This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the article of Mr. Henry Clews on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future." This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial desk of THE ARENA. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of THE ARENA? What has THE ARENA done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself that the contribution was genuine, that it was not--and is not--a hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge to this magazine. I do the author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future," the honor to believe that he does not suppose THE ARENA to be sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology for the great institution which he represents,--without knowing the sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind submitted would be _rejected_ at this office because of our well-known antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that instance also be undeceived. At the office of THE ARENA we take all challenges. Nor should our friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews's article to the pages of THE ARENA implies timidity or some possible weakness in the presence of that gigantic institution known by the name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty, will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up like a giant refreshed from slumber.