[NOTE.--This chapter, though largely devoted to "Oil," is to be
construed as reaching any other "Kite" that the stock gambler
flies--any other scheme which his unprincipled ideas of right and
wrong will permit him to work to his own gain and others' loss.
The oil mania was only a more popular or attractive _vice_ of the
stock-boards, which is reproduced, in spirit and motive, almost every
month of the year.]

At my entrance upon this discussion, I must deplore the indiscriminate
terms of condemnation employed by many well-meaning persons in regard
to stock operations. The business of the stock-broker is just as
legitimate and necessary as that of a dealer in clothes, groceries, or
hardware; and a man may be as pure-minded and holy a Christian at the
Board of Brokers as in a prayer-meeting. The broker is, in the sight
of God, as much entitled to his commissions as any hard-working
mechanic is entitled to his day's wages. Any man has as much right
to make money by the going up of stocks as by the going up of sugar,
rice, or tea. The inevitable board-book that the operator carries in
his hand may be as pure as the clothing merchant's ledger. It is
the work of the brokers to facilitate business; to make transfer of
investment; to watch and report the tides of business; to assist the
merchant in lawful enterprises.

Because there are men in this department of business, sharp,
deceitful, and totally iniquitous, you have no right to denounce the
entire class. Importers, shoe-dealers, lumbermen, do not want to be
held responsible for the moral deficits of their comrades in business.
Neither have you a right to excoriate those who are conscientiously
operating through the channels spoken of. If they take a risk, so do