The Pit

okery Building, and turning southward, took his way toward the brokerage and commission office of G

cessant tide of coming and going. All the life of the neighbourhood seemed to centre at this point-the entrance of the Board of Trade. Two currents that trended swiftly through La Salle and Jackson streets, and that fed, or were fed by, other tributaries that poured in through Fifth Avenue and through Clarke and Dearborn streets, met at this point-one setting in, the other out. The nearer the currents the greater their speed. Men-mere flotsam in the flood-as they turned into La Salle Street from Adams or from Monroe, or even from as far as Madison, see

streets within its grip, alternately drawing it in and throwing it forth. Within there, a great whirlpool, a pit of roaring waters spun and thundered, sucking in the life tides of the city, sucking th

at to embark upon it, yielding to the influence, was a pleasure that seemed all devoid of risk. But the circumference was not bounded by the city. All through the Northwest, all through the central world of the Wheat the set and whirl of that innermost Pit made itself felt; and it spread and spread and spread til

ished hills, trembled and vibrated. Because of an unexpected caprice in the swirling of the inner current, some far-distant channel suddenly dried, and the pinch of famine made itself felt among the vine dressers of Northern I

urisher of the Nations, as it rolled gigantic and majestic in a vast flood from West to East, here, like a Niagara, finding its flow impeded, burst suddenly into the appalling fury of the Maelstrom, into the chaotic s

roker's office on the lower floor of the Board of Trade Building, he noted the ebb and flow that issued from its doors, and remembered t

hat Charlie says," he said to him

ely important. It discouraged the growth of a clientele of country customers, of small adventurers, knowing well that these were the first to go in a crash, unable to meet margin calls, and leaving to their brokers the responsibility of their disastrous trades. The large, powerful Bears were its friends, the Bears strong of grip, tenacious of jaw, capable of pulling down the strongest B

econd story, entered the corridor beyond, and thence gained the customers' room of Gretry, Converse & Co. All the more important brokerage firms had offices on the ground floor of the building, offices that had t

s' room, Jadwin paus

ithout globes, would have been dark. All one wall opposite the door was taken up by a great blackboard covered with chalked figures in columns, and illuminated by a row of overhead gas jets burning under a tin reflector. Before this b

his buzzed and ticked, the young man chalked up cabalistic, and almost illegible figures under columns headed by initials of certain stocks and bonds, or by the words "Pork," "Oats," or, larger than all the others, "May

his handkerchief over his knee, adjusted his spectacles, and opening a newspaper two days old, began to read with peering deliberation, his lips forming each word. These nondescripts gathered there, they knew not why. Every day found them in the same place, always with th

-stained at the shoulders, seemed familiar to Jadwin. It recalled some ancient association, he could not say what. But he was unable to see th

ling at 94, went away, glad to be out o

a quill tooth-pick behind his ear, a Grand Army button in his lapel. He and Jadwin were intimates. The two had come to Chicago almost simultaneously, and had risen together to become the wealthy men they were at the moment. They belonged to the same

ut me in mind of Hargus. You remember that deal of his, the one he tried to swing before he di

chicanery on the part of his associate before another year. He had run wheat up to nearly two dollars, had been in his day a king all-powerful. Since then all deals had been spoken of in terms of the Hargus affair. Speculators said

he'd be surprised at the difference in the way we do business these days. Twen

red the broker. "He's not dead. Old fellow in a st

imed Jadwin.

und every day. The clerks give

d, broken-whew! I don't want to think of it, Sam!" An

d the broker grimly

nce. Then at last Gre

what I want to

e quiet. I don't mind telling you this much-that he's not the least important member of the United States Legation. Well, now and then he is supposed to send me what the reporters call "exclusive news"-that's what I feed

despatch from h

ne month,' which means," he added, "this. I've just deciphered

foreign grains certain to be introduced in

e slip back. "Won't forget it?" He twisted the paper in

just the two of us, J., and I think we can

l. A man gets into this game, and into it, and into it, and before you know he can't pull out-and he don't want to. Next he gets his nose scratched, and he hits back to make up for it, and

as good as got the money in his vest pocket already. Oh, nonsense, of course you'll come in. I've been laying for that Bull gang since long before the Helmick failure, and now I've got it right where I want it. Look here, J., you aren't the man to throw money away. You'd buy a business block if you k

