Street. Operators can swear everlasting vengeance on each other one day, and be thick as molasses before sundown the next. In financial circles, it's the money that counts. No matter how mad you may be at a fellow, if you need his money you make up with him easy as anything. Erie was still a money-maker. So I wanted to get on the inside once more. If I could have another turn or two at the milking stool, so to speak, I felt I'd be willing to retire from active business altogether. Accordingly, before the summer was over, I was calling on Gould and Fisk, and they were coming to see me, just as though we hadn't had any differences at all. Before I knew it, I was back in the thick of things, and busy as a pup.

But

We now set out on a Bear campaign -we three, Gould, Fisk and I. Being backed by Tweed and his political crowd, it promised big returns. it required a lot of nerve. In fact, before it was through, it raised more excitement than I had bargained for. It was the Lock-up of greenbacks.

It seemed a foolhardy thing to do-go short of stocks just at that particular time. Because it was the fall of the year. The Government reports showed that bumper crops were to be harvested in nearly all parts of the country. A big traffic from the West to the seaboard was promised. The election of General Grant as president was almost a settled thing; and if he was elected, the policy of

the Government would be an immediate resumption of specie payment. Money was easy as an old shoe. When money is easy, stocks go up. Because at such times people have got the means to margin large holdings and so are hopeful and Bullish. It was about the last time in the world, one would have said, to begin a Bear campaign. But that's really just the time in which to begin it. Because the way to make money in Wall Street, if you are an insider, is to calculate on what the common people are going to do, and then go and do just the opposite. When everybody is Bullish, that is just the time when you can make the most money as a Bear, if you work it right. And we of our little clique thought we could work it right.

When money. is easy the public buys stocks, and so the prices go up. The way to do, we calculated, would be to make money tight. Then people would sell, prices would go down, and we could cover our short contracts at a fine low figure. In this work of making money tight we were helped by one fact. The Government, in order to resume specie payments, had adopted a policy of contracting the amount of greenbacks in circulation. It was refusing to reissue greenback notes after it had once got them back into its vaults.

But that wasn't enough to tighten the currency to the point where it would serve our ends. So we set about working it ourselves. For this purpose

we made a pool of money to the amount of fourteen millions. Fisk and Gould provided ten millions, and I agreed to put in four millions.

The banks, as everybody knows, are required by law to keep as reserve twenty-five per cent. of their deposits. This is in order to take care of their depositors. When their cash on hand is over and above this twenty-five per cent. margin, bankers loan money free and easy. As soon as their cash begins to creep down to the twenty-five per cent. limit I which can almost be called the dead line bankers begin to get the cold shivers; they tighten their rates, and if the need is urgent enough, call in their outstanding loans. Knowing this we made our plans accordingly. We would put all of our cash into the form of deposits in the banks. Against these deposits we would write checks and get the banks to certify them. The banks would have to tie up enough funds to take care of these certifications. With the certified checks as collateral we would borrow greenbacks and then withdraw them suddenly from circulation.

When our arrangements were complete, we went onto the stock market and sold shares heavily short. People thought we were fools, because of all the signs pointing to a big revival of trade. Soon these contracts of ours matured. We held a council. We decided that the time had come to explode our bomb. So all of a sudden we called upon the banks

for our greenbacks. I remember well the scared look that came over the face of one banker when I made the demand. At first he didn't understand.

"Oh, yes," said he, after I had made my request; "you wish to withdraw your deposits from our bank? Of course, we can accomodate you. We shall take measures to get your account straightened up in the next few days."

"The next few days won't do," said I; "we must have it right away."

"Right away!" he said. "What do you mean?" "I mean," said I," within the next fifteen minutes."

He began to turn white. "Do you understand that a sudden demand of this kind was altogether unlooked for, and will occasion a great deal of needless hardship? A wait on your part of only a very short time would permit us to straighten out the whole affair without injustice to our other depositors and clients."

"I'm not in business," I said, "for the benefit of your other depositors and clients. I've got to look out for number one."

"So I perceive," he said; "and I suspect that you are willing to look out for that person quite regardless of other 'number ones' that are scattered somewhat thickly through human society. However, we will probably have to do your bidding. I will see what help we can get from some of the other banks."

As soon as he began to communicate with the other banks, his alarm increased. Because he found that their funds were being called on in the same way as his own (we were calling in the greenbacks from our chain of banks all to once). Then he got to work in good earnest. Because our fourteen millions (through the working of that law of a twenty-five per cent. reserve), meant a contracting of the currency to four times that amount, or fiftysix millions in all, besides the certifications. He called a hasty council of the officers of the bank. He ordered them to make up my greenbacks into a bundle, for me to take out to the carriage which I had brought along with me for that purpose. I started to thank him, but he seemed too busy to notice me. Messengers were being sent out on the double-quick to all the brokers who were customers of the bank, notifying them they were to return their borrowings to the bank at once.

As each of these brokers found his loans being suddenly called by the banks, he sent word in turn to his clients that they must put up the money themselves to carry their holdings of stock. Because the public in buying shares don't pay for them outright; they only pay a margin, say of ten per cent. The broker, therefore, has to put up the other ninety per cent., which he borrows from the banks, and charges his customers the interest.

The customers immediately sent back word to