Year: 1872

France The lesson of the last struggle has
not yet been forgotten, and it was too severe
to tempt renewal of the experiment.


The Northwest Corner and the Eric


Suit--The Ethics OF stock Gambling.


The Northwestern 'scorner,' with its curious
addendum of the suit against Jay Gould by
the Erie Company, will long remain one of the
memorable events of the speculation lunacy
which has become feature Of the age. We
have no necessity now to 60 into the relative
morality of those who "bulp' and those
who ssbear" stock. A stock gambler
is not ''bulr' or a "bear" because Of his
views on the Decalogue. In the two religions
Of the 'tstreet," conversions from one faith
to the other and back again are as frequent
rs the fluctuations Of the stocks themselves.
After storm of this kind, however, we are
certain to hear recriminations about the evil
which lies in the bosoms Of all the horned
and hirsute animals of the Exchange, and
by taking each at its word about its neigh
Dor we may arrive near the truth of the
matter. Mr.. Horace T. Clark, with delicate
humor, and touching sarcasm, speaks of the
miserable ''bears' of last Friday as
persons who s'were not careful in all
instances to own the stocks of which they
made speculative sales" Mr.. Augustus Schell
breaks the crust of the conundrum more
savagely, for he calls them 'that class of men
who sell short of stock and profit by great
casualties and by the misfortunes of other
men," 1t will be news, indeed, to Wall street
if it can be made known that s'bulls'' always
own, that is, possess the stocks they SELL or
that they do not, on on occasion like last Fri
day, ''profit by great casualties and the mis-
fortunes of other men, We have only to
note that in the evidence on the point yet fur
nished the terrible Boston fire seems to have
entered into the calculations Of all those who
profited by the spasm in Northwestern.


Some two hundred and forty years ago the
worthy burghers of Holland first, we believe,
practised on large scale the purchase and
sale of things without possessing or caring to
possess them. There were no railroads and
no Pacific Mail to practise on, so they bulled
and beared with tulip bulbs as substitute.
There was some innocency in this part of the
idea, but single bulb often was bulled be-
yond its value by the corner more effect
ually than Northwestern on Friday and Satur-
day, and bulbous fortunes were the order
of the day. The States soon put stop
to the traffic; but before that the
''bears" had the market in their hands
and reduced some of the earnings of the
"bulls." The end of it was that many of both
classes were obliged to emigrate, and as New
Amsterdam was in fashion then as now, these
Dutch operators" landed on Manhattan
Island. How long their spirit lay dormant
here we need not tell but at this writing the
tulipomania under another guise is among us
and just as mad and exciting as in 1889 in
Holland. We instance its origin only to re-
mark how much we owe to the Knickerbockers
besides some fine old family names and pear
tree sprig.


There is disingenuousness, to use very
mild phrase, about the dealings of the model
operator which is one of the worst features
of the business. Men who denounce each
other up town behind each others backs meet
in Wall street to smile winningly and chat
affectionately. How many Of those men who
have Jay Gould in their arms now have called
him by all the names in the dictionary Of vitu-
peration week ago? Men who oppose each
other on the "street' will have Joint
accounts; others, swearing loudly they will
never settle with set Of conspirators,
rush privately to make ON accommodation
where they can get it. We must nevertheless,
refer to the card of Commodore Vanderbilt,
who may be Crosus, but who is not afraid
to come into print with statement as to how
he stands with reference to the operator who
forms the central figure in the late trouble
He says very pointedly :-'1 have had but
one business transaction with Mr. Gould in
my life. In July, 1868, 1 sold him lot of
stock for which he paid me, with the privi-
lege of a call for further lot, which he also
settled. Since then have had nothing to do
with him in any way whatever nor do / mean