It will be proper here to detail the _modus operandi_ of these railroad companies at their headquarters in Wall street. We read of large operations in stocks and bonds, as well as in gold, and are apt to conclude that sales and purchases are made by regular transfers in a fair and legitimate manner. Such is not the case. Among the initiated sales are pure fiction in many cases, and in others it is but purchasing or selling the chance of an advance or decline in the price of stocks, bonds, or coin. To call these transactions by their right name--_they are nothing but gambling_. If legitimate sales are made, it is with outside parties, or to the uninitiated. The corporation rings congregated in Wall street, calling themselves bankers and brokers, sell to, or purchase stocks from, each other, without delivery or even payment, all the money passing between the seller and purchaser being the margin between the price agreed to be paid and the market reports at the time fixed for delivery. To illustrate, let us suppose that certain railroad stock is quoted at ninety-three cents, or seven per cent below par. A, who believes that there will be no further rise in the price, but that the same will decline, offers B $10,000 of this stock at ninety-one cents, to be delivered in three days. He has no stock, but believing it will decline to ninety cents or less, within the time fixed for delivery, he expects to buy at a still lower rate than he has agreed to sell, or to borrow it for a consideration if the decline does not meet his anticipations. Or he will settle his contract with B by paying him the difference between the market value at the time of delivery and the price at which he agreed to sell. The same process is gone through if the sale is made with the expectation of the stock advancing in price. A agrees to purchase of B four days after the date, $15,000 in stock at ninety-five cents, being an advance of two per cent on the market price on the day of sale. The stock does not advance, and at the time for delivery A pays B the margin between two cents on the dollar, and the market price. No stock has passed between them. It was a fight between a "bull" and a "bear" for the margin.