THE GHOULS OF WALL STEEET. 463 



He bursts ; and continually involve the legitimate industries 

 of the country in serious embarrassments, if not in ruin. 



It is this class of men who hold sway in Wall Street, and 

 thence virtually rule the country. Nay, not these brokers, 

 themselves ; they are but tools who do the bidding of the 

 Vanderbilts, Goulds, Drews, et id omne genus, the real 

 Ghouls, who fatten upon the body social and politic; and 

 who, under a garb of sanctity or honor, sit plotting in their 

 offices, and manipulate stocks and men to suit their own 

 purposes. 



These wretches not only can create fictitious values, but 

 can also produce a scarcity of currency at will, backed as 

 they are, by the powerful co-operation of banks which they 

 largely or wholly control. 



Many of these latter corporations, trading largely upon 

 the money deposited from day to day by men in legitimate 

 business, furnish capital io these sharks on fictitious or real 

 security which, it matters little. A fall of stocks is brought 

 about, and they lock up currency. Legitimate business can 

 not borrow, but the &quot; lame ducks &quot; who have securities to 

 offer ah, they can have money, at from two to five* per cent, 

 a month. And thus unscrupulous banking corporations 

 make it pay at both ends. The last panic has been called 

 the &quot;rich man s panic.&quot; But look at what we see around 

 us every day, and the misnomer is only too apparent. 



The remedy is simple. Neither wealth, place, nor power, 

 must be allowed to buy exemption from the punishment which 

 our laws affix to crime. Law must be so administered that it 

 shall* be a terror to evil-doers of whatsoever kind, degree, or 

 station ; and the public conscience must be quickened until 

 nothing short of this will be accepted, as well in actual 

 practice as in sentimental theorizing. 



