BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 75 



But the exchange that we sold passed out of 

 our hands days before a check was received in 

 payment, and the chance of a failure of a firm in 

 that interim seemed to me a greater risk than the 

 profits justified. When the mischance did hap- 

 pen and we were salted with a loss of forty thou- 

 sand dollars by the failure of a Boston firm, it 

 was at a later period, when the loss, instead of 

 being ruinous, was unembarrassing. 



I knew nothing and cared less for the ex- 

 change business, and during my partner's ab- 

 sences, in Europe or elsewhere, carried it on per- 

 functorily, following literally his instructions, 

 which I insisted on having in writing. 



We had a few speculative accounts, some of 

 which were in stocks on which we had to divide 

 our commissions, since I had not then become a 

 member of the Stock Exchange. Yet I may 

 have been a member for a minute, though if so, I 

 was bounced the next. My name was posted for 

 membership with Abraham B. Bay lis and Robert 

 L. Cutting as my sponsors, and I believe I was 

 unopposed in the balloting, but before the result 



