commerce in the young metropolis had become crazed.
A few actual transactions which I will cite will illus-
trate the diversities and vagaries of trade better than
any general description.
There were not lacking: men, and a largje class of them at one time on California and Pine streets in San Francisco, who were free and frolicking enough. Dunng the heig^ht of the mining: stock excitement the board of brokers boiled like a geyser cauldron. It was a queer fraternity this brotherhood of air-beating knights; surging; and screeching in their strug^gjles for commis- sions, which, when obtained, were pitched hither and thither with the reckless indifference common to all kinds of gambling. The champagne seller, the cigar seller, the jeweller, and livery-stable keeper, all came in for their share. Merrily these brokers made their money, and merrily they spent it. Most innocent were they in their broad and philanthropic egotism. In their eyes the universe revolved round their board- room ; and the man who hammered the anvil and yelled in well-recognized tones of superior discordance, was the Great and only One, the First Cause and the Last. Their creed and catechism were easy affairs. " I believe in the only one and respectable board of brokers," the former began, referring to the " big board," as disting-uished from two or three smaller boards, whose members in the eyes of the aristocratic band were vulgar parvenus, and bad society; and to every such question as " Who made you ? " and "What is the chief end of man?" the answer was "A broker," " to be a broker," and the like. Their gehenna, which though large was not a very hot one, because of their uniform kind-heartedness, was filled with that vast horde of unfortunates whom fate had denied the blessedness of being brokers; these and bad members were refused admission to the heavenly hall.
It was an exceedingly nerve-splitting occupation. The hours of business were few, but the clatt
