If any one is curious to know what became of Messrs. Friendly, Spriggins, and Eavesdropper, after their figure in the Speculation, I will take this opportunity to tell them, that what has here been said is but a small part of the fame to which they are entitled; but it is my business only to show the results of such things as I have related.
Mr. Friendly, as all good men do, spent his money liberally and charitably. To a large circle, his house was the centre of politeness, elegance, and hospitality; but his insatiable appetite for speculation ruined him at last, as it does all others; at least, he is so far ruined, that until another speculation shall turn out like the Morrison, he will be content to practice economy. Mr. Spriggins set up his carriage on his anticipated profits, and was let down from it before his coachman had fairly mounted his livery; and report says that he has since done the same thing three times over. Mr. Eavesdropper ran wild with his first success, and, in the end, only arrived one stride nearer the “black list.” And exactly one hundred and forty others were made poorer than they were before, by the whole amount which they put at risk.
RESULTS OF GAMBLING.
If the mischiefs arising from this species of gambling were confined to those who set that kind of speculation on foot, or who make it the business of their lives, there would be nothing to lament. But such is not the fact. The whirlwind naturally sweeps everything within its influence, and over which it has power, to its centre. Hundreds, nay thousands, allured by the success of a few, are induced to embark in the rash adventure. They are unacquainted with the real character or causes of the fluctuations, and even if they are not ignorant, they are liable to be outwitted by some of the hundred minds that are continually plotting against them. Here is the fruitful source of all those defalcations of public officers—the purloining of money by officers, and clerks of institutions which have so much multiplied of late—inflicting misery on the families, and disgrace on the names of many a once honorable man.
GOOD LESSONS TO THOSE WHO WILL HEAR.
The business is showy and fascinating, its temptations subtle and alluring. Young and enterprising merchants embark in it, and find that they have lost their money and their credit, when it is too late to repent. The hard working mechanic embarks a few hundred dollars, and when he finds himself in debt and no means of paying, sees that he has been outwitted, and that, if others have made money, he has lost it. In fact that it is he, and others like him, who have assisted the successful to pocket his profits. Women yield up the savings of years to be invested in something, they know not what, and wail over their folly and their credulity, when all their bright hopes have faded into a worthless certificate. In fact it is only the loss sustained by such as these that enables the operators, as they are termed, to accumulate, or even to live by their business; for they could do neither the one nor the other within themselves. And it will be found to be a necessary consequence, that in all such speculations as that of which I have endeavored to give but too faithful a picture, if one is made rich, a hundred are made poor. In no country in the world, is the hazard of stock gambling, so great as in this, where there is such a multitude of stocks, based upon the schemes of individuals, and affected by the ever changing prosperity of our growing, yet comparatively unsettled condition; and where the capitals are often so small, that it is in the power of two or three designing individuals to raise them above, or depress them below, their real value, as may best suit their plans or their convenience, thus often destroying the sole dependence of the needy and helpless.
CHAPTER III.
STATE STOCKS—HISTORY OF THE MORRISON KENNEL CONTINUED—INTRODUCTION OF NEW CHARACTERS—THE U. S. BANK, &C.
BUBBLES.