in
Wall street. Their brokers keep their secrets, but the habitues of the
street are adepts at putting this and that together, and these reverend
gentlemen, some of whom preach eloquently against the sins of speculation
and gambling, become known as regular customers. The street is full of
gossip concerning them, and if the stories told of them be true, some of
them have made large fortunes in this way, while others have literally
"gone to the bad."

It is not necessary that a person speculating in stocks should be master
of the entire value of the stocks. If he be known to the broker
operating for him as a responsible person, he may employ only ten per
cent., or some other proportion, of the stock to be dealt in. By
depositing $1000 with his broker, he can speculate to the extent of
$10,000. This per centage is called a _margin_, and the deposit is
designed to protect the broker from loss in case the stock should fall in
value. As the stock depreciates, the customer must either sell out and
bear the loss which is inevitable, or he must increase his margin to an
extent sufficient to protect his broker. If he fails to increase his
margin, the broker sells the stock and uses the money to save himself.

VIII. THE WAYS OF THE STREET.

Like Brette Harte's Heathen Chinee,

"For ways that are dark
And tricks that are vain,
Wall Street is peculiar."

It takes a clear, cool head, a large amount of brains, and unaltering
nerve, to thread one's way through the intricacies of the business of
finance as carried on there. It would be interesting to know how many
come out of the ordeal untouched by the taint of corruption. Members of
the Exchanges are held by a rigid code of laws, but in questions of
morality Wall street has a code of its own. Expediency is a prominent
consideration in the dealings of the street, and men have come to regard
as honest and correct almost anything short of a regular breach of
contract. They do not spare their own flesh and blood. Friendships are
sacrificed, the ties of kinship are disregarded, if they stand in the way
of some bold operation. Every thing must give way to the desire for
gain. The great operators plunder and destroy their lesser rivals
without a feeling of remorse, and by combinations which they know cannot
be resisted blast the prospects and ruin the lives of scores whose
greatest fault is an inability to oppose them successfully. Tricks so
mean an