Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-19
HOW NEW YORK REGARDS
ITS BIG SCALE LOOTERS

his safe and let time-tinle that Is mmi-
nent too-do the rest. There's no gamble
about il Prices are going TO jump be-
fore long. and they're going to jump to a
point where they'll stick. too Maybe the
old vultures of this town don't know it!
I've been watching some of them here
ately-old codgers that never get down to
| Vail street at all, except during rock
bottom period like this. They're pulling
over the bargains heaped up on the finan-
clal counters, and they're getting stun
for little or nothing that they'll be ped
ding for all kinds of big money only a
few months from now. There weren't
many opportunities Ike the present when
was first breaking into the game.
There's a lot of foolish talk about how
vastly easier II used to be to get rich
than II Is nowadays. Pile! Pure pifiiei
Why. if one OF my wire haired fox ter
rers up at Dreamwold knew how to find
his way to Wall street he couldn't fail 10
get rich beyond the dreams OF avarice tho
way the market is constituted at this
hour"
| 1t was interesting to hear this wealthy
man. skillful manipulation and adept in all
of the kinds of stock gambling, talking
about the days when he was earning 81
A week as office boy. He told me how
! once, at that period OF his life, he had
longed for certain pair of dude shoes
| that he saw in a shoe shop window, ana
| how he'd been compelled to save up out
of his S3-a-week for six weeks before he
could get together the price of the shoes
Then the shoe shop didn't have a pair
to fit him, to his profound modification.
| Mr.. Lawson Is the only eminent iinan-
| cier l ever talked with who has no wise
advice to give about saving money. He
isn't of the saving soit himself, and never
was. He believes IN going out and get
ting the money but he doesn't know
anything about saving it He never was
a saver. he frankly admitted.
"A saver Is kind OF a mole. giving
him all the best of it," he said. The
pinch of penury never pinched me into
being a tight wad. | have about as much
respect for porch climber as have
for tight wad. If the man is there
| with the head he ought to be able to
get money heap faster than he can
save 1t. Moreove-, 1 always found far
more fun in getting money than in saw
| ing 1t. I never was able to extract any
| sort of satisfaction from being able to
say to myself when / hit the pillow at
night. We'll, I'm worth tonight just such
| and such sum- | never knew just how
| much / was worth after l got to going
| well. and I never cared particularly. All
! the joy I've ever gotten out of the game
| and nobody has ever had much fun
in finance as / have had-came through
| fixing up ways and means to get the
money. After | had succeeded In putting
such plan through successfully the game
was all over ia as | was concerned
the money itself wasn't anything to brag
about.
Money to Spend.
Il like to have money. and a whole lot
| of 1t. to spend, though. To spend any
old way / want to spend 1t, without any
tussles with myself or intimate CONVERSE
lions with conscience about the deprav-
| ity of extravaganza Next to fixing up
| schemes to make money l like to blow
it in. That's the term-blow it in. Blow
| ing 1t in doesn't necessarily mean tossing
it to the four winds of heaven on imbe-
| 10 fray dol,
| what you blame please and want to do
| with your money. l buy lot of junk
that seems foolish to other people, but
| 1t suits me until l tire of it, and then
1 get rid OF Unusually at all kinds of
| sacrifice. There was a lot of talk about
| that 100000 pink that / bought few
years ago. ! didn't mind the talk-It
| was, as a matter of fact. / stated at
that banquet the other night. the biggest
| advertisement that ever came my way.
| But 1 didn't buy it for that purpose or
| with any such idea in mind. l bought
| it because l wanted it. 1t looked pretty.
unique. pleasing to me. 1 hankered for
| it. 1t made my teeth leak Nobody else
had anything like 1t. 1t was the only
| thing of its kind the globe. Well,
that settled it. l bought it. 1t rePre-
scented good 100000 in fun to me. be-
| cause 1t happened to be just the thing
| that I wanted more than anything else
at the time I saw 1t. had the money.
so why shouldn't l have bought It? 1t
was worth far more than 100000 to me
in the amount of pure undiluted fun /
| got out of 1t.
| And that's about the way I'm guided
| as to everything with money-spending
end to it. l like to coddle even my tenn
| porary enthusiasm over things that cost
| money. Often I've paid big prices for
| things-horses. cows. dogs, pieces Of
| plate. vases flowers. rugs-that I knew
| perfectly well I'd be mortally tired Of
within a greater or less period of time.
|
My idea at the very outset Of my life.
| in getting hold of money was to be in a
position to crafty my whims. Whims
are just as much part of the human
| mentality as the more solemn processes
Of thinking. and whims yell just as hard
| to be INDUCED as the more sedate long
ngs. 1 like whims. Moreover. I like
whimsical people. This may be equiva-
| lent to saying that like myself That's
right. 1 do.
Morals and Stocks.
DO I think there's anything essen
TALLY immoral in gambling in stocks?
Please don't make me laugh That's
kindergarten morality. Life is a gamble.
Life is a warfare. Life is beating the
other fellow to it If you know how. Life
is taking your hard knocks If you don't
know how to beat the other fellow to 1t.
as If you enjoyed hard knocks more
than anything else in the world. Moth
ing, 1t sometimes seems to me. is inn
moral if you win at II. If Napoleon
had won the battle of Waterloo. wouldn't
that have killed off, perhaps for all time,
the homilies and the wise instances and
the sOlemn-reckoning saws that the
platitudinists and the bromide writer's
have been scribbling about him ever
since? He lost-therefore he was the
ahyssmal brute of Europe the man-de-
stroyer. and all that sort oe thing. Every
form Of business involves more or less
gambling. The stock market simply
concentrates and brings business gam
bling to focus. that's all This isn't
saying that there not a lot of thieves
engaged in stock market manipulation.
To the extirpation of these I have adj
dressed myself, and others more pow
erful. will address themselves to the
same task after I'm gone. But transac-
tons in stocks will be carried on up TO
the time that Macaulay's New Zealander
sits on the time-broken framework Of the
new Singer building"
CLARENCE L. CULLEN.