Year: 1865

sembled recently, at the Plymouth


Church, Brooklyn, the attraction being a


special discourse to be delivered by Mr.


Beecher upon the above subject After


the usual preliminary services the reyer-


end gentlemen announced his text from


Proverbs xviii, Pop inclusive


"A faithful man shall abound in bless


ings, etc.


Mr.. Beecher said faithful man was
evidently an honest and an upright man
one who obeved the laws of thrift and
economy in all his business relations
and while by him who fastened to be


wealthy was evidently meant, one who
disobeyed those laws, and sought money
by unjust means, and without rendering
lawful equivalent therefor. 1t was
this kind of Fastening toward wealth
which implied Observation-Disclosures
moral, and destruction in business
crashes, panics and the like.


New York, during the past week, has
been subject, more than all things, to the
perplexity of fluctuations in value. Not
even this civil war; the successful termin
alton of which was now in sight-not
even the operations of Grant or of Sher-
man could maintain their interest beside
( the price of gold, and the danger of pan
ic and commercial failure. In Wall
street and William street there had been
1 ground and lofty tumbling: failures had
| been the great topic of conversation, and
the widest excitement had prevailed.
/ Such fluctuations demanded especially
the careful attention of the young.
He had seen many panics in the course
of his life, and it was generally said that





course, after one of these financial earth
quakes, it required about ten years TO de
velop another. The fact was, after n
panic sohriety and moderation generally
succeeded, and were the law of business
until the crisis that gave rise to their ex
ercise was worn out of the minds of the
business community This state ofmor-
ais would continue for four or five years,
and business would prosper Then an
! inordinate thirst for gain would creep in:
speculation would become the order Of
the day, and another crash would follow
by law lust as natural as that which
regulated the rising and the setting of
the sun.


Now if there was law regulating the
conduct of business, it was worth the
while for men to find it out and profit by
it-and this might be done by n species
of induction The first step toward de
moralization was the abandonment of
fixed methods of business. Men would
carry their regular ayocations with
the left hand not at all, while the right
was busy with some scheme of illegiti-
mate game. Then followed excitement.
Then came what might be called dSeas-
ed hope; and this was the root of gam
bling, where the desire of wealth was in
ordinate and its accumulation was not
based upon fair rendering of equiya- (
lents. Here came in what the wise man
called 1.-The evil eye of him who hasted /
to make money. Men would undertake (
to fix fictitious values and fortunes /
would be suddenly made and as sudden I
lv lost The desire for wealth was not {
of itself necessarily immoral. On the I
other hand it was a source of great good |
and of great influence in society. Itwas !
only when this desire became inordinate, .
when avarice took the place of a just !
appreciation of value, that it became .
reprehensible in the extreme.


In this state of mind men would begin /.
to put upon the regular course of busi-
ness enormous bubbles; companies
would spring up like musketoes in a
Southern swamp. and like them, admira-
bly, adapted to purposes of suction, the





to the cupiditv or the creduitv of the
men; and whoever had invested wonld
burst with it. Now. the success of such
things implied something stable, Just as
the presence of counterfeit coin implied
the existence of real value But. alas,
there was no evil to which men might
not be hired by prospect of gain So
when the company was about to collapse,
tho engineer would very quietly retire
from the blow pipe or hand it to some
body else Ii was not generally the di
rectors and officers of these companies
who lost, nor were they especially anxious
in general to find out who it was. Then
there was the whole game of what was
called, for lack of better name, sharp
practice, just a step lower in the scale
of morality-the whole system and en-
gineering of craft. Fortunes were made
with fabulous rapidity and men had
come to think that OF all things the art
of money making was governed by no
natural laws.


Mr. So and so, they said, had made an
fortune. Incalculable to
him. no doubt II never did calculate.
He never couid, if he tried Mr. So
and so was just beginning 10 live; and
such talk as this we were likely to hear
lust because the world did not know the ]
difference between honest genius and
downright gambling All flesh was
grass. and all New York flesh in particu-
Iar-WalI street and William street
we're peculiar. There fortunes were
made to day and lost to morrow To
lay a man walked, strutted, or whatever
als i, might be called. He was worth
lalf million and every body did him rev.
srenee. Tomorrow he bid his head
He had lost i. all--erery cent-and lit Z
lie boys might peep round the corner
md call him fool with impuuitv. The ;
Inference was just this !: In one case be I
sas an ass loaded with sacks In the {,
,.her case an ass without the saeks ,
Vow, 1t was By pictures Ike the forego
nS that young men were misled They {
orsot that there was any ia~ In these
hings, and we're apt to regard these a. {
,ansial Teroiations as mere atmospher- 4,
c accidents. /,