122 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



Only once was I alarmed by a threatened cor- 

 ner in gold against us and the method of our 

 escape conveys a warning which the nation might 

 well take to heart to-day. We were largely 

 short of gold when a group of operators who 

 were long of both gold and stocks arranged to 

 call in the gold they were lending me and by bor- 

 rowing and locking up the free gold in the mar- 

 ket compel me to climb for the gold I was bor- 

 rowing. They believed that by cornering gold 

 they could boom the market for it and that the 

 stocks they held would follow in its wake. But 

 I knew the cost of cornering gold better than 

 they, or any other men that lived, and I knew 

 how a scarcity of currency stood like a specter in 

 the path of whoever attempted it. I thought to 

 make money so tight that the last dollar of 

 hoarded gold would come into the market for 

 sale or loan. I took the question to bed with me 

 and worked it out in my dreams where always I 

 solved such problems. 



The plan became luminous and expanded. 

 There was little currency in the city and I would 



