November 30,1895
Record and Guide.
757
^1
CH8Ua^I868.
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Vol. LVI. NOVEMBER 30, 1895. No. 1,446
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UNDER the influence of light gold exports the stock market
has strengthened. If there was any way of determining
whether this is an indicatiou of an early cessation of gold ship¬
ments altogether, or merely a hill in the movement, the course
of the prices of securities conld he foreshadowed with some cer¬
tainty. There are some signs of increase in the volume of our
exports, bnt until these are more definite, or nntil foreign
buying of our securities is carried on with the old-time coufl¬
dence, the course of exchange must be uucertaiu. This is a
great pity because testimony accnniulatea day by day that our
internal commerce is improving. A feature that is becomiug
more and more prominent is the successful development ot the
Colorado and other gold fields. Tlie increase in the production
of gold means consequent speculative activity. Part of this
speculative activity is not pleasant to anticipate. It looks very
much as if we are to have an attack of mining fever. Powerful
forces are at work to bring this about. While the exchanges of
Chicago and New York have frowned on the idea, there has been
an active inquiry for mines that could be dressed up and made
presentable enough to catch the ignorant. Tbis means nothing
less than an intended mean aud dishonest attack upou the sav¬
ings of hired girls aud clerks. Since the Leadville sensation
mining operations have been confined, iu the maiu, to people
who understood the business, or knew enough about business
generally to act with prudence. Good minescouldnotbebought
and bad ones could not be sold. What promoters are trying to
do now is to makeit possible to get hold of good ones aud on
the strength of tbem sell bad ones. As the unproductive mines
are plentiful and the productive mines rare, the flnal result of a
miuiug boom caunot be anything but a disappointment tothe
public however profltable it may be to promoters. But we fonr
the public bas already caught the disease and irill have to take
the medicine.
the conditiou of trade, \Yhich was undoubtedly good. Tbere has
beeu a steady revival in business throughout Europe for some
time which has now reached au assuring basis; the government
receipts prove that. There aro exceptions at ijoints and threat¬
ened dangers bere aud there from over-confidence, notably in
Austria and Hungary, but the outlook as a whole is satisfactory.
THE liquidation in Kaffirs has apparently been as discrimin¬
ating as wholesome. The decline to the middle of this
month was abont 18 per cent in dividend-payers, 37 per ceut in
non-dividend mining stocks and 36 per cent in development
and land compani<ts. The total loss in valuea in two months
was, in round figures, $355,000,000. The par value of the
total Rand capitalization is $250,000,000; the market value at
the top of tbe boom was $1,065,000,000, aud at last mail
advices $710,000,000. There has been some rally due to the
oversold conditiou of the market, but there is no doubt still
need for fining down. The enoi-mous shrinkage in values
brought about in the recent scare makea it highly probable
that that part of the liquidating process most to be dreaded,
because of its indirect influences on other securities, has been
carried out. Mauy of these stocks are stiU. selling for unjusti¬
fiably high prices, but they will be brought down to figures
more in consonance with values by easier ways thau panics.
The output of the mines in October was not as good as in any
of the five previous months, though much larger than iu any
month prior thereto. The vahie of the gold produced from
January lst to October Slst was over $38,000,000, and the total
for the year may yet amount to $45,000,000. Tho production
of the world will exceed $200,000,000. All things considered,
our frieuds abroad bave come out of their recent experiences
very well. Lord Salisbury's encouraging speech removed wbat
wouiid have been a very potent bear agent in a pauic, the war-
8care{, aud largely limited punishment to those people who had
unwisely loaded themselves with mining shares. Another fact
that Irmited the extent of the decline and assisted the rally was
Our Millionaire Ariatooraoy.
