Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-05-13
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

That Washington had a good repu-
tation as a city Of culture and musical
Culture Of is svid T hv t to
WASHINGTON following in The
Star Of May Is,
1884:
Some time since Theodore Thomas
expressed the deliberate opinion
that Washington and Milwaukee were
the best cities in the United States
for high-class concerts-that is, they
are the places where the best selec-
tons of music were received with the
keenest appreciation, though there
are other cities where the audiences
are more pretentious and ELUSIVE.
And now comes MSgr Capel, who
pronounces Washington and Mil
waukee the most delightful of all the
cities he had visited in this country
Especially complimentary was he Of
the character of several Of the private
social receptions he attended here.
saying that they were equal in every
respect to any that he had attended
in any part of the world, and that
the guests were as intellectual, refined
and agreeable as any he had met on
the continent Of Europe"
Panic prevailed in Wall Street on
the 14th of May, 1884. as several
banks and broker
1dnIc III age houses closed
New York their doors, with q
-
prices in the stock market. The Star
two days later said:
The worst of the panic in New
York has passed and there is
every reason to believe that her
financial disturbance will not ex-
tend to other parts of the country
where the same causes which brought
about the trouble there do not exist.
These are, first, extravaganza In liv-
ing; second, operating in speculative
stocks with other peoples money;
third, certifying checks when there
was no money to meet them and then
suddenly stopping the practice, thus
throwing operators on their beam
ends for want of credit. The country
is in good condition generally and
buy and are able to deliver what they
sell have no occasion for worry. What
becomes of the fellows who bet on
the probable price of stocks, grain
and provisions, as gamblers do on
the turn of card or the result Of q
horse race, makes little difference to
the people who honestly earn their
living in legitimate business and live
within their means"
1.-The late Mr.. Artemas Ward once
observed" says The Star Of May II,
Ferdinand Wards shakesneare
Financial Formula. tn ough q
lacked the requisite fancy and
Imagination that would qualify him
for Washington correspondent. But
this richly endowed type of man pales
his Intellectual fires of romance be-
fore the modern Wall Street operator,
as illustrated by Mr. Ferdinand Ward,
who indirectly admitted yesterday
that the real nature of his business
consisted in discounting the fanciful
prospects of imaginary profits to be
derived from fictitious contracts
founded on the manufacture of loans,
and artificial contributions of alto
gether imaginary money Brokers
and men about town have not been
classed heretofore with poets, but Mr..
Wards notes, checks, bonds and other
fiscal operations may fairly rank as
masterpieces of imaginative writing
with Paradise Lost. Robinson Crusoe.
Frankenstein or The Culprit Fay.
And it may be added that the profits
from this branch of literature, II
properly conducted, exceed those to
be derived from any other. even If
the writer be endowed with the in
dustry and system OF q Trollope."