EDITOR'S TABLE. 



371 



of physics and mathematics might not 

 open their courses by conceding the in- 

 security of the fundamental principles 

 of their sciences with just as much 

 propriety as the professor of biology. 



COMMERCIAL MANIAS. 



Recent writers upon the subject 

 of commercial manias usually indulge 

 in congratulations over the fact that 

 the world is grown more wise; that 

 the mental aberrations of our day are 

 less marked than those of earlier times ; 

 that, for example, the absurd Dutch 

 tulip-mania, Law's wild Mississippi 

 scheme in France, and the South-Sea 

 bubble iu England, find no parallel in 

 these days of greater intelligence and 

 self-control ; that the time has gone by 

 when a sharper could clear $10,000 in 

 five hours by selling shares in " a com- 

 pany for carrying on an undertaking of 

 great advantage, but nobody to know 

 what it is ! " 



It is probably true that our tenden- 

 cies are not quite so rabid as those of 

 our fathers, but we hold on bravely to 

 some of their worst follies. It was only 

 at the last session of Congress that the 

 advocates of an unlimited issue of irre- 

 deemable paper were strong enough to 

 prevent any steps being taken toward 

 resumption. It was but the other day 

 that the progressive Commonwealth of 

 Massachusetts chose as a representative 

 B. F. Butler, who declares that the 

 "progressive" dollar is a paper dollar 

 so issued that it can never be redeemed. 

 The absorbing interest of a presidential 

 election has hushed somewhat the clam- 

 or for the interconvertible note scheme 

 which is to pay all debts, public and 

 private, and make everybody easy with- 

 out costing anybody anything but, had 

 all those who still fully sympathize with 

 the financial imbecility of Mr. Peter 

 Cooper voted for him, the old gentle- 

 man would have had a very different 

 showing in the official count. Nor are 

 there lacking concrete examples of cre- 



dulity which rival any of the exhibitions 

 of former generations. A case in point 

 is now running its course in Spain. 



A woman has opened a bank in 

 Madrid for deposits in sums of a hun- 

 dred dollars and upward, on which she 

 pays interest as follows: twenty per 

 cent on receiving the deposit, twenty 

 per cent, at the end of the first, sec- 

 ond, and third months, and then at the 

 expiration of the fourth month, when 

 eighty per cent, has been already paid, 

 she reimburses the entire sum lent. 

 The payments thus far have been regu- 

 larly made, and the public are flocking 

 in crowds with their money, the depos- 

 its now amounting to several millions 

 of francs. The bankers and savings- 

 banks are being drained of their de- 

 posits by this extraordinary traffic. 

 Hours before the bank opens in the 

 morning hundreds of depositors col- 

 lect, and the presence of the police is 

 necessary to preserve order. In this 

 case " nobody is to know " how the 

 money is employed, and on that point 

 contrary rumors prevail ; some assert 

 that the capital is used in working 

 mines of fabulous wealth ; others, that 

 the woman is an agent of the Govern- 

 ment, adding that it is thus procuring 

 money on more advantageous terms 

 than with its regular bankers! The 

 true explanation will not be long with- 

 held, unless the police interfere to pre- 

 vent her running off with her plunder. 

 This is almost a precise repetition of a 

 case which took place in enlightened 

 Germany four years ago the Spitze- 

 der affair of Munich. In this case 

 enormous sums were confided to a 

 woman banker, who lived in opulence, 

 squandering the money of her deposit- 

 ors, and, as she could not repay them, 

 she was sentenced to three years' im- 

 prisonment. Her time expired some 

 months ago, and the likeness of the 

 transactions at Madrid to her opera- 

 tions at Munich is strong enough to 

 suggest a common origin. 



These cases appear still more re- 



