WHAT MY CRITICS WILL SAY. tf 



laughed ; no one seemed to have the least 

 sympathy for the unfortunate loser in the game. 

 Do not these things show that this speculation 

 disease is blunting the moral sense of the com- 

 munity ? My friend of whom I spoke first is a 

 man to whose friendship I owe much, and for 

 whose character I have the highest esteem. 

 He is kindliness itself. And yet point out to 

 him, or try to point out to him, that the life of 

 a broker, although admittedly gambling, pure 

 and simple, is a vicious one, and he will laugh 

 good-naturedly, and go on with profound con- 

 tent upon his " vicious " course. 



To state briefly my view, to sum up the gist 

 of what I have put into the foregoing pages, 

 what I advance and believe is that the hard- 

 working city man does not get his rights out 

 of life. It may be that ignorance is bliss. He 

 may be swept so far in the wrong direction as 

 to lose all proper estimate of the good things 

 of this life ; his ideas of relative values may be 

 distorted. He may consider that fine clothes 

 and a big house make up for lack of real sport ; 

 he may find more pleasure in counting bills 

 than in sailing or walking. A misguided sense 

 of duty may keep him all his life half-starved 



