Seeing it out, is, of course, waiting for a recovery. In the meantime he must pay his differences, which amount to £50 more than he possesses. This one case in point tells the whole tale, and it is therefore superfluous to take up time and space with other instances. If legitimate trading business, in which the risk of loss is so reduced as to enable a man to earn a living at it, cannot be carried on without adequate capital, how is it possible that pure speculation can be successfully practised in which the conditions are reversed, and at which experience shows that no one can succeed except the professional expert, and only then in some cases under circumstances to which we have before referred? CHAPTER X. THE “TIP” TO BUY OR SELL. [Sidenote: A FRIENDLY “TIP.”] [Sidenote: UNLOADING AT OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPENSE.] A fool and his money are soon parted, is an old saw, and it is in a high degree applicable to the inexperienced speculator who operates in the markets on a friendly “tip.”[41] It is marvellous to think how many persons daily and hourly are misled by the same snare and delusion. If a man, who starts off in an excited state to instruct his broker in consequence of having received the “tip” to buy a certain stock, pauses for one moment to reflect, he can hardly fail to doubt the disinterestedness of the communication. Take an example:—In the first place a man who gives a “tip” to another to buy some of a certain stock, must have some motive for so doing. No human being wanders about with, what he makes out to be, valuable information to distribute gratis among his friends. One might as well expect the girls who sell oranges, combs, umbrella-rings, and collar-studs, in Lombard Street, to give them away for nothing, as expect to obtain disinterested and genuine “tips” from some wandering philanthropist. Such a person was never heard of, and never will be. If a man gives the “tip” to buy a certain stock it is because he wants to “unload” at other people’s expense,[42] and that is not what is generally understood by philanthropy. The system of sending round the “tip” to buy or sell, has become very general in all markets, and it is certain that a vast deal of mischief is done by it. The common practice is for a number of persons to band together, and put the price of a certain article or stock up by buying a large quantity and making it scarce. When the higher price has been maintained for some little time, so that it meets the public eye in price currents, the process of putting the public in is commenced. When this benevolent operation has been sufficiently worked, and the “tip” has been administered to a number of poor dupes, the price is let down. Those who have advised their friend to buy, begin to sell and deliberately rob them, in return for the misplaced confidence. [Sidenote: THE QUALIFIED “TIP.”]