To sit at home and guess at what the present or future financial condition of any country may be, and to risk your money under such conditions, is worse than reckless. Supposing, on the other hand, the hypothetical speculator, instead of acting upon the impression made on his mind, by superficial influences, were to start for Spain and take the trouble to get behind the stock, so to speak. In one week, if he occupied a position in life sufficiently high to enable him to get trustworthy information, he would be in a position almost certainly to know whether there was a chance of such an event coming off, as for instance, the next coupon being paid. This would be at least a business-like way of setting out on a speculating expedition, a method of proceeding such as is pursued by a syndicate of speculators who propose to purchase a foreign mining property, for example. A man of sense who buys anything, the value of which depends upon a set of circumstances operating at a distant spot, naturally proceeds thither, or satisfies himself through some trusty agent that such circumstances exist, or that they do not. If he be contented to buy twenty thousand Spanish Stock at twenty, on the chances of the power that is, or may be, from one week to another, being able to pay the dividend, because so far they have just managed to do so, he would be deserving of no sympathy if he found himself in a couple of weeks with his stock at 17, and his banker’s balance less by six hundred pounds. The reason why so much money is lost by this loose mode of proceeding is, because haphazard speculation possesses a peculiar charm for certain loose natures, which are roused into a pleasureful excitement by running risks. They defend the viciousness of their lazy amusement by saying to themselves that the chances must at least be as much _for_ them as _against_ them, inasmuch as there are but two ways for the price to go—up and down. Many a man who has fed and encouraged this itching sensation, which can only be appeased by having passed through the excitement of running a certain risk, finds himself so bound by its spell that in very many cases nothing short of absolute ruin succeeds in quenching his thirst for such excitement. CHAPTER VII. THE PIT-FALLS. [Sidenote: HIDDEN FORCES OPPOSED TO THE SPECULATOR.]