ing variety of the din, long, lanky youths in gray
sauntered about like the keepers of the carnivora, and bawled
incessantly till they were red in the face. These, we were told, were
the pages, who reported the state of the market and delivered orders and
commissions. To the uninitiated they were a fraud and a delusion, but so
was the whole thing. A crowd of men, walking about or standing in
groups, note-book in hand, talking eagerly or yelling unintelligible
nonsense at the top of their voices, and gesticulating with the fury of
madmen, while in and around the crowd strolled those extraordinary
pages, calmly shouting full in the brokers' faces,--this, we were told,
was "business!" This is the mysterious occupation to which our friends,
countrymen and lovers devote so large a portion of their time and
thoughts. At this strange diversion millions of dollars change hands in
a few hours, and bulls and bears in this little nest agree to make
things generally uncomfortable and uncertain for the outside world.

But where were the white hats, and what of their daring wearers? As the
crowd thickened, they began to shine out upon the general blackness in
obvious distinction. At first, the howling multitude, eager for filthy
lucre, took no particular notice of them beyond an occasional hurried
poke or pat, but this delusive mildness did not long continue. After the
first fifteen or twenty minutes, during which the favorite stocks had
been danced up and down a few times, like so many crying babies, the
appetite of the hundred-headed hydra abated a little, and the general
attention to business relaxed. Suddenly--no one knew whence or
wherefore--up rose a white hat in the air, high above the heads of the
people, and a bareheaded individual was seen struggling wildly in the
arms of the mob, who set up ironical cheers at his unavailing efforts to
regain his flying headpiece. It rose and fell faster and farther than
any fancy stock of them all, now soaring to the vaulted roof, now being
kicked along the dusty floor.

Press where ye see my white hat shine amidst the ranks of war,

seemed to be the sentiment of the occasion, as the unruly mob swayed and
struggled about the dilapidated victim of their sport. In one corner
stood a quiet, dignified gentleman, talking sedately to a little knot of
friends. He wore a tall white "stove-pipe" of the most obnoxious kind.
In a twinkling it was seized and sent flying toward the roof with its