't so much the money as the fun of playing the game. With half a show, I would get in a little more and a little more, till by and by I'd try to throw a big

million bushels for you. Yes, I know it's a bigger order than I've handled for you before. But this time I want to go right into it, head down and heels up, and get a twist on those Porteous buckoes, and raise 'em right out of their boots. We get a crop r

r, this intuition came to him, this flair, this intangible, vague premonition, this presentiment that he must seize Opportunity or else Fortune, that so long had stayed at his elbow, would desert him. In the air about him he seemed to fee

int in our favor. We'll be able to sell on a strong market. The Pit traders have got some crazy war rumour going, and they're as flighty over it as a young ladies' seminary over a great big rat. And even without that, the market is top-heavy. Porteous makes me weary. He and his gang have been bucking it up till we've got an abnormal price. Ninety-four for May wheat! W

m," he said, "I'll

nly-the gambling instinct that a lifetime passe

ord you'll stay by it. Heads you come in; t

-dollar on his thumb-nail, he was all at once absolutely assured that it would fall heads. He flipped it in the air, and even

of course the

he said, "I

illion b

. How much in marg

moment on the bac

dollars," he ann

orner of the broker's desk, a

the bit of paper. "Good-bye. I ne'

did not

look upon a hatful of the

d of Trade about nine o'clock. He had just come out of the office of Gretry, Converse & Co.,

e end of the corridor, Semple and a young Jew named Hirsch,

rt, what do

econd apple, and the three stood there a moment, near the foot of the st

spent most of his time in Constantinople; had some kind of newspaper business there. It seems that it's a pretty crazy proposition, Turkey and the Sultan and all that. He said that there was nearly a row over the 'Higgins-Pasha' incident, and that th

now," sa

s he knows now where all the y

that about the Higgins-Pasha busine

ooked at his watch. "I guess it's about t

aders who, in steadily increasing numbers, had begun to move in th

hat box of ci

s-Pasha affair? You remember that row between England and Turkey. They tell me the

felt it, though. Guess there's nothing to it. But there's Kelly yon

I got to go on the floor. It

lly in the centre of a gr

England and Turkey over the Higgins-Pasha incident, and that the British Foreign Off

Kelly. "But I'll find ou

d turning to the right, passed through a great doorwa

s, and beyond these, in the northwest angle of the floor, a great railed-in space where the Western Union Telegraph was installed. To the right, on the other side of the room, a row of ta

he right the corn pit, while further on at the north extremity of the floor, and nearly under the visitors' gall

dial a marking hand that indicated the current price of wheat, fluctuating with the changes made in t

l. Then, hatless, his hands in his pockets, he leisurely crossed the floor, and sat down in one of the chairs that were ranged in files upon the floor in front of the telegraph enclosure. He scrutinised aga

elf awoke within him a very different Landry Court; a whole new set of nerves came into being with the tap of the nine-thirty gong, a whole new system of brain machinery began to move with the first figure called in the Pit. And from that instant until the close of the session, no floor trader, no broker's clerk nor scalper was more alert, more shrewd, or kept his head more sur

r hats and ulsters upon the pegs in the wall back of them, and in linen coats, or in their shirt-sleeves, went to their seats, or, sitting upon their tables, called back and forth to each other, j

ders in increasing groups. The noise of footsteps began to echo from the high vaul

d on the steps of the latter, their arms crossed upon their knees, two men

who was associated with Landry in executing the orders of the Gretry-Converse hou

t this trouble betwee

ny joined the two. This was a young fellow named Rusbridge, lean,

re's something in that, t

u hear it?" d

"Hirsch seemed to know all about it. It appears that there's t

seen him 'round here this morning, or you might telephone the Assoc

and special service and subscriptions to news agencies, and you get the first smell of news like this right here on the floor. Remember that time when the Northwestern millers sold a hundred and fifty thous

ident, I'll bet," observed R

t this morning," returned La

re. There's no smoke without some fire. And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if

who had it from a friend who had just received a despatch from some one "in the know," that the British Secretary of State for

stern question," "Higgins-Pasha incident." It was the rumour of the day, and before very long the pit traders began to receive a multitude of despatches countermanding selling orde

er boys ran back and forth at top speed, dodging in and out among the knots of clerks and traders, colliding with one another, and without interruption intoning the names of those f

gularly upon the Board every morning-making his way towards one of the windows in the front of the building. His pocket was full of wheat, taken from a bag on one of the sample tables. Opening the window, he scattered the grain upon t

order to buy or sell a million bushels on the spot. And others, and still others, veterans of sixty-five, recruits just out of their teens, men who-some of them-in the past had for a moment dominated the entire Pit, but who now were content to play the part of "eighth-chasers," buying and selling on the same day, content with a profit of ten dollars. Others who might at that very moment be nursing plans which in a week's time would make them millionaires; still others who, under a mask of nonchalance, strove to hide the chagrin of yesterday's defeat. And they were there, ready, inordinately alert, ears turned to the faintest sound, eyes searching for the vaguest trace of meaning in those of their rivals, nervous, keyed to the hi

s running, their hands full of yellow envelopes. From the telephone alcoves came the prolonged, musical rasp of the call bells. In the Western Union booths the keys of the multitude of instruments raged incessantly. Bare-headed young men hurried up to one another, conferred an instant

