Evening star., 1922-01-03
COUPLE CENTS BUY
| 'G|LT-EDGED STOCK
"Mudshoe Exchange" IN
Paris Sells Securities With
Doubtful Past.
BY HIRAM X. MODERwELL.


especial Correspondence OF The Star and
Chicago Daily News)
PARlS, December 15.-Do YOU re-
member that gold mine stock you
bought in 1895? 1t was sure to pay
10 per cent, probably 25 per cent"
II Is now listed among the family as
sets-"1O0 shares Get Rich Quick pre-
ferred, value uncertain" Alas, it's
value is not uncertain. More likely,
you have even lost the gaudy certifi-
Gates themselves.
If SO, they can probably be found
at the mudshoe stock exchange" in
Paris. This honorable institution is
located in or upon the gutter sur
rounding the Paris bourse. which is
the French stock exchange. Inside
this splendid classic building the
| irenzied fight OF the Standard Oil
against the Royal Dutch Shell goes
on day after day for control Of the
; Worlds petroleum supplies. But out
s!de, where the mud overfows your
shoe tops. can be found the poor stray
cats of the stock and bond market
the gilt-edee preferreds and the extra
special guaranteeds which once lured
from the bank the savings of the poor
and credulous. but now can be bought
Tor a Few pennies.
"HOnest and Legal"
There are from one to half q dozen
of these merchants, according to the
state of weather and the sucker sup
ply, every day about noon They dis
play their wares on portable stands
along the curb. There is no fake
about it. Everything is in plain sight
and If you are stung you cannot say
you dldnt know what you were get
ting.
For this business is perfectly honest
and legal The brokers have profes-
sional cards and regular places of
business. Their certificates of stock
are perfectly genuine even though
they may be perfectly valueless. And
one out of fifty may have a faint
shadowy chance of striking it rich
some day.
For example, / have purchased for
3 cents five shares in the Gwndwn
Hill Gold Mining Company, having a
par or face value of fl each-a mat
ter Of nearly SIS. Now. there is no
doubt that these are the shares actu-
ally issued by the company. Unfortu-
nately, there is not much doubt,
either. that some deluded mortal once
paid S25 for them. The only doubt is
whether there is any gold in Gwndwn
hill or whether there is any GwndWn
hill. However. l think | made a good
buy in the $50 worth of stock in the
West Coast Smelling and Refining
Company, incorporated under the laws
of Arizona, for which / was obliged
to pay 4 cents. The document has
gold seal on IL and a picture of the
smelter working full blast. / was
even more confident of my bonds OF
the Republic of CEoa. 100 pesos in
gold, which cost me 3 cents | know
there is a Republic of Cuba. Only |
have since realized that il isn't the
same one as the migratory reyolu-
tionary government that issued tlese
bonds in 1879.
Every IteR Holds Drama.
The list is truly splendid, and every
item has drama in il. What domestic
catastro3hes. what political scandals.
what ruined lives, what shTewd finan-
cial crookedneSs are represented by
these Eaudy documents, which once
meant hundreds OF thousands of dol
lars and now may be bought for
handful of dimes. Here are shares of
| the famous Panama Canal Company.
the DE Lesseps concern which
wrecked one French government and
caused a whole series of suicides. And
here are the bonds of the Alpine Coal
Company: some scientist certainly be-
1ieved that these volcanic mountains
must contain coal. and probably he
was right. only he couldn't prove it,
| The FL callao General Gold Mining
i Company sounds too general. hut the
Furnis Films. Ltd. capitalized at
100000. perhaps only failed of for
tune because its leading lady broke
her contract and was married. The
French Russian Match COMPANY is
probably another of the martyrs to
bolshevisr, hut plenty of others look
IS though they were expressly made
for the credulous-the sucker
And all this engraved literature is
/ ii now entirely worthless? One out.of
fifty may bring money some day. And
the others will do for the lony-Iosf
papers" in your next amateur theatri-
calls or for the text for a soliloquy on
the world we live in.