The reporter broke the silence by asking about “the cause of the rottenness in Wall Street.” The Commodore, “giving one of his keen glances over his spectacles and speaking deliberately,” delivered an astute impromptu lecture. I’ll tell you what’s the matter—people undertake to do about four times as much business as they can legitimately undertake.… There are a great many worthless railroads started in this country without any means to carry them through. Respectable banking houses in New York, so called, make themselves agents for sale of the bonds of the railroads in question and give a
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