Life on the Stock Exchange is by no means unpleasant. It is not the idle pastime that many writers picture it, with easy hours and long intervals for luncheon, nor is it the depressing and nerve-destroying centre that many of the members would have us believe. One may certainly linger over the midday meal for hours--for that matter one may absent one’s self altogether--and conversely, one may worry and fret over the day’s vexations until life becomes unpleasant for him and for every one near him. But by far the larger number find their work as congenial as earning the daily bread may be, and vastly more diverting than many of the sedentary occupations in other lines of business. Elsewhere I have said that the long periods of dulness on the floor constitute the most serious obstacle the broker has to meet. Accustomed to physical activity and with a mind inured to occupation, he chafes under a stagnation that is foreign to his habits and desires, until worry--the disease of the age--claims him for its own. Almost every broker’s wife knows what I mean. It becomes a habit with such a man; unconsciously he grows “bearish” on his business, on himself, and on his associates, and at such times he is an awful bore. The essential thing for a man to bear in mind who finds himself growing into this mood is that nature abhors a vacuum. His mind is empty because there is nothing to do; he must therefore _find_ something to do--some mental occupation that will banish from his mind the worries that beset him. In order to do this many members of the Exchange carry some light reading in their pockets for use in an idle hour; at the spot where the National Lead Company’s securities are dealt in the specialists maintain a compact circulating library of all the magazines and periodicals; others spend idle moments pouring over a pocket chessboard; the Reading Railway post has a constantly increasing collection of all kinds of puzzles, riddles, problems--anything to keep the mind active on the principle of _similia similibus curantur_. The newcomer on the Stock Exchange will do well to fortify himself in some such way, for it may be accepted as gospel truth that the paralyzing effect of worry in this peculiar environment will inevitably lead to hasty actions, mistakes, and errors of judgment, unless the victim learns early in the game how to arm himself against these misfortunes. One word more: When the day’s work is done, the young member must learn Doctor Saleeby’s great lesson, that a round of the links, or a set at tennis, or any other form of outdoor diversions so dear to the youngster’s heart, will not of themselves suffice to banish cares.