130 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



"If I were at my office I would bid you a hun- 

 dred and seventy for the lot," might be his re- 

 ply to which I might answer: 



"If I were in your office I would let you have 

 it for seventy-three and that is the best I would 

 do." 



"Then I would take it," would be followed by 

 memorandums by each of us and on the follow- 

 ing day a messenger from our office would ap- 

 pear at the office of the broker with whom I had 

 talked in the street and would offer him twenty 

 thousand gold at one hundred and seventy-three 

 which offer would be accepted and the gold paid 

 for. 



The other governmental mistake which I had 

 in mind was made by Hugh McCulloch, Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury, when he attempted to hold 

 the price of gold down to 131. His instructions 

 to P. M. Myers, his agent in the Gold Room, 

 were to supply any and all demands for coin at 



131 per cent. The tendency of gold, based on 

 a legitimate demand, was to rise, and again and 

 again it slowly advanced to the Government 



