THE ART OF INVESTING. 69 



abuses exist everywhere ? What great wrongs can exist there, in a 

 colony exposed to all eyes, where ten thousand inhabitants are directly 

 or indirectly interested in its good reputation ? The colony has been 

 dcTeloping for centuries. Let the modifications in detail suggested 

 by science, by experience, by the desire to increase the safety and 

 comfort of the patients, be applied to it. Nothing can be better or 

 more humane than that ; but such improvements need not touch the 

 principle of family treatment. — Translated for the Popular Science 

 Monthly from the Bevue des Deux Mondes. 



THE AET OF IXVESTIXG. 



Br JOHN r. HUME. 



" ~1 TOW can I invest my money to make it pay a fair interest, and 

 -d at the same time insure its safety ? " is a question daily asked 

 by thousands. With the multiplication, consequent upon the growth 

 of wealth among us, of that class of persons who Avant to live by their 

 means, without care or labor, the number of anxious inquirers on that 

 point is constantly increasing. It would seem, when reference is had 

 to the many securities, both bonds and shares, that are offered, often 

 at temptingly low prices, to be a question very easily answered. The 

 truth is, there is none more difficult. The ordinary investor who goes 

 about the work of converting his cash into paper combining the two 

 elements of value spoken of, finding himself hopelessly embarrassed 

 by the seeming richness of the market, soon gives up in despair, and 

 turns the job over to some banker or broker who works for a com- 

 mission. Experience shows that even then he is too often the victim 

 of defective judgment or misplaced confidence. 



A history of investment securities would furnish a most interesting 

 study. In no other department of business have there been greater 

 changes. The time has been, within the memory of many now living, 

 when the man who had money to put at usury, generally loaned on 

 personal indorsement, the borrower relying on his neighbor or other 

 good friend to "back" his paper for him. The mortgage on real 

 estate, of course, was known ; but, owing to the short intervals for 

 which loans were usually made, was not often resorted to. The shares 

 of banking, turnpike, canal, railway and other incorporated companies 

 after a while began to absorb the money of people who wanted to 

 realize more than current rates of interest, and were willing to take 

 corresponding risks. 



The war of the rebellion popularized the coupon bond, in conse- 

 quence of its adoption by the Government, and made it the favorite 

 form of investment paper. Railroad and other corporations lost no 



