pital in three years. The temptation was irresistible to a man who was tired of spending money, and wished to taste the novel pleasure of making it. I took fast hold of the money lender's tail, as Don Cleofas did of that of the lame devil, and away we went, sinking by degrees into the bottomless pit of speculation. I placed my funds in his hands, took his advice on all occasions, and followed my jackall with the faith of a devotee.

Matters went on finely, and for a while I tasted the sweets of making money. But there is this difference between tasting money, and tasting any thing else. In all other cases, eating at length satisfies the appetite; but in that of money, it only renders it more voracious. I became tired of the petty business of shaving notes, advancing upon goods, and such small matters. I longed to make my thousands and tens of thousands in one single "operation," as they say in Wall-street; and luckily, as I then thought, opportunities soon offered themselves to my enlarging anticipations. My lame devil proposed to me to buy largely into a new company just then chartered, by the collected wisdom and virtue of the people. I did so, and gained ten per cent. in less than as many days, which convinced me I had at last found the philosopher's stone. This was repeated with equal success, two or three times, for a new company, fortunately, came out every day. Nothing could equal my gratitude to my lame devil, to whom I allowed two per cent. for his advice. At last however, I burnt my fingers, "by holding on too long;" as the phrase is in Wall-street. I was offered twenty per cent. advance, upon a hundred thousand dollars of a certain stock. It was a great temptation; but I determined to consult my pillow upon it. I fell asleep amid golden anticipations, and I awoke, and behold it was all a dream! In one night my stock had fallen below par; but I "held on," till it sunksunk-sunk, by degrees, so that I finally sold out, by the advice of my lame devil, with a loss that amounted to considerably more than all my former gains.

Gambling is gambling, whether at the faro table or in the stocks; and the same rule holds in both, that the loser always feels the more ardent to continue the game. Another company was begotten by the Lobby on the Legislature, and so eager was I to subscribe, that I got half bruised to death in struggling to get near the commissioners. I got a good slice; and grown wise by experience, determined to be content with a moderate profit, say twenty per cent. Accordingly, I instructed my lame devil, to sell out at that rate, and took a trip to the springs for my health; for a man who deals in the " a man who deals in the "Companies" is apt to become a little bilious. But alack, and alas the day! I fared like the poor old lady in the nursery song

"I went to the well to wash my head,

And when I came back my chickens were dead."

The truth is, I had reckoned them before they were hatched, which I understand is a common error with us speculators. My lame devil informed me on my return, that though they had" obtained" the good will of two or three editors of newspapers, who had mournfully assured the public, that the “company" would prove an excellent speculation, and actually employed a broker to buy up some of their stock at a heavy advance, they could never get it fairly up to par, do what they would. He advised me to sell out, which I did, at a loss of about fifteen thousand. Hereupon I became very bilious again, notwithstanding I had just come from the springs. I began to grow shy of my oracle, the lame devil, and to distrust his advice. Perceiving this very probably, and apprehensive that the goose would not lay many more golden eggs, he prepared to make an end of me at once, and thus come at the remainder of the ancient patrimony of the Lubbersens.

A knot of those worthy gentlemen, who either begin, or end business, upon the capital of their own wits, assisted by the little wits of persons of my cast, headed by the lame devil, beset me with a new scheme, that was infallibly to make up all my losses, and double my capital besides. This was no other, than to buy up a broken bank, a lame insurance company, and an excellent project, to work upon with the "resources" thus acquired. I was to furnish the money, and my worthy coadjutors the wit, to turn the grand project to advantage. Never was any thing clearer, they proved to me, than that we should make at least a million of money. Accordingly the bargain was struck, at the price of all the remaining patrimony of the Lubbersen family, and we commenced business with a lame insurance company, a lame bank, and a lame devil for president. The first thing was to get our bills into circulation, which we did by the aid of lottery offices, and by allowing a premium of two and a half per cent, to the great manufacturers, for palming our notes upon their workmen. This was a dead loss to be sure, but the lame devil, and the worthy directors, assured me this was nothing. For my part, though I was one of the directors, I became perfectly bewildered, lost, in the inextricable meanderings of our monied system. Every now and then they gave me a few thousands of our own bills, assuring me they were my share of the profits, so that I rolled in wealth, and became excessively anxious to buy up two or three more lame institutions. I bought estates, houses, lots, wharves, and commenced building a palace two hundred feet long in the

country, for I considered myself as another Danae, into whose lap another Jupiter in the disguise of a lame devil, was showering inexhaustible gold.

But alas! as one of our figurative prize poets saith, what are all the towering hopes of man, but

"Bubbles fill'd with empty air.”

Before my palace was half finished, one of those whispers which come abroad, whence and from whom no one knows, but which seem to be the voice of fate itself, crept forth to our discredit, and gradually gained upon the public credulity. My lame devil and his directory, with the infallible instinct of rats, began to prepare for the falling of the edifice-their motions were watched by knowing ones, as knowing as themselves the other banks began to refuse our notes-a run commenced upon our bank-and the lame devil ran away, leaving me to pay the piper. He became a lame duck, which is ten times worse than a lame devil. My directors indeed stood their ground resolutely-having nothing left for their creditors but their wits, which are not in great request on change. They had nothing to lose, and as the proverb says, "The beggar sings before the robber." It is pretty well understood, by all, except the true believers in the "companies'" notes, that of nothing, nothing can come.

