d the excitement among the depositors
and the stockholders of the bank was, of course, immense. A run set in,
which the directors by the help of friends and of their own private
resources were able to meet, but the Wall street appreciation of the
calamity was shown in the drop in value of the bank's stock from 130 to
40.

I repeat, a little learning is a dangerous thing. Much knowledge is not
to be looked for among men who engage in such crimes, but one would
fancy that the everyday experience of Irving and his people would have
given them some idea of financial business. The fact is, they were, if
possible, more ignorant than their felonious partners. The financial
ideas of the latter scarcely went further than "making cheap pennyworths
of their plunder, giving to courtesans and living like lords till all be
gone," so that negotiating the sale of bonds was a mystery far too high
for them--something which they could never hope to attain to. But the
company included one man who was a rare exception to the ordinary ride
of such society. This was Max Shinburne, a German, a man of considerable
education, who, in some inexplicable way, had fallen so far from honor
and respectability that when he saw a thief he "consented unto him."

How is it that such men are often found in the ranks of professional
criminals? They would probably have difficulty to explain it themselves.
A want of savoir faire, the fact that they have never been taught to
make a practical use of their acquirements, the pressure of temptation
at a critical moment, the absence, possibly, from harm, leading to the
hope of immunity--all, perhaps, enter into the explanation of the secret
promptings which have led to the first false step, to the first planting
of the feet in the path which leads to destruction. Once the step is
taken, to retrace it seems impossible. The line which society draws, and
which it proclaims no man shall overstep without punishment, may be
approached very closely, but once on the wrong side, once the fateful
step is taken, the act is irretrievable; to attempt to retrace it is to
attempt to undo the past; it is all but impossible.

Thus probably it is that the fall of an educated man is more hopeless
than that of one who knows no better. A carpenter or a blacksmith who
has got himself in a tangle has only to move to another town, and if he
shakes off perverted thoughts and perverted influences, he is not much
worse off than before. He