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German general, against Christian IV, who was obliged to accept terms of peace in 1629, though Wallenstein had failed in his plan of reaching the sea and destroying the naval power of Scandinavia and of England. He secured for himself the duchy of Mecklenburg. His success, ambition and arrogance made the princes of the kingdom combine against him, and to prevent civil war the emperor in September, 1630, removed him from the head of the army; but with the advance of Gustavus Adolphus he was recalled, and in 1632 with an army of 40,000 men he drove the Saxons from Bohemia and attacked the Swedish army at Nuremberg and Lützen, where, though Wallenstein's forces were defeated Gustavus Adolphus was killed. Wallenstein failed to follow up the advantage this gave the Austrians, as he was secretly negotiating with Saxony, Sweden and France, with the condition that he should be given Bohemia. He had blind confidence in his army and in his destiny, as foretold to him by his astrologers, and did not realize his danger, though knowing that the emperor knew of his plans, until an order was issued at Prague, charging him with treason, and naming his successor. He fled with 1,000 followers to Eger, where he was assassinated on Feb. 25, 1634. Though the deed was not ordered by the emperor, the murderers were rewarded. Schiller made his career the subject of a tragedy, translated by Coleridge as Wallenstein's Death. Consult Life by Mitchell; The Thirty Years' War by Schiller; and The House of Austria by Cox.
Walloons (wŏl-lo͞onz′), the name of the people living in southeastern Belgium, who differ from the rest of the Belgians by language and by their darker color. They are descendants of the Belgæ, a tribe of Gauls, who held their ground among the Ardennes Mountains when the rest of Gaul was overrun by German conquerors. Their language is a French dialect, with a large proportion of Gallic words. The name Walloon, that is, foreign, was given them by their Flemish neighbors. They are steadily increasing in numbers, and are likely soon to overbalance the Flemish population of Belgium, as they already take the lead in everything except music and painting. They number about two and one half millions.
Wall Street. A street in New York City extending from Broadway to East River following the line of the early city-wall across Manhattan Island. It at present is the center of financial operations in the United States. The term Wall Street is commonly used to designate the community of financial interests located there, including among others the stock exchange; produce, cotton, coffee and consolidated exchange, the United States subtreasury, assay office and custom house, the New York clearing house, a multitude of national and state banks, trust companies, private banking firms, import and export houses, dealers in commercial paper and promoters, representatives of railroad and industrial corporations and vast private estates; the curb market and hundreds of corporation lawyers and others who have close relations with security markets. There railroad and industrial corporations are organized and financed, stock and bond securities of all kinds find their level of value, money is transferred from one part of the world to another by foreign exchange bills; and fortunes are won and lost in stock speculations. Wall Street is a true barometer of the country's financial condition, reflecting depression and prosperity, if only one make due allowance for speculative flurries.
The stock exchange is the center of Wall Street. It is an unincorporated, voluntary association, with a membership of 1,100. The price of membership fluctuates. Nine thousand dollars was considered a very high price in 1879; but on two occasions (December, 1905, and August, 1906) a seat on the exchange has brought $95,000, the highest price yet paid.
Five hundred firms, besides individual brokers, transact the business of the exchange, buying and selling stock for themselves and for others. All transactions are completed through the stock-exchange's clearing-house, which receives and delivers bonds and stock certificates from 10 A.M. to 2:15 P.M. By this arrangement a broker can close up his day's business just as if it had all been transacted with one man. The arbitrage trade whereby the rate for exchange drafts is determined is carried on here between New York and such cities as London, Paris, Boston and Chicago. The banks do an enormous business in loaning money on sight and for short periods. There are 500 telephones on the floor of the exchange, each in charge of a boy who receives the orders of his office and transmits them to the floor-broker for execution.
Offices on Wall Street connect by private wire with all important cities east of Denver. A private wire from New York to Chicago costs $12,000 annually, but about 25 such wires are leased by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company between Wall Street and Chicago, 50 to Boston and 30 to Philadelphia. It is estimated that 300 representative commission-houses pay expense bills that aggregate $15,000,000 per year. Each concern employs from five to sixty men. The Consolidated Exchange, called "the Little Board," is a body of speculators who deal in small jobs by slyly getting the quotations from the Stock Exchange. They deal in ten-share lots instead of one-hundred. It is safe to say, though no official record has been kept, that the
