. and its walls. Its windows were
of that nacreous film. Even its foundations
| an evanescent dream Of gauze-like web
| frail as the spiders house upon the dew.
hung grasses.
| Yet as to this latter, there should be some.
| what Of qualification. The wizard who
created this fairy structure saw 1t swiftly
grow beyond its original plan, saw unfore.
| seen results spring from those causes which
| were first well within his comprehension.
venturer, schemer. charlatan, Law
originally deserved anything but such YER
! dict Of his public. Dishonest he was not
insincere he never was; and as student OF
fundamentals, he was In advance Of his age,
| which is ever to be accursed. His method
was but the forerunner of the modern COM
| mercial system, which is Of itself today but
| tougher faith bubble, as may be seen in
all the changing cycles of finance and trade.
His bank was but portion Of a nobler
dream. His system was but one vast belief
one glorious hope.
The company Of the west-this 1t was that
| made John Laws heart throb. America
its trade-its future! John Law, dead now
and gone-he was the colossal pioneer! He
saw in his dreams what we see today In
reality; and no bubble of all the frenzied
Paris streets equaled this splendid dream
Of a renewed and revived humanity that is
a fact today.
But there came to this dreamer and doer
at the very door of his success, that which
arrested him even upon his entering in.
There came the preliminary blow which In
flash his far-seeing mind knew was to
mean ultimate ruin. In word, the loose
principles of dissolute man were to ruin
France, and with 1t one who had once
saved France from ruin.
Philippe of Orleans found 1t ever difficult
to say no to friend, and more so II that
friend were woman; and Of. the latter
sort. none had more than he. Men and
women alike, these could all see only this
abundance of money made Of paper. What,
then, was to prevent the regent. all power
full. from printing more and yet more Of It.
and giving It to his friends? The regent
than those Of Philippe Of Orleans, receiving
In effect faithIessness In return for insin-
certify.
Philippe OF Orleans could not see why.
since credit based on specie made possible
based on Al France might not warrant an
indefinite Issue OK such notes. He offered