When a member of the Stock Exchange cannot fulfil his engagements, even if his position is brought about through no fault of his own, but by the default, say, of an important client, he may command much sympathy from his fellow-members, but this sympathy must not take practical form. Sometimes he does receive aid, but if so it is attended with considerable risk both to himself and to those who aid him, for the rules of the institution are most strict on the subject. The idea is, of course, that no member who is insolvent shall be encouraged to struggle against fate, for such a struggle usually means a plunge into wild speculation, making the last state of the Lame Duck worse than the first. When a member of the Stock Exchange finds that a fellow-member, who is his debtor, cannot meet his engagements, it is his duty, far from giving him time or any other consideration, to report the fact to a member of the Committee, and with the utmost celerity inquiry is made into the truth of the statement, and the insolvent member is immediately declared a defaulter. The news of insolvency is, as a matter of fact, very frequently communicated to the Committee by the unfortunate member himself, so that it does not fall upon his creditors to perform the unpleasant task. The process of declaring a defaulter is called "hammering," because the Stock Exchange waiter, to whom a written announcement is handed, strikes the desk of his rostrum three times with his hammer to call the attention of those present to the dread announcement which he then reads out. As a matter of fact, two waiters perform the ceremony simultaneously in different parts of the House. The member who is thus declared a defaulter loses his membership, and for all practical purposes he becomes in the eye of the Stock Exchange a bankrupt, his Stock Exchange estate being taken over by the two functionaries called the Official Assignees. He is by no means a bankrupt, however, in the ordinary sense of the term. His creditors in the Stock Exchange never make him a bankrupt legally, preferring, of course, their own arrangements for dividing the estate. Any outside creditor might obviously make him a bankrupt in accordance with the law of the land, but as a member of the Stock Exchange is not allowed to carry on any other business, his liabilities outside the House are usually insignificant compared with those within it. On the other hand, it is possible, although very unusual, for a member to be made bankrupt by outsiders, quite apart from his Stock Exchange engagements, in which case he ceases to be a member. When a member is declared a defaulter, all bargains which he has open with other members are immediately reversed at the price ruling at the time of the declaration of the default, which is called the "hammer-price."