greatest
of all is the bonanza king who gives his best friend points that direct him the shortest road to ruin.
Then spawned speculation, all kinds of gambling- being in vogue in saintly circles and rabble congrega- tions— all except the honest old-time games, such as faro, monte, and poker. And there were established among the sand-hills society shops, where the undying reign of fashion set in; and politician shops, where fat offices were sold ; and peculation shops, where office-holders might turn an honest penny, and pay the purchase-money for their place.
There were some good fellows among the latter-day rich men, but not many. They were generally of the Gripus order ; some hard drinkers among them, who when in their cups did not always treat with distin- guished courtesy their guests ; who were well enough satisfied to let Lucullus sup with Lucullus. Avarice gnawed at their vitals like the parasite in the stomach of a shark. Banks sprang up whose caterpillar was a steamboat or a grog-shop, and dignified dames sat in stately parlors whose grub was the laundry. These later overwhelmingly rich ones were quite different from the free-hearted and free-handed of the flusli times, who, like Ali Baba, wt)uld not take the time to count their gold, but measured it. The enormous wealth of the former seemed rather to create a hunger for more money, with a gnawing appetite ever in- creased by what it fed on. Then perhaps they would grow covetous of fame and higher social standing, and so Hit about, hither and thither, restless, and perhaps reckless, in search of something which, when found, only added to their unappeased desires.
Along the pathway of nations, savage and civilized, we see every community with its moral ideal which acts as an individual cohesive force holding society to- gether. It seems of less importance what the ideal is than that there should be one. Theft was the moral standard round which revolved all virtue in the mind
