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Abolish the Stock
Exchange Ticker
Ey Former Judge Ji. J. Dittcnhoefcr.
OW is the time to consider what measures should be taken
N to prevent the recurrence in the future of such linancial
debauchery as has prevailed within the last year or two.
The root of the evil lies in the stock exchange ticker. Erad
• -ieate the root- and lo a large extent the evil will be elimin¬
* * ated. Every day of the year the ticker is made to spread
broadcast false and fictitious quotations of the value of the
-corporate securities held by the “high financiers” to en¬
able them to unload on the outside public. They make fake
sales, which are riih off on the ticker as genuine, and the public, believing
that the sales have actually been made, are fooled into purchasing them at
the ticker prices. When the financiers have unloaded a sufficient quantity
the prices are depressed by them in the same manner, to the great loss of the
persons who bought them at the fictitious ticker prices, and then the finan¬
ciers buy them back and unload them again, and so the endless chain is kept
up. It Is a regular bunco game.
Make it a felony to be a party directly or indirectly to the spreading over
the ticker of such counterfeit transactions, and a stop will be put to such un¬
conscionable watering of securities as has taken place within the last few
years. If the financiers are nbt furnished with the facilities the ticker gives
they will be unable to unload their wares on the public at fictitious prices,
and there will consequently be no use or profit in their pouring streams of
water into their schemes.
It may be answered that it may prove difficult to show by legal proof
who the parties are who cause fictitious prices to be sent, over the ticker, but
whoever, .does this must have some confidential clerk in his employ who would
be able to furnish this proof. That being so, is it likely that these men would
be willing to place themselves in the power of their clerks qnd run the risk
of an indictment, for felony?
This .principle applies to commercial transactions. If a person spreads,
by means of a mercantile agency, a false statement of his financial condi¬
tion, he becomes criminally liable and civilly responsible to any one who, on
the faith of such .statement, gives credit to the party making it.
&
f Panic Cycles ■v®
By Byron IV, Holt
PPARENTLY, great panics tend to recur regularly about ev¬
A ery twenty years, with lesser intermediate crises or depres¬
sion about half-way between. This tendency is frequently
inter£|red with by wars, earthquakes, fires and, most impor¬
tant of all, perhaps, great and comparatively sudden chang¬
K es lar pal in order panic the and and standard hasten crisis of years to value,—gold. delay noted the in cycle this These period. country, upset The since the princi¬ regu¬ 1800,
were perhaps, tho&e of 1814, 1837, 1857, 1873 and 1893, The
years of lesser panics were 1826, 1844, 1864, 1884 and 1903. While the Civil
War apparently caused the 1873 panic to come four years ahead of time, it did
not prevent 1877 from being the year of lowest prices for corporation secur¬
ities. Similarly the,1893 panic really extended to 1896 and 1897, which were
the years of lowest prices for both securities and commodities.
There are many reasons why the present panic has occurred farther
ahead of the twenty-year cycle period (1913) than did any previous recent
panic. There has' been gfiCat destruction of capital by wars, earthquakes, and
fires. These were undoubtedly important factors in hastening the panic per¬
iod. But by far the most important factor was undoubtedly that of the rapid¬
ly depreciating value of gold, which is disturbing values, cancelling debts,
upsetting calculations, and throwing out of gear much of the financial mech¬
anism of the universe.—From the American Review of Reviews.
^-7 ^
5 A Better Product Than 1
i Gold « «
By the Hon. Jllva Jidams. I
*•:«:****.>**.> ARMS may not breed millionaires, but it does breed men and
❖ * £ women and these are a better product than gold, as mater
* F ? ial assets the soil products are the collateral behind nation¬
* al 4* al prosperity. Many have stocks held the notion substantial that the elements wind
t and water in speculative were
of wealth and that the grain exchange could create values
♦♦ ♦ ♦♦♦ ♦ ♦♦ and were the pillars of the country’s finance. The last few
❖ -t—<• weeks have demonstrated that this system of business tfcat
professed to transmute wind and water into gold was found¬
ed on credulity, its castles were castles in Spain and its hopes and promises
moonshine.
These exchanges are temples of plunder; they are disturbers of legiti¬
mate business; a menace and a danger to the morals and prosperity of the
land. They and they alone are responsible for the wave of ruin that has
swept through our cities, Business would be safer, our nation more secure
and the people happier if the door of every produce and stock exchange
could be closed and sealed forever. The injury of a poker joint is mild and
homeopathic compared to the criminal riot and deadly results of these pits
of speculation’ and robbery. Gambling may be the most fascinating of pur¬
suits but it scars the soul of its votaries, breaks the health and leads them
to the bars of dishonor and bankruptcy. Like the sirens on the island, it
charms but to destroy.
