The advent, then, of Murad Ault in New York was not a novelty, but a
continuation of like phenomena in the Street, ever since the day when
ingenious men discovered that the ability to guess correctly which of
two sparrows, sold for a farthing, lighting on the spire of Trinity
Church, will fly first, is an element in a successful and distinguished
career. There was nothing peculiar in kind in his career, only in the
force exhibited which lifted him among the few whose destructive energy
the world condones and admires as Napoleonic. He may have been an
instrument of Providence. When we do not know exactly what to do with
an exceptional man who is disagreeable, we call him an Instrument of
Providence.
It is not, then, in anything exceptional that we are interested in
the operations of Murad Ault, but simply on account of his fortuitous
connection with a great fortune which had its origin in very much the
same cyclonic conditions that Mr. Ault reveled in. Those who know Wall
Street best, by reason of sad experience, say that the presiding deity
there is not the Chinese god, Luck, but the awful pagan deity, Nemesis.
Alas! how many innocent persons suffer in order to get justice done in
this world.
Those who have unimpaired memories may recollect the fortune amassed,
many years previous to this history, by one Rodney Henderson, gathered
and enlarged by means not indictable, but which illustrate the wide
divergence between the criminal code and the moral law. This fortune,
upon the sudden death of its creator, had been largely diverted from
its charitable destination by fraud, by a crime that would have fallen
within the code if it had been known. This fortune had been enjoyed by
those who seized it for many years of great social success, rising into
acknowledged respectability and distinction; and had become the basis of
the chance of social elevation, which is dear to the hearts of so many
excellent people, who are compelled to wander about in a chaotic society
that has no hereditary titles. It was this fortune, the stake in such an
ambition, or perhaps destined in a new possessor to a nobler one, that
came in the way of Mr. Ault's extensive schemes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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