At Post 4, in the northeast corner, there is also an ante-market gathering, for this is the spot where stocks and money are borrowed and loaned. This “loan crowd,” as it is called, was formerly the gathering to which one turned to gauge the market position of the bear party, since the borrowing of stocks by “shorts,” as done here, furnished an index of the strength or weakness of that interesting element. But of late it has lost its ancient prestige as a guide in such matters, because in order to hide the information sought, borrowing of stocks on a large scale is now done privately. This “crowd” has been the scene of some tremendous excitement, as in the Northern Pacific corner of May 9, 1901, when the price soared to $1000 per share and the shorts were trapped, and on that day in October, 1907, when money, after loaning at 125 per cent., was not to be had, for a time, at any price, although brokers with the best collateral would have paid 200 or 300 per cent. for accommodation, and ruin stared every one in the face. As the hour of ten draws near, activities increase. On the south wall the arbitrageurs are busy deciphering their code messages and distributing orders, many hundred telephone bells are ringing in the long booths where clerks are hastily writing their messages; crowds of visitors gather in the gallery, while beneath it the bond-brokers prepare for their labors; indicator boards on the north and south walls, like great kaleidoscopes, display and hide their number with the same electric suddenness that seems to characterize everything and everybody--then bang! the gong rings, the chairman’s gavel falls, and another day begins. Yesterday is embalmed with the Pharaohs; they never speak here of what _has_ happened, but only of what _will_ happen--and this is a new day.