MARKET MANIPULATION 93 



quarter of one per cent for the failure to deliver 

 by 2.15 p. m. gold that was due that day. 



Each day as that hour approached, boys laden 

 with coin could be seen dashing at top speed 

 through Wall and adjacent streets. For when 

 gold was scarce dealers borrowed only enough to 

 fulfill their contracts, trusting that if they failed 

 to deliver ten or a hundred thousand paying the 

 penalty of twenty-five, or $250 they would re- 

 coup from the firm who had failed on them. But 

 if it happened that a lot of say a hundred thou- 

 sand gold was delivered at 2.14 p. m., the firm to 

 which it was delivered was compelled to take and 

 pay for it, but unless it could make its own deliv- 

 eries of the same within the minute that was left 

 it would have to carry the gold over night and 

 deliver it the next day when $250 penalty would 

 be collected. 



A minute is a long time and usually the boys 

 carrying the twenty bags containing five thou- 

 sand gold each, would be met at the door of the 

 office by five other boys, each of whom would 

 seize four of the bags, weighing twenty pounds 



