Naturally, certain securities are more active than others, and here there are the largest crowds. As the limits surrounding the trading-posts are but vaguely defined, one crowd will sometimes get mixed up with another, whereupon confusion results, and good-natured if earnest appeals are heard to “get out,” and “get over.” Into one of these struggling masses a broker with an order or a trader with an inspiration literally hurls himself; each sound in the jargon of voices, which means only Bedlam and Babel to the visitor, is to him perfectly understood. He may be pushed this way and that, or tossed aside, or hidden altogether by bigger men who surround him, yet he has no difficulty in determining the price and in doing what he came there to do; all this with surprising celerity and accuracy. The business done, he hastens to his telephone, makes his report, and is ready for the next order. The manner in which some of these transactions take place between brokers has long been a subject of praise. A word, or a nod, or an upraised finger, or a tap on the arm, and hundreds of thousands of dollars change hands without a scrap of writing or a witness. A magazine writer thus describes it: One pastime of the American public is the manly sport of throwing mud. A shovelful of scandalous mud--a clean white target, and many a reputable and disreputable citizen is having the time of his life. We bespatter our philanthropists, our statesmen, merchants, lawyers, and divines. We vilify our art, our architecture (I take a hand in that sometimes myself), our literature, or anything else about which some one has spoken a good word. One of the time-honored institutions of our land--one which has never ceased to be the centre of abuse--is the New York Stock Exchange. Here conspiracies are organized for robbing the poor and grinding the rich; so despicable and damnable that Society is appalled. Here plots are hatched which will eventually destroy the nation, and here the Gold Barons defraud the innocent and the unwary, by stock issues based solely on hot air and diluted water. Here Senators are made, Congressmen debauched, and judges instructed--even plans consummated for the seduction and capture of the Supreme Court. All this is true--absolutely true--you have only to read the daily papers to be convinced of it. There is one thing, however, which you will not find in the daily papers. It is not sufficiently interesting to the average reader who needs his hourly thrill; and this one thing is the unimpeachable, clear, limpid honesty of its members.