168 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



pool gang against bitter remonstrance which I 

 understood when I discovered that the president 

 had loaned all the cash, some fifty or sixty thou- 

 sand dollars to himself, and as much cash was 

 needed to run the company I had another Old 

 Man of the Sea on my shoulders. There was 

 need of haste and I soon had steam on with the 

 safety valves tied down. Once more Atlantic 

 Mail was quoted regularly on the Exchange, but 

 at a price too low to challenge criticism. I never 

 offered it as security on call loans, but when I 

 needed money went to those to whom I was in- 

 debted and the offer to anticipate the payment 

 of a note seldom failed to give me the new loan 

 I wanted. It is a commonplace of the science of 

 borrowing money, that the man who has lost on a 

 stock, a mine, or a deal of any sort is the one to 

 approach for a loan on similar security. Any 

 capitalist will adventure more to recover the cash 

 he has lost than to make twice the amount in a 

 safer deal. I renewed my trading in gold which 

 had become a less fruitful field and for which 

 I was insufficiently equipped with cash. 



