FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 53 



it all at fifty and sell the whole of it to Mr. Tay- 

 lor at sixty. 



I was given to building castles in Spain, and 

 on the slim scrip foundation erected edifices as 

 ambitious in design as the Tower of Babel. 

 There burst into bloom the flamboyant nature 

 with the possession of which I was later often 

 credited or accused. Oh, how I needed a blow 

 in the solar plexus, and I got it. Mr. Downer, 

 the secretary of the company, called me aside one 

 day and told me that one purpose of the mutual 

 feature of the company with its issuance of scrip, 

 was to retain the interest of its customers, and 

 that a merchant in placing insurance, was more 

 likely to be attracted to a company whose scrip 

 he held than to another where he had no such in- 

 terest. He added that the scale on which I was 

 doing business in their Scrip was striking at the 

 rout of their interest. 



The blow that was good for m£ had fallen, but 

 I donl like to think of the pain and chagrin of 

 that houi* nor of the half-dafced days that 

 followed. But youth Was in my veins and the 



