on which he could have cashed in a fortune. But what was the use cashing in then, when he was in a fair way to making half a million, or even more? After reaching $94.50 the stock began to decline, and here the top-heaviness of the pyramid commenced to manifest itself, for with every downward point he was losing $3200. When the price got down to $75 his broker demanded that he either put up more margin or lighten his load by selling a thousand shares or so. The stock continued to go down, and again the broker called on him for more margin. Soon after putting up all the money he had, and all he could borrow, the broker was obliged to close out the account to protect himself. The stock afterwards went down to ninety cents a share. THE LURE OF THE COPPER BOOM--AND BOGUS SECURITIES Of course the speculator who buys stock in a new copper mine is simply taking a gambler’s chance that ore will be found in paying quantities. Most of those who have submitted to this enticement in the past thirty years do not need to be reminded of the hazards attending such risks. I recall that about twenty-five years ago, when the “copper fever” was raging throughout the country--and in Boston especially it was highly infectious--a half-page advertisement appeared in one of the leading Boston newspapers, relating in graphic terms the discovery of the most remarkable copper mining prospect that had ever come to light. The chief mining engineer of one of the largest and best known copper mines in the United States--a man of wide experience and vast knowledge in the mining business--while prospecting somewhere in the West came upon what seemed to him the richest deposits of copper ore he had ever seen. These ore bodies were said to be located in a large mountain, conveniently near a railroad, and by tunneling into the side of the mountain the ore could be trammed out, dumped onto the cars and hauled to a smelter a few miles away. The mining engineer (whose full name was given) had immediately resigned his position, organized a stock company, known as the Occidental Copper Mining Company--into which he admitted a number of personal friends--bought the property, and began tunneling operations on his own capital and what he had raised among his friends through the sale of stock in the new corporation. Having exhausted their funds and desiring to continue exploration work--which became more and more promising--the directors had sold a block of treasury stock, the par value of which was one dollar a share. The latest reports showed that the work was progressing satisfactorily under the personal direction of the engineer who had discovered the mine, and that stockholders might expect dividend returns inside of a year or so. The advertisement was inserted, not by a stock-jobbing firm or underwriting syndicate, but by a well known wholesale and retail grocery and provision company, who claimed that after fully investigating matters they had bought a large block