The Camden Journal

THE FICKLENESS OF FORTUNE

The force of the oft repeated adage, "fortune is fickle," has been most clearly exemplified in the results which have flowed from the course of the late United States Bank. A day or two since we saw in the Rochester Democrat two or three instances mentioned of losses by that institution, which, while they excite our pity, remind us that riches indeed take wings. The instances are briefly related.

When the United States Bank was in the full tide of prosperity, capitalists were eager to grasp its stock. No other stock was deemed equally safe or profitable. A man who had $20,000 of its stock was deemed rich. Among those who were seized with the stock mania—was a wealthy Englishman, living near Philadelphia. He had $40,000 of his own, which he invested. His wife had $20,000. in her own right. This was also invested. She also had a legacy left her of $10,000: This she deposited with the bank. But they have lost every farthing of this sum, and this family, a few years ago worth nearly $100,000, are now excessively poor. The wife takes in sewing to support the family.

Nor is this a solitary case. Hundreds and thousands of similar cases have occurred. Two children a boy and a girl, whose father died in 1839, were left a fortune of $32,000. Their guardians invested the entire sum in the stock of the U. S. Bank. Those children are now supported by a worthy uncle, who owns a hundred acres of land in Ohio, and lives in a log house. In this instance, the loss of the children may be their gain; for instead of being brought up in effeminate luxury, the boy is daily seen holding the plough, and the girl is one of the sweetest little milk maids in the whole west. But the contrast in their condition is none the less striking, and the moral none the less emphatic.

One other case. A venerable old bachelor, who had spent fifty years of his life on the ocean, retired with a fortune of $50,000. This he invested in U. S. Bank stock. He is now in a mad house.