BUBBLES 179 



phere was filled with apprehension and no one 

 could escape its influence. 



While waiting for the opening signal I stood 

 by the rail — talking with Ned Harriman, as I 

 remember — and the blow of the chairman's mal- 

 let seemed to crash into my brain. Pandemo- 

 nium followed, but with it came back the fulness 

 of self-control and I was cooler in what followed 

 than I now am in the memory of it. I forget the 

 order of the early prices, and even the electric 

 indicator broke down in the effort to record the 

 changes. I remember a sale of $100,000 of gold 

 at 162 on my right and the same amount at 1,58 

 on my left at almost the same instant and I re- 

 call my chagrin at my failure to bag the differ- 

 ence of $4,000. That the corner was broken was 

 clear to me and that a crash was coming seemed 

 certain, so I sold and I sold and I sold. 



There came first the rumor, and then the fact, 

 of the sale of four millions of gold by the Gov- 

 ernment and the price fell twenty-five per cent 

 from the highest point touched. It was the good 

 old times come again, with a quarter of a million 



