order which he had given me, to the best of my judgment. The result was favorable, and his account began to accumulate. He was duly advised, according to our business methods, of his good luck, but I did not hear anything from him personally for several months.

One day, a portly gentleman, with rosy health beaming in his face, stepped into my private office, and was quite profuse in his thanks to me.

"Well," I said; "I have but a hazy recollection of your acquaintance, if I know you at all."

"Don't you recollect," he said, "the time I went to the country in summer, when I told you my case, and how I had been unfortunate in speculation?"

"And are you the man who went to the country in despair to die?" I asked, in surprise at his changed appearance.

"I am," he replied, "and I owe the wonderful change which you now see to your timely advice. I staked almost my last dollar on that counsel, and now I am comfortably fixed through your management of the small fund placed at your disposal."

Now, this was an example of a man who did make money simply by taking the advice that was freely tendered him. There are others who lose, in spite of all that the most honest judgment can do to prevent them.

Some men, when they have money, are so fearfully perverse that all attempts to get them to do the right thing only have the opposite effect, and they prefer to follow every wild

rumor.

One day, for instance, a man gave me an order to buy a thousand shares of Erie without limit. The order was executed at 94. I had no sooner bought it than the stock went down.

My customer returned in a short time and ordered the stock to be sold. It was then 924.

In half an hour afterwards he returned again and ordered it bought back again, without any limit as before. It was bought back at 95.

SHUN DELUSIVE RUMOR MONGERS.

23

After consulting with other friends for some time he ordered it sold again. The market by that time was 90.

He then came back the fifth time, and said: "I first saw one man who told me to buy, and then another who told me to sell. I understand one is called a 'bull' and the other a 'bear.' About these names I don't know much, but I do know now that I am a jackass."

This affords a good illustration of the way the average speculator is managed and perplexed in Wall Street. There is a means of avoiding such a peck of trouble, however, if he would only take a little wholesome advice, wait patiently for a proper opportunity, and not rush headlong to purchase on the "tips" of the delusive rumor mongers. He would then begin to learn how to make money in Wall Street.

As I have pointed out in another chapter, speculation is a business that must be studied as a specialty, and though it is popularly believed that any man who has money can speculate, yet the ordinary man, without special training in the business, is liable to make as great a mistake in this attempt, as the man who thinks he can act as his own lawyer, and who is said "to have a fool for a client."

The common delusion, that expert knowledge is not required in speculation, has wrecked many fortunes and reputations in Wall Street, and is still very influential in its pernicious and illusory achievements.

When a man wants correct advice in law he goes to a professional lawyer in good standing, one who has made a reputation in the courts, and who has afforded other evidence to the public that he is thoroughly reliable. No man of average common sense would trust a case in law to a bar room "bummer" who would assert that he was well acquainted with Aaron J. Vanderpoel, Roscoe Conkling, and Wm. M. Evarts, and had got all the inside "tips" from these legal lights on the law relating to the case in question. The fellow would be laughed at, and, in all probability, if he persisted in this kind of talk, would be handed over to

the city physician to be examined in relation to his sanity; but in Wall Street affairs men can every day make similar pretensions and pass for embodiments of speculative wisdom.

If speculators are caught and fleeced by following such counsel, the professional brokers who are members of the Stock Exchange, are no more to blame than the eminent lawyers to whom I have referred would be for the upshot of a case that had been taken into court on the advice which some irresponsible person had pretended to receive from these celebrities of the New Yor: Bar.

Professional advice in Wall Street, as in legal affairs, is worth paying for, and costs far less in the end than the cheap "points" that are distributed profusely around the Street, thick as autumn leaves in Vallombrosa, and which only allure the innocent speculator to put his money where he is almost certain to lose it.

My advice to speculators who wish to make money in Wall Street, therefore, is to ignore the counsel of the barroom "tippers" and "tipplers," turn their backs on "bucket shops," and when they want "points" to purchase, let them go to those who have established a reputation for giving sound advice in such matters, and who have ample resources for furnishing correct information on financial topics, as well as a personal interest in making all the money they can for their clients.

There is no difficulty in finding out such reliable men and firms in the vicinity of Wall Street, if speculators will only read the newspapers, or make inquiry of the first messenger boy they may happen to meet.

CHAPTER IV.

IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS TRAINING.

SONS OF INDEPENDENT GENTLEMEN MAKE VERY BAD CLERKS.THEY BECOME UNPOPULAR WITH THE OTHER BOYS, AND MUST EVENTUALLY GO.-NIGHT DANCING AND LATE SUPPERS DON'T CONTRIBUTE TO BUSINESS SUCCESS.—GIVE MERIT ITS TRUE REWARD. KEEPING WORTHLESS PRETENSE IN ITS TRUE POSITION.-RUNNING PUBLIC OFFICE3 ON BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. -A PIECE OF GRATUITOUS ADVICE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION.-A COLLEGE COURSE NOT IN GENERAL CALCULATED TO MAKE A GOOD BUSINESS MAN. THE QUESTION OF ADAPTABILITY IMPORTANT.CHILDREN SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED IN THE OCCUPATION FOR WHICH THEY SHOW A PREFERENCE.-THOUGHTS ON THE ARMY AND NAVY.

I

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HAVE usually found that the sons of independent gentlemen, who have great expectations, make very poor clerks and don't develope into Good Wall Street men.

Their expectations seem to dwarf the ability that might develope under the more favorable auspices of being obliged to paddle their own canoe. Like the light under a bushel, referred to in the Good Book, their brilliant qualities are obscured and circumscribed by the paternal protection in prospect. They have not a sufficient incentive to work, because they know that all they require for their natural wants will fall easily into their laps. The motives, therefore, which usually develope the greatest mental qualities are absent and the qualities themselves lie dormant, and frequently decay like poppy seeds in their seed vessels, without being productive of the fruits which are the result of industrial habits and the desire for acquisition. Such young men, instead of being a help to an office into which they happen to be thrust, often through friendship and favoritism, are a great hindrance and a stumbling block in the path to promotion of other young men.

After many ineffectual attempts to reform and remodel them, they have generally to be discarded, as the drone bees are ejected from the rest of the industrious hive. And they usually become as unpopular with the other boys as the drone does with his comrades who make the honey and will not suffer the idle fellow to feast on the fruits of their labor.

Young men who have nothing but their own resources to depend upon will be found far more meritorious than this higher class. There are some eminent exceptions, but it takes a large amount of good sense to counteract the conceit instilled by the idea of financial independence by birth.

The latter are more liable to youthful and enervating excesses, as they have the means to indulge in nocturnal

amusements that are not conducive either to clear brains or active habits during the day.

Night dancing and late suppers, with some of their social concomitants, when habitually indulged, don't contribute to business success. I know how this is myself, and therefore speak feelingly; but I don't lay myself open to the charge of egotism when I say that I have never permitted the habit to get the better of me.

I am not setting myself up as a censor of other men's habits, nor attempting to utter mere moral or religious cant. I am simply discussing the question from a scientific and physical standpoint, and I say that these habits don't contribute to business success, but, on the contrary, form one of the greatest hindrances to it. They make any man, no matter how strong he may be, physically unfit for ordinary business. These "recreations" up town, however attractive and delightful they may be, don't fit a young man for business down town. The line must be drawn somewhere. Let us draw it, say, at Fourteenth street.

There has been much said and written about Civil Service Reform by various authorities from President Cleveland down to Dorman B. Eaton and the Custom House officials. The great rule to follow is to give merit its true reward