lars is set aside for use in St. Louis alone. Against
such odds can the Independence party win?

CHAPTER XXIII.

A DAY AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.

It is two o'clock P.M., on October twelfth. In sixty minutes the New
York Stock 'Change will close. The day has been exceedingly quiet;
brokers are standing in groups discussing the whys and wherefores of
this and that stock scheme; all are of little consequence. Indeed, there
has been nothing done on the floor since the abrupt departure of James
Golding, the Head of the Banking Syndicate for Europe, three weeks
before this pleasant twelfth day of October.

Golding's mission abroad is vaguely guessed to be the floating of a bond
issue for the government, as there has been an alarming shrinkage in the
money market, and the Secretary of the Treasury has called upon the
Banking interests to relieve the strain on the Treasury.

The slightest indication of weakness in the money market has its instant
effect on stocks. New York quotations are looked upon as the criterion
of the country, and for that reason the brokers are disposed to be
cautious. Wall street traditions make it seem proper for the brokers to
wait the result of the European trip.

Since the inauguration of the system of bank favoritism, which, was one
of the strong features of the previous Plutocratic Platform, and on
which the Party was able to raise an enormous Campaign fund, the secrets
of the Government and its favorite bankers are not shared with the
brokers in ordinary stocks and industrials. For this reason the timidity
of the brokers is more pronounced than ever before.

To them it seems inexplicable that the Government should seek to float a
bond issue on the eve of an election. They do not grasp the full import
of this scheme to force the people to support the Plutocratic candidates
as the preservers of the country's credit.

A broker, running the tape through his fingers listlessly, reads this
sentence: "London, Oct. 12,--James Golding announces his intention to
float $245,000,000 three per cent. U.S. gold bonds in London."

In an instant he realizes that the confidence of the market will be
restored. Rushing to the pit he begins to buy everything that is
offered. Half a hundred tickers in the Exchange convey the same news to
as many brokerage firms.

A wild scramble is started; everyone is anxious to go "long" on stocks
which they have been cautiously selling for days past. Point by point
the