ith their earnings.
Even now, indeed, the best houses profess to do simply a commission
business, leaving the risk to the customer, but those who know the hidden
ways of the street hint that there is not a house in it but has its
secrets of large or small operations undertaken on account of the firm.
The practice of buying and selling on commission is unquestionably the
safest, but the mania for wealth leads many clear, cool-headed men into
the feverish whirl of speculation, and keeps them there until they have
realized their wildest hopes, or are ruined.

It has been remarked that the men who do business in Wall street have a
prematurely old look, and that they die at a comparatively early age.
This is not strange. They live too fast. Their bodies and brains are
taxed too severely to last long. They pass their days in a state of
great excitement. Every little fluctuation of the market elates or
depresses them to an extent greater than they think. At night they are
either planning the next day's campaign, or are hard at work at the
hotels. On Sundays their minds are still on their business, and some are
laboring in their offices, screened from public observation. Body and
mind are worked too hard, and are given no rest.

The chief cause of this intense strain is the uncertainty attending the
operations of Wall street. The chances there are not dependent upon the
skill or the exertions of the operator. Some powerful clique may almost
destroy the securities upon which he relies for success, or may make him
wealthy by suddenly running up their value; so that no man who does not
confine himself to a strictly legitimate or commission business--and but
few do so--can say one week whether he will be a millionaire or a beggar
the next. The chances are in favor of the latter result. Nine out of
ten who speculate in gold or stocks, lose, especially persons
unaccustomed to such operations. Like all gamblers, they are undismayed
by their losses, and venture a second time, and a third, and so on. The
fascination of stock gambling is equal to that of card gambling, and
holds its victims with an iron hand. The only safe rule for those who
wish to grow rich is to keep out of Wall street. While one man makes a
fortune by a sudden rise in stocks or gold, hundreds lose by an equally
sudden fall in the same commodities. Even old and established firms
sometimes give way with a crash under these sudden changes.

The legitim