nor could we hold on to our conquest as a permanent possession; neither should we desire to do so, as we have territory enough in the 38 States which comprise the United States of America, already, without desiring to annex that of any of our far off neighbors.

And if an emergency should arise in what has been called the last resort of kings, namely, the necessity of going to war, it would be found that the importance of this training in the special business of war could then be appreciated at its true value.

The importance of business training, that is, training for the special occupation in which a man's energies are to be developed, is always made apparent when those energies are put to the test of competition, or are called upon to put forth an extraordinary effort. If a man has not got the special training, whether in the army or in civil life, he is never reliable in an emergency, but is like that weak and vacillating friend which old Solomon compared to a broken ankle.

I say, therefore, to the young man of the rising generation, while you don't relax any effort to procure all the education that your time and means will afford, above all things, don't neglect the paramount importance of business training.

CHAPTER V.

PERSONAL HONOR OF WALL STREET MEN

BREACH OF TRUST RARE AMONG WALL STREET MEN.-THE ENGLISH CLERGYMAN'S NOTION OF TALMAGE'S TIRADES AGAINST WALL STREET.-ADVENTUROUS THIEVES HAVE NO SYMPATHIZERS AMONG WALL STREET OPERATORS.EARLY TRAINING NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS IN SPECULATION. FERDINAND WARD'S EVIL GENIUS. A GREAT BUSINESS CAN ONLY BE BUILT UP ON HONEST PRINCIPLES.— GREAT GENERALS MAKE POOR FINANCIERS, THROUGH WANT OF EARLY TRAINING.-PRACTICAL BUSINESS IS THE BEST COLLEGE.

TH

HERE is no place in the world where people are trusted so much on faith as they are in Wall Street; not even in the Church.

The business is one of mutual confidence, and each day there are numerous opportunities for men to secure many millions of dollars of other people's money and take themselves safely off to that Paradise of defaulters and absconders over the Border. Yet instances of this nature are comparatively rare when we consider the large number of transactions and the immense amount of money handled in Wall Street.

The men of Wall Street have, therefore, become worldrenowned for straightforward dealing, and have thus obtained the first position as leading spirits in the speculative affairs not only of their own country, but of the entire world. Wherever the speculative spirit of the age has obtained a foothold, there Wall Street is a household word, and Wall Street men are held in the highest esteem. It has become a term familiar to the ears of those even who know nothing about the business which has made its name almost universal. "What is that Wall Street?" said an English curate to a friend of mine who recently visited Liverpool. "What a queer place," he continued, "for Mr. Talmage to have his Tabernacle."

The English divine, evidently only having "caught on" to isolated sketches of the Brooklyn preacher's calumnious invectives, thought they were actually delivered among the bulls and bears, and that Talmage had the boldness to beard these ferocious animals in their den.

It is true the honor of Wall Street is sometimes slightly tarnished, especially in the eyes of those who reside at a great distance, owing to the occasional delinquencies of dishonorable men, who consider Wall Street men and Wall Street money fair game for swindling operations. These are for the most part outsiders, who pounce upon the Street as their illegitimate prey, after probably making a show of doing business there.

There is no place, of course, where confidence men have the opportunity of reaping such a rich harvest when they can succeed in establishing the confidential relations that help them to secure their swag. But Wall Street proper is not any more responsible for such men than the Church, whose sacred precincts are used and abused by the same social pariahs in a similar manner. The Street is the victim of these adventurers, and has no more to do with nurturing and aiding them than the Church has.

What should be said of a financier who would have the temerity to assert that the Church was an asylum for swindlers, and that thence they issued forth to commit their lawless depredations on society? He would be tabooed by all intelligent people. Yet there would be about as much truth in such a statement as in most of the eloquent anathemas and objurations launched from the pulpit every Sunday against Wall Street.

There is no place on this earth where adventurous thieves have fewer sympathizers than in Wall Street, except perhaps in Pinkerton's and Byrnes' detective bureaux.

There is another popular delusion with regard to those who don't succeed in Wall Street. Their failure is frequently attributed to sharp practice on the part of the old

A DANGEROUS GENIUS IN FINANCE.

35

habitues of the Street. People forget that the business of speculation requires special training, and every fool who has got a few hundred dollars cannot begin to deal in stocks and make a fortune. The men who don't succeed are usually those who have spent their early life elsewhere, and whose habits have been formed in other grooves of thought.

The Jusiness of Wall Street requires long and close training in financial affairs, so that the mind may attain a flexible facility with the various ins and outs of speculative methods. If this training is from youth upward, all the better. It is among this class that many of our most successful men are to be found, though there are some eminent examples of success among those who began late in life. It will be found, however, that the latter must have a special genius for the business, and genius, of course, discounts all the usual conditions and auxiliaries; but among ordinary intellects early training is generally indispensable to financial success.

It seldom happens, moreover, that the early trained man from youth up does any great wrong.

Ferdinand Ward may seem an exception to this rule, but he had a born genius for evil, and though he had all the early advantages of Timothy and Samuel the Prophet, with a higher civilization thrown in, so utterly incorrigible was his nature that nothing but prison walls and iron bars could prescribe bounds to his rascality. He is an extraordinary exception, a genius of the other extreme, against whose subtle operations society must always be on its guard; but he is only one of the dangerous exceptions that prove the rule for which I am contending, the rule that early training in finance more, perhaps, than in any other field of human energy, is the great desideratum.

If such a man is unsuccessful, dishonor seldom accompanies his misfortunes. He may pass through the whole catalogue of financial disasters and their natural results. He may fall to the gutter through over-indulgence in liquor

and the despair attendant on a run of bad luck or unfortunate connection with wicked partners, but he is still capable of rising from the very ashes of his former self. He will never stoop to swindle, no matter how low the rest of his moral condition may be brought.

No great business can be built up except upon honest and moral principles. It may flourish for a time, but it will topple down eventually. The very magnitude to which the business of Wall Street has grown is a living proof of its moral stamina. It is impossible, in the social and moral nature of things, to unite a large number of men, representing important material interests, except on principles of equity and fair dealing. A conspiracy to cheat must always be confined to a small number.

The most successful men of Wall Street, to my own personal knowledge, are those who came to the Street young, and have "gone through the mill," so to speak; those who have received severe training, who have had some sledgehammer blows applied to their heads to temper them, like the conversion of iron into steel.

These are some of the prerequisites of a successful financial career.

One of the most common delusions incident to human nature in every walk of life is that of a man who has been successful in one thing imagining he can succeed in anything and everything he attempts. In general, overweening conceit of this kind can be cured by simple experiments that bring men to a humiliating sense of their mortal condition and limited capacity. When the experiment is tried in Wall Street, however, to these healthy admonitions are frequently added irreparable disaster and overwhelming disgrace.

I shall note a few examples within the memory of newspaper readers still living. The brief panic of 1884 brought several instances of this character to the surface. Some of them had fought our battles for national existence and preserved the Union when this achievement seemed almost