A WALL STREET POOL 149 



turn of the same character. Again I declined 

 and again there was held up before me the knowl- 

 edge of the steamship business in general and of 

 the Atlantic Mail Steamship Company in par- 

 ticular, possessed by two of the proposed pool 

 members, the vast sums owned or controlled by 

 two others, and the manipulative skill on the Ex- 

 change of the fifth member. I was assured that 

 the stock would be made very active on the Ex- 

 change and that there would be very large com- 

 mission orders for our house if we wanted them. 

 This interested me, for although we never exe- 

 cuted orders on the floor of the Exchange for 

 other members, yet we gave out a great many, 

 and I was especially desirous of sending such 

 business to a young firm whose Stock Exchange 

 member was a relative of mine. This was the 

 bait that led me into the trap and I authorized 

 the broker to sign the pool paper for me after 

 the other names were down. 



A copy of the pool paper is before me as I 

 write. It is very simple, and appears to limit 

 my liability to the $100,000 which I agreed to 