OBVIOUSLY, the current number of ihe Architectural liecoril
mnst have a very irritating eftect upou anarchists, socialists
and the milder class of similar revolutionists—in fact upon all
those whose profession it is to be " down" ou wealth. This
periodical, we believe, is quite innocent of any intention to
cater to the rabid instincts of humanity, unless we are to iu¬
clude art among the violent and unbalanced activities of tbe
race ; but, certainly, iu printing so many illustrations iu one
uumber, of the sumptuous interiors of millionaire residences (at
Newport and elsewhere) it furnishes a mass of incendiary ma¬
terial, which, falling iuto tbe right places, must feed tbe numer¬
ous little fires that the morally and mentally irresponsible keep
burning in the cellars of the social fabric, hoping someday to
produce a larger aud more dangerous conflagration. Hitherto the
pot-honse|inceudiary, and his own even more dfiugerous coadjutor
iu the pulpit (whose noxious sentimeutalism is every whit as in¬
flammable as dynamite) bave had to paint the gilded habitat of
the multi-millionaire in imaginative ontline ; but bere coihes a
reputable magazine that, with tbe fidelity of tbe photograph,
exposes every detail of the beast's lair, catches him, so to speak,
at home—in the great frescoed halls be has built for himself, his
picture galleries, dining rooms, libraries and otber apartments.
The exhibition, indeed,is an exceptional one, and reveals sump-
tuosity and expensiveness, surprising even to those who aro not
entirely ignorant of tbe domestic splendor of the financially
emancipated. Friends of Herr Most and tho Rev. Dr. Madison
Peters ought to buy up ;tbe entire edition and distribute it as
a covert revolutionary document. We warrant a single copy
will furnish texts enough for emotional sermons aud dynamite
for five year.?' Sundays and as many working days as your active
anarchist would care to crowd iuto a decade.
But, also for the sane and serions who regard wealth ae a
leifitimate social condition, tbese illustrations have a value for
reflection's sake. They provoke thought. They indicate very
pointedly a state of affairs which the national consciousness per¬
ceives only vaguely, confused as it is by the turmoil of daily
changes in which the miud of the clearest observer is itself in¬
volved. It is difficult to " mark time," iu tbe mihtary sensn, in
this country. Everything and everybody moves so rapidly.
Events, with us, are scarcely recognizable uutil we are past tbem.
Nowhere else does to-morrow trip so closely upon tbe heels of
to-day. We are plunged into the midstof uew conditions before
we have had time to perceive the premonitions of tbeir ap¬
proach. Unlike older nations, we have so few stationary points.
It may be said that one must leave this couutry iu order to be
able to see it. It is frequently remarked that no New Yorker
to-day is anything like as capable of estimating the enormous
changes which the last ten years bave produced iu the internal
aud external conditiou of the metropolis as is the citizeu who
returns after a considerable absence. The fixed native, in fact,
is missing one-half of all that is goiug on.
So tbese millionaire " palaces," for auy smaller definition is
absurd, bave a sociological lesson for us. It is instructive to
compare them with the wealthiest homes of, sjy, twenty-five
years ago; and then, again, for the sake of a longer reach, with
the "manors" of our pre-rebelliou or our post-colonial gentry,
or even with those earlier habitations of this country's younger
days
"Whoso primitive tradition reaches
As far as Adam's first green breeches."
No other comparisou quite so strikingly exemplifies tlie eoor-
mous enlargement of individual fortunes in the United States
that the last quarter of a century has brought about. The
wealthy man of a generation back moved in circumstances
actually humble and homelike compared with the condition of
the plethoric Cr03suses of tbe preseut. The large fortunes of our
fathers' days were, so to speak, of attainable dimensions; they
were in a sense democratic, as being at least apparently within
the possibilities of everybody. Contrariwise, the fortimes that
the great Newport "cottages" represent are aristocratic, so
colossal and far removed from the ordinary reach that they
have the aspect of a class possession. Nobody can inspect these
palatial interiors aud avoid the thought tbat surely here we have
indubitable evidence of the existence in this couutry of a true
aristocracy of the dollar. The style, appointment aud arrange¬
ment of these buildings indicate social conditions foreign, so far,
to this country. They indicate exclusiveness, and artificiality new
to us. They connote fluokeydom, for such places are the natural
homes of Jeames and his brethren; aud we know that where
Jeames is there snroly will his higher relative the snob be also.
The American theory of society has not so far contemplated