The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-10
Spirit of the Press.
WANTED: PREDIGESTED SECURI-
TIES.

WANTED: PREDlGESIED 0ECO III
TIES.
New York Evening Post.
The stock market, everybody agrees,
IS staggering under weight of undi-
gosted sccurities-rudis indigestaque
moles-which it must carry, but for
which it has no craving. Experts reckon
this undigested mass at greater or lesser
sums; the significant fact is that it eX-
lists. and that the public doesn't banker
after it. Mr. Morgan has guaranteed
the digestibility of these great issues
has said that they slip down easily, and
lie lightly on the most delicate stomach,
but the facts of the case seem to be
against him. Small investors assume the
attitude of a seasick passenger to whom
sympathetic deck steward offers food.
Take it away Take it away" is the
querulous reply to all suggestions that
the food is good.
We might as well face the facts. Wall
Street crockery is not what it used to be.
Our digestions are not what they were
when Mr. Keene and Mr.. Gates We're
happy boys. We cannot hope to see
again the securities that mother used to
make-those toothsome commons and pre-
ferrcd that went down as easily as an
apple turnover, and sat as soft and
blessedly as home made cruller. Those
simple joys are not for the specious days
of financial diners a la Russo. For an
artificial condition, an artificial remedy
what we need is no mere soda mints of
consolidation from Mr.. Morgan, no pla-
tonic assurances that "the pancakes are
good" but quick relief for troubled
stomachs.
Surprising the fault to be the queasiness
of the general digestion and not the in
digestibilty of the new securities. what
is to be done about it? Nervous indiges-
tion is as bad as organic disease, and
needs quite as careful treatment, In fact,
Mr. Morgan's public and solemn attesta-
ton of the assimilable qualities of the
new merger stocks, when examined close
ly, bears a striking similarity to the
guarantees that accompany the new health
foods. Needless to say that percentages
of pepsin and of heterogeneous clements
appeal to that class which is afflicted
gastronomically precisely as Mr. Nor
gan's patients are speculatively; and
right here is the hint for relieving that
dyspepsia which has cast a gloom over
the market and made the brokers' life
scarcely worth living-namely, predigest-
ed securities.
The practical problem remains always.
Wherewith Is this mass to be pepsined?
The question cannot be answered until
the grounds of the present distaste are
ascertained. People distrust the pan
h. oh !,
good, only because many of them look
bad. Some of them are blown with wind
like a syllabub and obviously contain no
nourishment; more are soggy with water
still others lie slab, although there has
long been promise they will rise. Tt is
useless to bid us commit our digestions
to such an exhibit. Could we but be
assured that these confeetions were pre-
digested how different the case would
be! The soggiest could be eaten were We
convinced that it came of excess, not
of water, but of pepsin. Possibly this
condition could be produced if the Wall
Street cooks would publish their recipes
as frankly as the health-food people dis
play their alimentary formulas. We dys-
peptics are a brooding, suspicious lot
we mistrust not only the food that has
once distressed us, but strange food gen
erally. We fear the waiter, though bring
ing entrees, and refuse to eat until we
know the condiments and their proper
tions.
Show us that so wholesome a substance
as genuine earning capacity is the basis
of the mess, that the insidious herb Of
generalization is absent, that saving salt
of deterioration account has not been for
gotten, and We will lay to and eat; and
possibly-so magnanimous is even the
dyspeptic class of mankind-if we can
be assured that the securities are really
digestible We may regain an old-time
appetite and not stand upon the point
of predigestion.