*
Still Need ihe Horse.
G. K. Holmes, chief of the division
of foreign ’markets of the Department
of Agriculture, has found that the au¬
tomobile has replaced about 60,000
horses in this, county up to the present
time, and farm horses have never
been in such ‘gteat demand as at the
present moment, In fact, the demand
for horses for farm and other business
uses has become stronger and strong
er during the last two or three years;
the farm horses alone in use oil Jan¬
uary 1, 1908, number no less than 19,
992,000 in round numbers.—Indianapo
lis News.
As a result of its war with Russia
the area of Japan’s territory was
iaised from 180.000 square miles to
283,000 square miles, and her popula¬
tion increased by 10,000,000.
Exchange of Presents in Africa.
Frequently one has to deal with
chiefs, in fact in every village the
traveller will probably be welcomed
by- the chief. An interchange oi
greetings through an interpreter es¬
tablishes a good understanding.
An interchange of presents is usu¬
al on these occasions and is an al¬
most universal custom. Etiquette re¬
quires the chief to give a present iD
return. As a rule a chief can only
offer a bunch of bananas, some paw¬
paws or possibly a goat or two, some
of which may possibly be welcome.
On a special occasion the chief may
offer the traveller a wife, a gift Which
he will probably decline with a great
profusion of thanks.—Engineer. '
Influenza, like cholera, always trav
els from east to west.
ON THE DEAD LEVEL.
If I were a cannibal bad and bold
And king of a coralline coast of gold,
I would have no use for the torn
Nor the wheat, I
pig nor the cow would up
I eat; egad'.
would live on civilized man,
If I were a cannibal king acute
I would pluck me an arrow and up
shoot
(If ever 1 ketohed him In a bog)
That biped bully the street-car hog.
And I up with his heels and Into him the pot hot.
would boll his pork and serve
If I were a cannibal Island chief
I would give my appetite relief
On the shivering shanks and the shudder¬
r j L! h ing shins
,?r aro KUi l ty of death
I would eat. for om-, having , done to deatn,
The condemned ga loot with the garde
breath.
If I were a cannibal tried and true
*Tls us like as not that I’d feast on you.
And you needn't get wrathy and call me
fool keep
’Jill you see my point—keep cool! t
(
I would eat myself (here the meter halts!)
For there/s none of us Quite devoid o.
—Rolertu's Love, in Harper's Weekly.
A
| Woman’s Way.
By Priscilla Campbell.
Letty, having come to Albion for the
special purpose of seeing Dan Johnson,
was disappointed when the bookkeeper
in Greeley’s hardware store told her
in a cold manner that Mr. Johnson whs
not in. She would have questioned her
further, but the girl turned away pert¬
ly, and seeing that sne was expected
to go, Letty left the store, tears of
jealousy filling her big black eyes. She
had tramped all the way from Boone
to see Dan, and then not to find him in
and to he sooken to in such a way
by a girl who wore her hair down over
her eyes was almost too much, she told
herself. But she was pretty, Letty had
to admit that, and her clothes were
quite different from her own. She
looked down fiercely at her simple cot¬
ton dress and her stout boots, covered
with the dust of the country roads over
which she had come to see Dan.
She was rushing along half blindly,
when, in turning a corner of the street
she nearly collided with a young man.
A look of glad surprise swept over her
face, “Why, Dan!” sne cried, “Dan!”
But the welcome sue expected did
not come. Instead the young man
spoke almost coldly. “Hello, Letty,”
he said. "So yoa’re in town today; do¬
ing some trading, I reckon. I’ve just
been out to lunch. I’ve got to hurry
back.
“You know you said if I was in town
to be sure and come and see you, so
I went to the store,” returned Letty, in
a calm voice. “She said you wasn’t
in, and came away. ■ i
“Oh, you mean Miss Merton. Isn’t
she pretty, Letty?" he asked, enthu¬
siastically.
Yes, she’s pretty.” There was not
a tremor in Letty Wood’s voice. “Be
you getting aloilg well, Dan?”
Dan Johnson’s manner grew a little
more gracious as he answered: “Yes,
Letty, I’m getting along fine. Greeley’s
going to open another store down in
Crow’s Hollow before a great while
and I’m doing so well that I expect he
will let me manage this one. I reck¬
on I’m about the best hardware man
around this part of the country.”
“Right glad I be to hear that, Dan.”
The girl hesitated a moment. She was
thinking of the promise Dan had made
only a few months before; but now he
seemed to have forgotten that he had
ever professed to be anything more
than an acquaintance. “Your ma said
you was home last Sunday,” she said
at last. “I didn’t know but what you’d
drop over to see us.”
