46 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



there is no reason why he should refuse. If 

 people do want to buy actual cotton, he will buy 

 cotton for them, although he would scarcely 

 know a bale of cotton if he saw one. But his 

 customers want to gamble, and pay him well 

 for helping them to do so. He has no taste or 

 love for chopping wood or raking oysters, but 

 enjoys sitting at a big desk for several hours a 

 day receiving checks from customers, paying 

 out the losses and the gains, and dropping into 

 Delmonico's in the middle of the day for 

 luncheon and a quiet talk about the best card in 

 the game to put your money on. When a man's 

 conscience can allow him to do that sort of 

 business day after day, I do not know whether 

 to be glad or sorry for him. Another friend of 

 mine, also a broker, to whom I said one even- 

 ing at dinner, " You have produced nothing, 

 earned nothing of value to-day," replied to me : 

 " Yes, I have. Here is a check for $200, the 

 profits of a turn in wheat; it was done in half 

 an hour. I bought low, and I sold high." 

 " And," I asked, " do you not pity the man who 

 lost that $200, for you gave no equivalent 

 in work for it." This seemed to be so extra- 

 ordinary a view of the matter that every one 



