Their dividends for four years have been but twelve per cent. And should they be at any time thrown out of the service, more than half of their property would be irretrievably lost. This percentage of dividend would be large enough but for such possibilities as these, which may soon reduce it to a deficit and a loss. Thus it is that steam stock should declare three times the dividend of other stocks, to be eventually equal to them. And hence it is that, with the clear record of this Company before the Government, and with an investment of between three and four millions of dollars, being at the same time free from debt, the stock of the Company is selling at thirty-three per cent. below par. This is a good exemplification of my views in the preceding Sections regarding the costs, and hazards, and low values of ocean steam stocks generally. Nor are the stocks of this Company kept from the public. They are advertised and sold at public auction at these reduced rates every day in the year in this city; and no one of the five hundred and four stockholders, among whom these interests are diffused, seems anxious to put "his all" in the enterprise. And yet there are some people who call such companies a monopoly. If a monopoly, why do they not come forward, buy the stocks, keep them in their own hands, and profit by them; especially as a monopoly must be doubly good when it can be bought for two thirds the cash originally paid for it! I have noticed this Company thus fully, because its extent of stock, and large field of operation, make it a fit illustration of the views which I have advanced throughout this work. I have no desire to depreciate the stock, or in any other way injure the Company, as my own enterprise gives me quite enough to do.