The young man looked a little sheep¬
ish. Perhaps at that moment he re¬
membered how often he had called on
Letty not so very long ago. “I didn’t
have time,” he said. “Of course, if I’m
going to be manager of the only hard¬
ware store in Albion, as you might say,
I’ve got to be studying more or less,
and—’
“Your old friends ain’t good enough
for yeu, I see,” burst out Letty, Who
could not control herself any longer.
M I reckon I’d better be moving on.”
u Don’t feel that way Letty—you
know I want to amount to something! M
“You ain’t even asltea how your ma
is,” said Letty, abruptly, “but I reckon
you ain’t got no time now to think
of any of us.
• ■ Mother isn’t sick, is she?” Dan ask¬
ed, in great alarm. He was very fond
of his mother.
“Not sick, exactly, but she don’t
feet extra well. I’m going in to see
her on my way back. If she should
take sick, Dan, I can let you know.”
“But mother isn’t going to be sick,
he said almost fiercely. “I couldn’t
bear that. I know she won't get siok.
You tell her I shall come home to p-^e
her Sunday. Now I’ve got to get back
to work. Good-by, Letty.”
Choking back tears, Letty bade him
gbod-by; and she held herself under
control until she nad left the village
far behind. Then she threw herself
down under a tree by the roadside, and
sobbed as if her heart would break.
' Dan Johnson had to Boone
come
from the East six years ago, and Letty
and he had liked each other from the
first, and before he had gone to Al-
bion to work in Greeley’s he had called
on Letty regularly, and there had been
the understanding between them that
as soon as he got enough saved to fur¬
nish a home they woulck be married.
But the moment success was in sight he
had forgotten all about what he had
■aid and seemed to be ashamed of her.
Letty told herself angrily that the girl
in Greeley’s was to blame for it all, and
she hated her.
After a while she dried her tears and
plodded toward home, stepping on her
way to see Dan’s mother, as she had
told him she would. She found her
] 1 very J ill and dispatched 1 a farm hand for
a doctor at once. She wanted ... to send
word to Dan, but Mrs. Johnson would
not allow her to do so, as she said it
would only worry him, and he was
1 coming home Sunday, anyway. ___ When
, j octoi . came he told them that it
was a bad case of rheumatic fever, and
^at g jj e nee( j e( j best of nursing.
The fact that Dan nad ceased to care
for her did not prevent Letty from of¬
fering her services without a moment’s
hesitation; and in the weeks that fol¬
lowed she nursed Mrs Johnson quite as
tenderly as if she had been her own
mother. Dan came home as often as he
could, and as he watched Letty caring
for his mother, he grew ashamed of the
way he had previously treated her.
Finally after a long seige, Mrs. John¬
son g:ew better slowly, and then there
was occasion for great thankfulness.
Her recovery she owed wholly to Let
ty’s tender nursing, she said. One
Saturday evening during her convales
cense Dan came home looking very
sober and distressed. A little later he
told Letty what the trouble was.
“I—I’m not going back to—Gree¬
ley’s,’’ he faltered.
“Not going back to Greeley?” cried
Letty.
“No, I—he don’t need me any longer
—he’s got another man."
“Why, Dan. you was getting along
fine, and you thought you was going to
be manager—”
“I was the only one that thought so,”
he laughed, somewhat bitterly. “I’ve
been a conceited idiot, Letty. a
“But you can get another place,” she
comforted him. “And it won’t make
no difference to her.
“It does make a difference to her,
though I don’t care now. Why, Letty,
she isn’t half the girl you are. I treat¬
ed y*)u mean and 1 know it, and yet you
came here and did just the same for
mother as you would have for your
own. I’m not worthy to speak to you,
and—”
"Don’t say that, Dan. I ain’t got
nothing against you, and I—I ain’t no
different from what I was before you
went to Greeley’s to work.”
“You don’t mean—you can’t mean
that you—care for me after all this,” he
cried.
“I do with all my heart,” she an¬
swered.
He gathered her in his arms and
kissed her tenderly, almost reverently.
“It may be foolish, Dan,” she whis¬
pered, “but when a woman loves it’s
her way to love througn everything.”—
Prom the Boston aunday Post.
A Wonderful Mare.
“Now, wait till I tell you,” insisted
a man by the counter in the St. Fran¬
cis. “This horse was part thorough¬
bred, undersized, too small for the
track; picked her up for a song, you
might say. Wonderful intelligence.
You know the fetlock, that bunch of
hair that grows down back of a horse’s
hoof? Well, Fretful had the most won¬
derful fetlocks. They grew rigst down
to the ground, like whiskbrooms; and
to keep ’em cut flush with the floor
so’s she wouldn’t step on them.
