Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-05-12


Every man was broker in stocks. Bub-
bles, bubbles, dreams, fantasies-these
were the things all carried in their
hands and in their hearts. These
made the object of their desire. of
their pursuit unimaginably passionate
and frenzied.
With leap from the sonberness of
the reign of Louis, all France went to
the extreme of 1evity. Costumes
changed Manners, but late devout,
grew debonair. Morals, once lax, now
grew yet more lax. The blaze and
tinsel, the music and the rouge, the
wine, the flowing, uncounted gold-all
Paris might have been called golden
brothel of delirious delight, tenanted
by a people utterly gone mad.
1t was a house made of bubbles. It's
domes were of bubbles. It's roof was
Of bubbles, and its walls It's windows
were of that nacreous film Even its
foundations had naught in them more
substantial than 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
somewhat of qualification The wizard
who created this fairy structure saw
it swiftly grow beyond its original
plan, saw unforeseen results spring
from those causes which were first
well within his comprehension
Berated by later generations as an
sdventurer, a schemer, a charlatan,
Law originally deserved anything but
such verdict of his public. Dishon-
est he was not, insincere he never was;
and as a student of fundamentals, he
was in advance of his age, which is
ever to be aecursed. His method was
but the forerunner of the modern COM
mercial system, which is of itself to-
day but a tougher faith bubble, as may
be seen in all the changing cycles of
finance and trade His bank was but
a portion of nobler dream His sys-
tenn was but one vast belief, one glori-
Gus hope.
The Company Of the West-this it
was that made John Laws heart thfob.
America-its trade-its futurel John
Law, dead now and gone-he was the
colossal pioneer. He saw in his dreams
what we see to-day in reality; and no
bubble of all the frenzied Paris streets
equaled this splendid dream of a re-
newed and revived humanity that is
a fact to-day.
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 prelim-
mary blow which in flash his far
seeing mind knew was to mean ulti,
mate ruin. In a word, the loose prin-
ciples Of a dissolute man were to ruin
France, and with it one who had once
saved France from ruin
Philippe of Orleans found it ever
difficult to say no to friend, and more
so if 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 powerful, from
printing more and yet more OF it, and
giving it to his friends? The regent
did so. Never were mistresses better
paid than those of Philippe of Orleans,
I receiving in effect faithlessness in re-
turn for insincerity.
The notes Of the private bank Of Law
were an absolute promise to pay, a
certain and definite sum. not change
able OF indefinite sum; and Law made
it part of his published creed that
any banker was worthy of death who
issued notes without having the specie
Wherewith to pay them. He insisted
that the payment should mean specie
in the value OF the day on which the
note was issued. This item the re-
gent liked little, as being too irksome
for his temper. Was 1t not Of record
how Louis, the Grand Monarque, had