this simple and smooth machinery, which differs in
no essential respect from the processes of roulette or rouge-et-noir, the nation flung itself into the Stock.
Exchange, until the "outsiders," as they were called,
in opposition to the regular brokers of Broad Street,
represented theentire population of the American
Republic. Everyone speculated, and for a time
successfully.

The inevitable reaction began when the govern-
ment, about a year after the close of the war, stopped
its issues and ceased borrowing. The greenback cur-
rency had for a moment sunk to a value of only 37
cents to the dollar. On the worst day of all, the
11th of July, 1864, one sale of $100,000 in gold was
actually made at 310, equivalent to about 33 cents in
the dollar. See Men and Mysteries of Wall Street, by James K. Med-
bery, pp. 250,251. At that point the depreciation stopped,
and the paper which had come so near falling into
entire discredit steadily rose in value, first to 50
cents, then to 60 and 70, until in the summer of
1869 it stood at about 73½ cents.

So soon as the industrious part of the public felt
the touch of solid values, the fabric of fictitious
wealth began to melt away under their eyes. Before
long the so-called "outsiders," the men who specu-
lated on their own account, and could not act in
agreement or combination, began to suffer. One by
one, or in masses, they were made the prey of larger
operators; their last margins were consumed, and

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