s rose into the troubled air, and mingled overhead to form a vast note, prolonged, sustained, that reverberated from vault to vault of the airy roof, and issued from every doorway, every opened window in one lon

ghth," while Kelly and Semple had almost simult

the first quotations, one eye upon the clock at the end o

sound as the traders surged downwards to the centre of the Pit, grabbing each other, struggling towards each other, tramping, stamping, charging through with might and main. Promptly the hand on the great dial above the clock stirred and trembled, and as though driven by the tempest breath of the Pit moved upward through the degrees of its circle. It paused, wavered, stopped at leng

r heads when the Pit offered ninety-four for parts of their holdings. The price held firm. Goodlock even began to offer ninety-four. At every susp

e May at ninety-f

f "contracts," or lots of five thousand bushels, which h

s-Teller and West, Burbank & Co., Mattieson and Knight-received their share. The movement was inexplicable, puzzling. With

He kept his eye on Leaycraft, certain that he would force up the figure. But, as it happened, it was not Leaycraft but the Porteous trio who made the advanc

n eighth

ers sprang towards him with outstretched arms. Landry, however, was before th

d, s

own the transaction the hand on the di

is plans. He would sell another fifty thousand bushels if the price went to ninety-four and a half, and would then "feel" the market, letting go small lots here and there, to test its strength, then, the instant he felt the market strong enough, throw a full hundred thousand upon it

trio and Leaycraft kept the price steady at ninety-four and an eighth, but showed no inclination to force it

land declare war on Turkey! Where was the joke? Who was the damn fool to have started that old, worn-out war scare? But, for all that, there was no reaction from the advance. It seemed to be understood that either Leaycraft or the Porteous crowd stood

ith the hot-eyed excitement of the few moments after the opening invaded the remaining groups. Leaycraft, the formidable, as well as Paterson of the Porteous gang, and even the solemn Winston, found an apparently inexhaustible diversion in folding their telegrams into

of the telephone room. Panting, he flung himself up the steps of the Pit, forced

m into the centre of the Pit. The others caught up the cry, a score of hands pushed the newcomer from man to man. The Pit trade

mistaking the commotion for a flurry, ran into t

e May at ninety-f

, readjusted his battered ha

bed," prote

who struck B

ook out for him, he's go

ly tied scarfs of the unwary out of place. Grossman, indignant at "t'ose monkey-doodle pizeness," withdrew from the centre of the Pit. But while he stood in front of Leaycraft, his back turned, muttering his disgust,

ould reasonably expect that morning, and so began to "work off" his selling orders

ts and vociferations, jumped to ninety-four and a quarter, and before the Pit could take bre

though it had not yet been posted, this sudden flurry was a

ly was so ample, so all-sufficient to meet the demand. Promptly the Pit responded. Wheat began to pour in heavily. Hirsch, Kelly, Grossmann, Leaycraft, the stolid Winst

o dispose of. There was no telling now how low the price might sink. He must act quickly, radically. He fought his way towards the Porteous c

y May at se

s unaccountable selling o

r shook

May at thre

ery air around him. He could almost physically feel the pressure of renewed avalanc

y May at fi

the other, as though

ardly before the ticker in Gretry's office had signalled the decline, the memorandum of the trade was down upon Landry's card and Curtis Jadwin stood pledge

e by one idea, still stood in his accustomed place on the upper edge of the Pit, and from time to time, with the

one another's faces, waiting for what they could not exactly say; loath to le

abruptly stilled. Here and there a bid was called, an offer made, like t

e May at o

nty at one

e-eighth

of the floor officers, an old fellow in uniform and vizored cap, appeared, gently shouldering towards the door the groups

t your lunch. Lunch time now. Go on now

the south entrance to the floor, a throng of brokers and traders jostled each other, reaching over one another's shoulders for hats and ulste

and as the clamour of the place lapsed away the telegraph instruments began to m

peel, with torn newspapers, odds and ends of memoranda, crushed paper darts, and above all with a countless multitude of yellow telegraph forms, thousands upon thousands, crumpled and muddied under the trampling of innumera

perators departed, calling back and forth to one another, making "dates," and cracking jokes. Washerwomen appeared

the trades of the day into a "ring"-to trace the course of a lot of wheat which had changed hands perhaps a score of times during the trading-and their calls of "Wheat sold to Teller an

riendliness, and as one after another of the departing traders spoke to her, raised her tail in the air and arched her back against the legs of the empty chairs. The janitor put in an appearance

broken only by the harsh rasp of the carpenters' saws and the voice of the janitor exchanging jo

them. Over by the sample tables a negro porter in shirt-sleeves swept entir

he indicator stood-sentinel fashion-at ninety-three. Not till the following morning would the whir

s in long parallel shafts full of floating golden motes. There was no sound; nothing stirred. The floor of the Board of Trade was deserted. Alone, on the edge of the abandoned Wheat Pit, in a spot where the sunlight