It became necessary to "wind up our affairs," and a pretty winding up it was, I assure you, Mr. Editor. I never could find out in what consisted the stock of our bank and insurance company, nor what became of it, not I. If it ever had an existence, my lame devil had flown away with it; and what was worse than all, they had so managed it, that I was left alone to bear all the losses of our institutions, being the only person connected with them, that had any property, real or unreal, visible or invisible.

"Away went Gilpin, and away
Went Gilpin's hat and wig ;"

And away went my lands, houses, lots, wharves, together with my half finished palace in the country, and worse than all this, away went I to the limits, as lame a duck as ever hobbled out of Wall-street-as completely lost to the money making world as if I had died of a cotton speculation. Here I have remained nearly six months; for, as I have plenty of room in the limits, and know not what to do if I were out of them, I may just as well stay where I am, and ponder on the monstrous fatality that forced a Dutchman, the descendant of a long line of VOL. I.

60

Lubbersen's, renowned for sticking to their lands, "like Death to an old negro," as they say in Wall-street, to turn speculator, and enlist under a lame devil. I have nothing to do, and know not what to do with myself, having been brought up a gentleman. I am more bilious than ever, and have no doubt, 1 should fall into a jaundice or liver complaint, if I could only afford to employ a doctor. I have not wit enough to live by my wits; nor sufficient experience to turn my misfortunes, as some people do, into the philosopher's stone. I want the art of my lame devil, who returned to town lately, and set up his carriage. He came near running over me the other day, as I was crossing Broadway.

In this forlorn state, I have thought I might while away the tedium of a rainy day, and perhaps do some little service to my cotemporaries, who inherit a sufficiency, which they are tempted to increase, by entering upon a course for which neither education or habit has qualified them, by detailing my history. People that deal in bubbles, must stand their bursting as well as they can. I make no particular reference, but nothing ought to be more evident, than that a stock, which is one day up, and another down-which varies fifteen or twenty per cent. without any rational cause for such transitions, must be a bubble, or something very like a bubble. There is no species of real property, which can be thus played upon by speculators. Yet in the delusive expectation of getting a small advance of interest for a few years, or obtaining a premium of some small per centage, by taking advantage of the credulity of fools more credulous than themselves, do rational people not only risk their all, but the property of widows and orphans, deposited in their hands as a sacred trust, by the last act of the dying. The whole course of human events establishes the position, that in all the operations of speculation, the risk is in proportion to the prospect of gain. To gain thousands, thousands must be put in jeopardy. It is little else than the cast of the die-it is legalized ambling; and he who adventures in the bubble of speculation, is like the player at the E. O. table; where, although he may rise a winner once in his life, the chances are always regularly against him. Speculation is a thing of calculation upon the future; and unless a man be wiser than all the rest of the speculating world, which is also calculating upon the future, he will certainly be taken in at last. The most watchful vigilance, the prudence that never slept, will be caught napping at some time or other; and the speculator who sleeps once on his post, is ever sure to be surprised by some wakeful spy, who pounces upon him to his ruin.

It might be worth while, in reference to this mysterious unaccountable influx of capital, which has of late required so many "Companies" to give it employment, to inquire whence all this inconvenient wealth, which is so prodigious, it seems, that individuals can no longer manage or employ it, comes. Has

our city become a second Danae, into whose lap some seductive Jupiter is day and night showering floods of gold? Or are these new fangled "Companies" like spiders, that spin their web out of their own bowels, to catch unwary flies, whom they devour, and then themselves die? I should be grateful, as a mere matter of curiosity, to be informed by some one of the great political economists, who go about like roaring lions, or rather like cunning foxes, or prowling wolves, buying up broken banks, and insolvent insurance companies, where is this inexhaustible hoard, that furnishes the means for these mighty speculations. Have they dealt with Satan or St. Leon, for the purchase of the philosopher's stone; or have they bargained with some munificent fairy for the purse of Fortunatus? At one time, I was inclined to believe there was a Midas at the bottom of all this, and once went into Wall-street, to see if I could detect him by his ears. I found there was a plenty of long ears, and long faces too, but they all belonged to secondhand purchasers of stock. But quis tulerit gracchos de seditione querentes-and who can hear a speculator complain of being duped, without laughing. I am sometimes tempted to laugh at myself, and hope to be excused for laughing at my unlucky neighbours. The unfortunate may be permitted to make themselves merry with the misfortunes of others, without being stigmatized as unfeeling. To conclude: Having lost all my money, I am willing to turn my wits to some little purpose; and understanding you make a liberal allowance for communications to your Magazine, desire to become an occasional correspondent. However destitute an undone gentleman may be, there is one commodity of which he is sure to have plenty on hand, and that is time. I have heard it said, a gentleman is never good for any thing till he is ruined, for it is then that his necessities compel him to turn his talents, acquirements and accomplishments to useful purposes. I am willing to try, and this is my first essay.

With respect, I remain,

ADRIAN LUBBersen.