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Items of Interest Gathered Here and There
Astounding Sum of Defalcations.
Recently two bushels of champagne corks were
found in the luxuriously furnished apartments of a
woman at the North, who said she had kept them
as souvenirs of the happy hours she had spent as
the 11 affinity” of a high roller who lately had be
come a defaulter. This incident leads us to remark
that embezzlements are being committed in this
country at the astonishing rate of more than $lO,-.
000,000 a year. This is an astounding sum *of
money to be lost by the thieving of trusted em
ployees. Os course, a large part of it is chargeable
to “wine and women,” but at least one-half of the
funds was engulfed in the maelstrom of stock spec
ulation, and about one-quarter was lost on the race
track and in the pool room.
According to a report by the surety and bonding
companies of New York, the embezzlement for the
first six months of the present year aggregate $5,-
482,687. If the same proportion is kept up for the
second half of the year the stealings in 1907 will
amount to nearly $11,000,000. For the correspond
ing period in 1906 the embezzlements were $3,829,-
390, and in 1905 they were $5,234,985. So it will
be seen that 1907 holds the record for the first six
months of each of the years named. ' The report
referred to shows that the banks and trust com
panies are the heaviest losers, their losses having
been $2,080,590, as compared with $758,750 in the
same period of 1906. Public service corporations
and analogous concerns came next with losses of
$946,385, a slight decrease from the total of $985,-
380 for the first half of 1906. General business
concerns suffered to the extent of $819,372, as com
pared with $1,020,373 in 1906. Miscellaneous con
cerns, saloons, breweries, stores, etc., lost $817,874,
which was nearly double their loss for the first six
months of 1906. Beneficial association funds were
mulcted of $400,703, court trust funds $353,000, and
transportation companies, $104,552. It is an inter
esting fact to note that the insurance companies
lost very 1itt1e—565,563 being the sum.
Men in search of sudden gain often travel the
road of the defaulter. Stock speculations, with
their excitement, fascination and ventures, swallow
up millions of embezzled funds. Race track and
pool room gambling presents glittering temptations
to many men in their haste to be rich. Stock specu
lation has been the cause of more defalcations,
wrecked fortunes and blasted characters than any
other form of chance. Into cotton futures men
have gone with large fortunes and unblemished re
pute, and come forth penniless and bankrupt in
reputation. Cotton futures allure within their
treacherous whirl many men with trust funds, who
go down into the vortex, and are thrown up again
with only a ruined name. Speculation street is
covered with the wrecks of men once honest, but
afterwards disgraced.—The Macon Telegraph.
Country Sound to the Core.
Business and financial conditions in the United
States are absolutely sound. From the small farm
er, who is harvesting his crop at high prices, to the
United States Treasury, which is overflowing with
money, the country is solid and prosperous. There
can be no cessation of prosperity so long as the
factors of prospenty are alive and at work. If
there had been a crop failure this year, or if dis
aster had been invited by foolish legislation tending
to destroy Confidence, there might have been oc
casion for uneasiness. But there is no excuse what
ever for any honest man in an honest business to
fear trouble.
The flurry in financial circles over the recent col
lapses is a temporary agitation. There can be no
collapse of solvent banks and prosperous business
ventures —and the banks are solvent and business is
prosperous. The Comptroller of the Currency has
carefully watched the condition of national banks
everywhere. He declares them to be in an abso
lutely sound condition. The worst has already oc
curred —and it has occurred only to concerns that
were not worthy to live. Legitimate business is
always benefited by the removal of men and corpo-
The Golden Age for October 31, 1907.
rations that fail to obey the laws of business. Even
in times of prosperity, certain immutable laws
must be observed if the trader is to survive. He
is his own Nemesis if he violates them. The busi
ness world will be better off by the purging process.
Wall street gamblers may be agitated, but the man
who deals with real things is not alarmed. He goes
ahead with his business.
The millions of busy workers in this country are
not trembling when shaky concerns in New York
go to the wall. The country does not even feel the
tremor that makes Wall street gasp. When Wall
street stories of “losses” and “shrinkage of val
ues” are sent out, following a flurry in stocks, the
average American smiles. It is merely the gam
bler’s squeal. No actual loss has occurred to any
body. The man who tried to make millions out of
nothing has failed to make good, and the man whose
reputed millions are made of hot air has failed —
that is all.
The crops being large, there is a big demand for
cars to carry them to market. The railroads are
busier than they ever were before. Merchants are
buying big stocks, and this adds to the burdens of
the railroads. Skilled labor is everywhere in de
mand. There is almost a famine of good men. Ma
terial is hard to get, on account of the rush orders.
Steel rails are needed by a hundred railroads that
are waiting to extend their lines. The structural
steel mills are working night and day. Bank clear
ings in fifty of the largest cities in the country are
larger than ever before. Wages are high and every
body is at work.
There is nothing whatever in business or financial
conditions in this country to cause uneasiness to any
man who is engaged in an honest business. —The
Washington Post.
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The Most Popular Hymns.
