The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1906-02-03

rooms" ard packet shops" In the |
larger villages ard towns OF the |
West has brought the ailurement OF |
speculation to our country popu-
lasion. whose sturdy character has
been our boast and In no small de-
gree our national security. What the
results are in private fife, and what
they may be In their social influence,
Is Indicated In this description by a
correspondent. whose business gives
him opportunities TO know the condi-
lions intimately and who says sim
ply. Il write what | have seen"
when In his slack time a farm
ar visits the village to meet his neigh
bors and talk over family 'doin's' and
crop returns. he secs newly opened
| office with spacious entrance. dou-
BILE doors. and plato glass window
He stops and looks. Within he hears,
'Whent s2ia S3A
SAN He enters and Is greeted by
| a neighbor seated in comfortable
leather chair The place begins to
| fascinate him; Its smoking room and
free cigars are seductive bait. He
feels good. and finds himself at home
among neighbors. The blackboard
and Its columns OF changing figures
Is entertaining; his neighbor tells
him OF neat turn he made: and as
he watches the fluctuations In wheat,
oats and corn he thinks, What's the
harm in taking try myself?
''fie buys wheat. wheat rises two
points and he sells. From that hour
the man Is changed His spirits are
light that night, and as he sits at
the family fireside he takes out an
extra cigar and smokes with the en-
joyment OF a man who feels that the
days of easy money have come. The
drudgery OF farm life seems a huge
mistake, too slow for one who can
hire help and pay them out OF the
easy profits of the trading room. Yet
his thoughts find no expression that
his wife may share his anticipations !
All his life she has been his safe
but this little venture is
his own and he gloats over 1t as II /,
1t had made him rich.
"There is change coming over
that home. No longer is there an |
exchange at the fireside as to how
the stock looks or how the wheat
is heading out, yet wheat and stocks
are In the brain of the man who mas
been a pattern to his children and
the pride Of devoted wife. The
farm machinery rusts in the barn
yard, the grain grows over ripe, the
stock becomes thin, and the once
faithful man Is buying and selling
in the trading room wheat that Is
not his nor never will be his-pursu-
ing q phantom, playing a game that
| no man can beat in the long run, a
game the dealer dares not play him
self, for he knows it will break him
as it does his dupes.
when the telephone rings he dare
not let his wife answer it. The mes
sage is, Send down $500 to sustain
your margins Wheat is off tw~
points He lies to his family about
1t. The farm must carry a mortgage
at last.
Months pass; the interest is not
paid; the foreclosure notice is in the
weekly paper Six months more, and
the family look for the last time
broken hearted on the old home. As
lthey stop to gaze back at it, he wond
)ers why such fate should overtakt
him when the spectators Of the Elk
change aud the Street heap VI
wealth by the same process. He doe
not know of the aforementioned ten
of thousands whose ruin, like his
has been courted in listening t
Wheat 81 II 83A S4A.
And perhaps he realizes still les
= that the real ruin occurred when h
, rugged character gave way to the s
. duction of easy money" - TT
- Worlds Work.