But Sally, flushed with success on the bull side, did not worry when Thornton refused to continue the partnership. The slogan was “Buy A. O. T. It’s sure to go up!” the initial standing for _Any Old Thing_! The most prosperous period in the industrial and commercial history of the United States begot an epidemic of speculative madness such as was never before known, and probably never again will be. Everybody had money in abundance, and the desire for speculation in superabundance. Sally formed a new firm immediately—Hayward & Co.—with his cashier as partner. IV. All mundane things have an end, even bull markets and bear markets. The bull market saw Hayward & Co. doing a good business, as did everybody else in Wall Street. It ended, and the firm’s customers, after a few bad “slumps” in prices, were admonished to turn bears in order to recoup their losses. Bears believe prices are too high and should go lower; bulls, optimists, believe the opposite. The public can’t sell stocks “short” any more than the average man is left-handed. These customers were no exception, so they did nothing. Hayward had “overstayed” the bull market, though not disastrously; that is, he was in error regarding the extent and duration of the upward movement of prices. He proceeded to fall into a similar error on the bear, or downward, side. The market had been extremely dull following what the financial writers called a “severe decline,” but which meant the loss of millions of dollars by speculators. A panic had been narrowly averted by a timely combination of “powerful interests,” after which the market became professional. In the absence of complaisant lambs, the financial cannibals known as “room traders” and “pikers” tried to “scalp eighths” out of each other for weeks—to take advantage of fractional fluctuations instead of waiting for big movements. Hayward’s customers, like everybody else’s customers, were not speculating. So he used their money to protect his own speculations. Office expenses were numerous and heavy, and commissions few and light. Hayward was very bearish. He had sold stocks, sharing the belief of the majority of his fellows, that the lowest prices had not been reached. As a result he was heavily “short,” and he could not “cover” at a profit, because prices had advanced very slowly, but very steadily.