“Been missing cube sugar from the
box in the storehouse. Set a boy to
watch; thought maybe the Chink was
taking a supply to Chinatown. Pretty
soon Fretful pokes her nose out of the
box stall, pulls out the woeden peg,
comes out, begins backing toward
storehouse with a funny hula-hula
movement. Opened door, lifted box
cover, ate a lot of lumps, restored ev
everything and begam hacking back,
same wiggling movement.
“Guess what he wa doing”? Uing
her fetlocks to brush dust over her
traces and hide ’em!”
“Wonderful!” observed Clerk Van.
Orden.—San Francisco Chronicle.
Habana vs. Havana. I
Havana is spelt with a ‘B’ on genu
: imported cigar boxes and with a
v ;n the case of home-made cigars,”
explained a tobacconist presented at
Cardiff yesterday for selling British
cigars as Havanas. The magistrate
agreed that the custom prevailed and
inflicted a nominal fine.—London Daily
Mail.
Goats’ Milk.
*.he highest authorities on the sub¬
ject tell us that the milk of goats is
much richer than that of the cow in
all the nutritive elements, that it goes
much further and is far easier of di¬
gestion, hence is much better for chil¬
dren and invalids than is cows’ milk.
—The American.
Use Some Tact.
It is not wise to speak your mind
nor to be an eloquent apostle of plain
truths. Should you do so you will
find that path beset with both ene
mies and many regrets.
s
Toinfoo
'I?
w fts5.
A BACHELOR’S SOLILOQUY.
To wed or not to wed:
That is the question.
Whether ’tis better
To remain single
And disappoint a few women—
For a time;
Or marry
And disappoint one woman—
For life!
—Young’s Magazine.
FOR INTERNAL USE.
“A fly in the ointment isn't so
bad. a
"Say the rest of it. M
“It’s the fly in the strawberry jam
that provokes.”—Kansas City Jour
nal.
DOUBLES AND QUITS.
Knicker—“A device has been in¬
vented to run two elevators in one
shaft.
Bocker—“Isn’t it enough to hav 0
one always marked ‘Not Running?’
i —New York Sun.
THE EXPLANATION.
Aunty—“Tommy, I put three vies
In here yesterday, and now there is
only one. How is that?”
Tommy — “Please, it was so dark,
Aunty, I didn't see that one!"—.
Punch.
VERY NICELY TURNED.
Miss -Passy- Oh, it’s very good of
you. Captain, to invite me for the first
waltz.”
The Captain Don’t mention it,
ma’am. This is a charity ball.”—
Philadelphia Inquirer.
WILLIE KNEW THE ANSWER.
I : i w
1 i/ i
I
’ V/'
**w pa* ■? r, ' V 1 >
■ti. It!' 1
/V S'
1 /IfeN! 1 r
;.i
(iTma'/I i
§Lmtb I If. v i \ i \
V
, 1 / >1 \
\
,7illie vjreen,” said tnc, teacher,
“you may define the word memory.”
“Memory,” said Willie, “is what we
forget with.”—Pick-Me-Up.
THE WAY OF AUTHORITY.
Remember, said the prudent
man, “that the words once spoken can
never be recalled.”
“No,” answered Senator Sorghum;
“but you can always make a fuss and
say you were misquoted.”—Washing¬
ton Star.
NEEDED: TWENTY Y'EARS OFF.
Milliner’s Assistant—“This feather,
madam, makes you look ten years
younger. ”
Antique Lady—“Then I’ll take the
hat. But I think, perhaps, a second
feather might make it even more be¬
coming. ”—Punch.
WHERE WAS HER STRING.
Church “What’s that piece of
cord tied around your finger for?"
Chapell—“My wife put it there to
remind me to post her letter.”
Church—“And did you post it?"
Chapell—“No; she forgot to give
it to me.”—London Opinion.
SAVED AGAIN.
“All alone in a trackless desert,
wailed the heroine. “Not a tree, not
a rock in sight, Here come the fero
cious lions! Oh, what shall I do?”
“Dive troo de trap! > j shouted a
friendly stage hand, "Yure standin’
right over it, leddy. it Houston
Chronicle.
MOSES’ FEAT.
' - Now, Johnny l a said the Sunday
•
school teacher, “can you tell me one
of the most remarkable things Moses
did? bright
"Yes, ma’em, >» replied the
youth. “He broke all of time.’ the Coin-^ Chi'
mandments at the same
cago News.
COIN AND COMPLIMENTS.
1 1 What would yo do if you were a
multimillionaire?” asked the serious
man. friencu
“Oh,” answered the flippant
M I suppose I would get to yearnii-S
for a few kind words, and endov co
leges like the rest of them.”—
ington Sta& ------------
