WALL STREET AND 

 THE WILDS 



CHAPTER I 



FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 



There were stirring times in Wall Street 

 some fifty years ago. It was the nerve centre 

 of the nation, and the rise and fall of the peo- 

 ple's hopes were measured by the price of gold. 

 Every battle of the Civil War had its counter- 

 part in the Street, though victory meant only 

 money, and defeat but the wreck of fortune. 

 My heart beats yet at the thought of those tri- 

 umphs and tragedies, for of them I may truly 

 say, pars fui, if not magna pars fui. 



Memory paints pictures of ambitious projects 

 and large ventures by land and sea, of the exul- 

 tation of success and the black horror of failure, 



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