class="indent">Our Brother Simon

Annie L. Muzzey 707 Thou Knowest Not Helena M. Richardson 708 Optim: A Reply George H. Westley 709 The Murdered Trees Benjamin S. Parker 709 The Hidden Flute Minna Irving 710 Retroensetta Curtis Hidden Page 710 The Editor’s Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet) 711 Idylls and Ideals of Christmas: I. What I Want for Christmas Robert G. Ingersoll 721 II. Christmas, the Human Holiday Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D. 722 III. Santa Claus: A Poem James Whitcomb Riley 726 IV. The Aryan at Christmas John Clark Ridpath 727 A Séance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces Camille Flammarion 730 The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social Democratic Idea in New England Charles S. Allen 748 Priest and People E. T. Hargrove 772 Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto John Chetwood, Jr. 788 The Founder of German Opera B. O. Flower 802 The Truly Artistic Woman Stinson Jarvis 813 Poor “Fairly Rich” People Henry E. Foster 820 Shall the United States be Europeanized? John Clark Ridpath 827 Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View Keijiro Nakamura 834 A Political Deal: A Story Eliza Frances Andrews 840 Plaza of the Poets: Glad Tidings Marion Mills Miller 849 The Yule Log Clinton Scollard 852 How to Get an Article in a Magazine The Editor 853 The Editor’s Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey and Sleep (a Sonnet) 855

 

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BOOK REVIEWS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE ARENA.

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THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER.

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I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
BY HENRY CLEWS.

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I.

The twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number 60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district, small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of the twenty-seven—among whom we find the honored names of Barclay, Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of the community—added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the destinies of the financial centre of the Union.

During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over the “divide” between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.

Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of