62 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



dribbled on his shirt as he waved his arms aloft, 

 with a memorandum book in his left hand and a 

 pencil in his right. As the price was advanced 

 an occasional speculator sold him a hundred 

 shares for a turn, while others who wanted to sell 

 refrained, fearing the man was crazy and would 

 never pay for the shares. None thought of him 

 as the agent of "the Commodore," as Cornelius 

 Vanderbilt was always called. 



The world knows the story, how Vanderbilt 

 bought from the aldermen a right of way for his 

 Harlem through the streets of New York, 

 paying therefor with cash and options on the 

 stock. After the ordinance had been passed and 

 the aldermen had realized on their options, for 

 the stock had advanced when their action was 

 known, they determined on another killing. Not 

 being honest in the aldermanic sense of men who 

 will stay bought, the}^ double-crossed the Commo- 

 dore by repealing the ordinance after rushing to 

 their brokers and ordering as many shares sold 

 short as their brokers would stand for. But 

 there was no break in the price of the stock, no 



