The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-10-31
Pixies PEAK OR BUST

their Wall street acquaintance to their
home or to their clubs for a million
reasons all but called each other by
their first names there.
He really was a bright, amiable fell
low, very obliging-he was paid for it
by the frm-and he made b most of
his opportunities. The customers grew
to like him exceedingly well and to
think with respect of his Judgment.
marketwise. One day W. Basil Thorn
ton, one of the wealthiest and boldest
customers of the firm, was complain
ing of the difficulty of beating the
game with the heavy handicap of
the large brokerage commission
Jestingly, yet hoping to be taken Sc
riously, Sally said: Join the New
York Stock Exchange or buy me a seat
and form the firm of Thornton & Hay
ward. Just think, colonel, we would
have your trade, and you could bring
some friends, and 1 could bring mine.
and 1 think many of these" pointing
to Tracy & Middleton's customers,
would come over to US. They all
think a lot" automatically, of your
opinions On the market"
Thornton was favorably impressed
with the idea, and Sally saw it. From
that on he worked hard to
gain the c~oloneTs confidence. 1t was
he Who gave Thornton the first hint of
Tracy & Middleton's condition, which
led to the withdrawal of Thornton's
account-and his own-from the office.
1t was a violation of confidence n of
business ethics, but Thornton was very
grateful when two months later Tracy
& Middleton failed under circum-
stances which were far from credita-
BILE and which We're discussed at great
length by the street. He showed his
gratitude by adding a round sum to
Sally's S11,500, and Willis n. Hayward
became a membe of the New York
Stock Exchange. Shortly a~fterward the
firm of Thornton & Hayward, bankers
and brokers, was formed. Sally, then
In his twenty-ifth year, had become a
seasoned Wall street man.
From the start the new firm did we'll.
Colonel Thornton and two or three
friends who followed him from Tracy
& Middleton's Office, all of them
''plungers," were almost enough to
keep Hayward busy on the exchange
executing orders, and, moreover, new
customers We're cJming in Had he
been satisfied with this start and with
letting time do the rest he would have
Jared very well. But he began to spec
ulate for himself, and all reputable
commission men will tell you, with
varying degrees of emphasis, that this
not only tiles up the firms money,
but that no man can ''trade'-specu-
ate-on his own look and at the same
time do Justice to his customers.
Thornton was a rich man II pro
tected his own speculations more than
amply. He noticed the development of
his young partners gambling proclivi-
ties and demonstrated with him in Il
kindly, p%aternal sort of way.
Sally vowed he would stop.
Within less than three months he
had broken his promise twice, and his
unsuccessful operations in Alabama
Coal at one time threatened seriously
to embarrass the firm.
Colonel Thornton came to the res
cue.
Sally promised, with a soIemnfty
born of sincere fear, never to do it
again.
But fright lasts but a little space.
and memory is equally short lived.
Wall street has no room for men with
an excess of tiInidity or of recollection.
He had gambled before he Joined the
New York Stock Exchange. After all,
if specializing were a crime and con
victions could be secured in fifty out of
a hundred fragrant instances one-half
the male population of the United
States would perforce consist of pen
ltentiary guards forever engaged in
watching over the convicted other half,
Sally told a customer n day.
And then, too, Willis n. Hayward,
the board member of Thornton &
Hayward, was a very different person
from Sally, the nice little telephone
boy of Tracy 81 Middleton's. His
cheeks were not pink; they were mot
tied. His eyes were not clear and in
genuous; they were shifty and a bit
watery. He had been in Wall street
eight or ten years, and he overworked
his nerves every day from 10 a. m. to
8 D. N. on the sock exchange; also
from 5 p. m. to midnight at the cafe
of a big uptown hotel, where Wall
street men gathered to talk shop. His
system crave stimulants. Gambling
and liquor were the strongest he knew.
When, after three years, the firm eX-
PRED by limitation Colonel Thornton
withdrew. He had had enough of
Hayward's plunging. To be sure. Sal
ly had become a shrew trader and
he had made $4,000 during the big
bull boom, but he was at heart a
trader" which is to say a mere gam
bier in stocks and not a desirable COM
mission man.
But Sally. flushed with success on
the bull side, did not worry when
Thornton refused to continue the part
nership. The slogan was Buy A. o.
T.! It's sure to- go up" the initials
standing for Any Old Thingi The most
prosperous period in the Industrial and
commercial history of the United
States begot an epidemic of specula-
tive madness such as was never be
fore Known and probably never again
will be. Everybody had money in
abundance and the desire for specula-
ton in superabundance. Sally form
ed a new firm observation-disclosures
& Co.-with his cashier as partner.
All mundane things have an end,