Year: 1873

No one seems to know exactly when Ghoul
Buchu first came upon the street, nor from
whence he came nor anything pertaining to
his early history. We are SO easy on the sub
| ject of early histories in our New York busi-
ness life that the most successful operator OF
the day might be graduate of Sing Sing or
fugitive from New England justice living under
an assumed name. Few would know, and we
are afraid very few would care The story
might find its way into some of the journals,
but no one would believe it, and it would be
denounced as an invention and attributed to
slander. Ghoul Buchu came, as we all
know, noiselessly upon New York like thief
in the night, as the Scripture says in fitting
phrase He has been with us many years.
Unlike most of the Buchu class, the Ghoul
avoids noise and ostentation, and does not
consider brass band necessary to his success
in Wall street He is rarely seen. He does
not give money to the poor through the pub
lie journals. He never runs for Office. He
has no interest in the Young Mems Christian
Association.


1t is this mystery about the career of Ghoul
|
when or how he became the master Of the
Great Buchu Railway-the same road which is
now regarded in the money markets of the
world as on emblem Of American credit BY
one of those strange phenomenal freaks which
foreigners show when they have relations with
America no railway is as popular as an in
vestment with foreign capitalists as the Great
.ol>. r. 1-x,1 a.
dividends until within the last year or two 1t
scarcely paid the interest on its bonds. For
twenty years one scoundrel succeeded another
in its management in kind Of dynastic sue
cession of villany. The more scoundrels that
| surrounded the road, the more evil things that
were done by its managers and in its name,
the more uncertainty there fingered about its
dividends and the security of its capital,
the more anxiety was shown by our foreign
friends to invest in it. Capitalists went abroad
to urge the advantages of one road
or another, really sound and good in
their way and managed with honesty
and skill. They were instantly
asked if they had any shares in the Great
Buchu for sale. When the answer came that
Great Buchu shares were not exactly the
investments honest Americans commended to
their friends, the answer was shrug of the
shoulder, which probably meant that, as
American credit went, the investment which
bore the worst name was very likely to be
more secure than those which were trumpeted
SO noisily over the world.


If we are to thank any one for this reputa-
tion abroad it is certainly Ghoul Buchu. And
as, probably, no follower of the Buchu fnan-
cial philosophy is more famous than
The Ghoul himself-more famous and
more gifted-his character will justify a spe-
cial study. We have all read the maxim, which
our teachers of the young cannot too often
write in their books of penmanship, that "The
world owes every man a living" The founda-
ton of Ghoul Buchu's character is in this
maxim. Success has enabled him to develop
and cultivate it, however, as it enabled
| great minds like Bacon and Newton
and Galileo to make useful discoveries and
fashion PHILOSOPHERS out of the simplest mani
festations of nature. From Ghoul Buchu we
have learned the wise precept that a man owes
the world nothing. and those other precepts,
which we trust to see engraved on his monu-
mental sepulchre:-


'Justice is only an extra margin of five per
cent


''Success is honesty"


Religion is o trick of the bulls to put up
prices"


Legislation is the good investment of
million Of dollars


''The freedom of the press is becoming
license because it means pay every day"


Railways are never good unless they enrich
the directors" I"


"God made the people that the railways
may live on them"


Railway owners have no rights which rail-
way directors are bound to respect"
"victor Hugo says, Success is merit; gilt is
gold -


These sound principles of Buchu finance,
which have controlled Wall street for so many
years, are the teachings of Ghoul Buchu, and
We owe to one of his cynical moods, perhaps,
this celebrated doctrine:-


"a successful man is always honest. Aman
who steals ham goes to the Tombs, as he
should. A man who steals nine millions has
only to pay it back at the time most suitable
to the market, and invest some Of his profits
in newspaper"


To repeat the history of Ghoul Buchu
would be like repeating that of George
Washington or any other distinguished man.
Our purpose is to do justice to his character,
and show our young men how the example
of a great mind is blessing to the genera
ton. Ghoul Buchu has made, we suppose,
twenty millions of dollars. In making it, he
has cost American credit one hundred mil
lions. While some Of our Puritanic friends
make great ado over this loss, we say boldly
that the example of q Ghoul Buchu is well