Strange and pathetic are many of the stories con
nected with the origin of famous hymns. In some
cases, however, fictitious romances have been built
around the beautiful words sung in our chapels and
churches. For many years it was believed that
Cowper’s “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” was
written as an outpouring of the poet’s soul in grati
tude for the frustration of his attempted suicide in
October, 1773. The fact, however, that this hymn
has been found in a manuscript in which the latest
date is August, 1773, proves that it was written be
fore Cowper’s attempt on his life
Then, again, it is a peculiar belief that Augustus
Toplady wrote “Rock of Ages” while sheltering
from a storm between two limestone rocks in the
Mendips. No proof of the story is forthcoming,
however, and consequently it must be accepted with
caution. But there is no doubt that the author of
“Christians, Awake,” John Byrom, composed that
magnificent hymn as a Christmas gift to his fa
vorite daughter, Dorothy, for he inscribed upon the
manuscript, “Christmas Day for Dolly.”
It was characteristic cf the late Bishop Bicker
steth, who wrote “Peace, Perfect Peace,” that he
always found it easiest to express in verse what
ever subject was uppermost in his mind. One day
he heard a sermon delivered by Canon Gibbon, vicar
of Harrogate, on the text, “Thou shalt keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee,” and
shortly afterward went to visit an aged and dying
relative, Archdeacon Hill, of Liverpool. Bishop
Bickersteth found the Archdeacon somewhat troubled
in mind, and, it being natural to him to express in
verse the spiritual comfcrt which he desired to con
vey, the Bishop tock up a sheet of paper and there
and then wrote down the hymn just exactly as it
stands, and read it to his dying friend.
An example of a hymn being written to suit a
certain tune is furnished by the grand old favorite,
“I Think When I Read that Sweet Story of Old.”
Mrs. Luke, the author, was very much impressed
one day by an old Greek tune which she had seen
the children of the Normal Infant School, Gray’s
Inn Road, marching to, and while going home on
the stage coach she wrote the words to suit) the mu
sic on the back of an old envelope.
There are two accounts of how “Just As I Am”
came to be written. One authority asserts that it
was while she lay in great physical weakness on a
sofa, the other members of the family being pres
ent at a bazaar in which all but the invalid were
taking an active part, that Charlotte Elliott, the
author of the hymn, wrote the words which have
stirred the hearts of thousands.
On the other hand, the story is that a young girl
was going to the town to choose a new dress for a
ball. On her way she met a priest, who said she
ought not to go. However, she went, but did not
enjoy the evening at all, and returned home miser
able. Charlotte Elliott (for that was the young
girl’s name) went to confess to her priest all about
it, and- asked what she should do. He advised her
to go home and tell Jesus all about it. “Just as I
am?” she said. “Yes, just as you are.” She re
turned home, and on her knees composed the hymn.
The proofs, however, seem to point to the first
story, which is given by Dr. Julian.
Dr. Julian, by the way, tells us that the total
number of Christian hymns in the 200 or more lan
guages and dialects in which they have been written
is not less than 400,000, Germany coming first
with 100,000, and England next. The most popular
hymns, according to a census which he has taken,
are “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,”
“Awake, My Soul, and With the Sun,” “Hark, the
Herald Angels Sing/’ and “Rock of Ages Cleft for
Me.” —Tit Bits.
n h
Mental Appetite.
The growth of the printing and publishing busi
ness during the last fifteen years is an illustration
of the prosperous condition of the people of the
United States, and of their very high intelligence.
The printing business in 1880 ranked tenth among
the big industries of| the country, and in 1905 it
ranked seventh, the total value of the products be
ing a little short of half a billion dollars. Instead of
being concentrated in a few big plants, like the steel
industry, the priming and publishing business is
conducted by many large and small establishments
all over the country. The Census Bureau’s report
of the printing and publishing industry for the year
1905 shows how the business has grown. Book and
job printing products valued at $4,500,000 were
turned out between 1880 and 1890. During the half
decade between 1900 and 1905 the output was val
ued at $62,000,000. The report ascribes this mar
velous increase to prosperity and natural causes,
such as the use of printed trolley transfer slips,
telephone books, photographing, and the extension
of the rural free delivery system, which has stimu
lated the circulation of catalogs and circulars. The
three cities of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago,
during 1905, consumed enough telephone books to
have kept a press busy for fourteen years turning
out 10,000 impressions a day.
Thirty-four States reported an increase of over
50 per cent in the value of newspaper advertising
in the five-year period between 1900 and 1905. The ,
per capita value of advertising more than doubled
during that period. Twenty years ago the sub
scriptions and sales of newspapers exceeded the
value of advertising by about one-fourth. Now the
value of advertising is greater by $34,000,000 a
year. The newspapers and magazines use nearly
a million tons of paper annually, about 100,000
acres of timber being required in the manufacture
of the paper. This immense consumption is due
largely to the increased size of newspapers, result
ing partly from the use of typesetting machines and
partly from the general prosperity of the country.
The number of newspapers and periodicals has
doubled during the last twenty-five years. The
circulation of newspapers has increased 31 per cent
during the last five years, seven-tenths of this in
crease being in the circulation of daily newspapers.
The dissemination of intelligence, therefore, has
more than kept pace with the increase of popula
tion. Americans are insatiable readers, as the world
well knows, but the census figures are nevertheless
astonishing exhibits of the magnitude of the busi
ness that caters to 80,000,000 restless intellects.—
Exchange.
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