These unhappy
people had no means of knowing that financial institutions, which
were perfectly sound and able to pay their depositors, might be
wrecked deliberately in a gamblers' game. When they heard that banks
were tottering, and were being besieged for money, they concluded
that there must be real danger--that the long-predicted crash must
be at hand. They descended upon Wall Street in hordes--the whole
financial district was packed with terrified crowds, and squads of
policemen rode through upon horseback in order to keep open the
streets.
"Somebody asked for a dollar," was the way one banker phrased it.
Wall Street had been doing business with pieces of paper; and now
someone asked for a dollar, and it was discovered that the dollar
had been mislaid.
It was an experience for which the captains of finance were not
entirely prepared; they had forgotten the public. It was like some
great convulsion of nature, which made mockery of all the powers of
men, and left the beholder dazed and terrified. In Wall Street men
stood as if in a valley, and saw far up above them the starting of
an avalanche; they stood fascinated with horror, and watched it
gathering headway; saw the clouds of dust rising up, and heard the
roar of it swelling, and realised that it was a matter of only a
second or two before it would be upon them and sweep them to
destruction.
Pages:
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320