72 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



on the average and count my profits as four thou- 

 sand dollars from the minute I made the transac- 

 tion. That's the whole basis of your Equitable 

 business, that law of chances which, admitting 

 that nothing is more uncertain than the hours of 

 a single life proves that nothing is more im- 

 mutable than the average length of life of a mil- 

 lion." 



Of course I didn't use that exact language, as 

 I wasn't then talking for publication, but beneath 

 the words I did use, which in detail I have quite 

 forgotten, was the mathematical theory which I 

 have sought to set forth. Throughout our spec- 

 ulations which I subsequently conducted as part- 

 ner, unchangingly and consistently for years I al- 

 ways asserted, and usually believed, that they 

 were conducted on theories as sound and prin- 

 ciples as fixed as those of that same Equitable 

 Life Assurance Society. 



I liked to talk of that company to my partner, 

 for it was the apple of his eye, or at least one of 

 them. He was one of the founders of the com- 

 pany, a director with much to do with its manage- 



