oil the
glory of Lexington or Bunker Hill by brooding over the pangs of those
who were its victims. All great victories necessitate bloodshed. It is
not every man who can wrest vast wealth from the turmoils of a "Black
Friday." ... And so, after turning the pages of a revolting chronicle,
all of which teem with calamity to the many and plethoric gain to the
bullying and insolent few, he surveys that active boil and ferment of
the present, seeking to discern there some course of trick and scheme
by which he too may fatten his purse, even though he blunts conscience
into a callous nullity. Between old days and new he finds but slight
difference. Rises and panics prevail now as then. The "margin,"
beloved of the wily broker, first lures and then robs the trustful
buyer. "Pools," open and secret, grasping and malicious, may wreak at
any hour disasters on the unwary. "Points" are given by one operator
to another with the same mendacious glibness as of yore. The market is
now dull with the torpor of a sleeping cobra, now aflame, like that
reptile, with treacherous and poisonous life. In its repose as in its
excitement our novice begins to know it, fear it, and heartily love it
besides. The chances are nine out of ten that he loves it too much and
fears it too little. Its hideous vulgarity has ceased to shock him.
Its "bulls," with their often audacious purchases of stock for which
they do not pay but out of whose random fluctuations in value they
expect to reap thousands from the "bears," who sell in a like blind,
betting-ring fashion; its devices of "spreads," and of "straddles,"
which are combinations of "puts" and "calls" whereby the purchaser
limits his loss and at the same time suits the chances of his winning
to those of vacillant prices themselves; its unblushing compromises on
the part of debtors with creditors, fifty cents on the dollar being
frequently paid by bankrupts to the extent of one, two, or three
hundred thousand dollars, in order that they may resume their highly
legitimate undertakings and perhaps grow rich again in company with
their fellow-gamblers; all these, and many more features of Wall
Street life, equally vivid and equally soiled by sordid materialism,
have at length wrapped the mind of this young observer in their
drastic and sinister spells. When he "starts out for himself," as he
is presently quite sure to do, his ultimate success is enormously
doubtful. His reign as a leading personality in Wal