VOObyM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
I ought to have been on my guard at this particular time because not long before that I
had had an experience that proved how easily a man may be talked into doing something
against his judgment and even against his wishes. It happened in Harding's office. I had
a sort of private office a room that they let me occupy by myself and nobody was
supposed to get to me during market hours without my consent. I didn't wish to be
bothered and, as I was trading on a very large scale and my account was fairly
profitable, I was pretty well guarded.
One day just after the market closed I heard somebody say, "Good afternoon, Mr.
Livingston."
I turned and saw an utter stranger a chap of about thirty or thirty-five. I could not
understand how he'd got in, but there he was. I concluded his business with me had
passed him. But I didn't say anything. I just looked at him and pretty soon he said, "I
came to see you about that Walter Scott," and he was off.
He was a book agent. Now, he was not particularly pleasing of manner or skillful of
speech. Neither was he especially attractive to look at. But he certainly had personality.
He talked and I thought I listened. But I do not know what he said. I don't think I ever
knew, not even at the time. When he finished his monologue he handed me first his
fountain pen and then a blank form, which I signed. It was a contract to take a set of
Scott's works for five hundred dollars.
The moment I signed I came to. But he had the contract safe in his pocket. I did not want
the books. I had no place for them. They weren't of any use whatever to me. I had
nobody to give them to. Yet I had agreed to buy them for five hundred dollars.
I am so accustomed to losing money that I never think first of that phase of my mistakes.
It is always the play itself, the reason why. In the first place I wish to know my own
limitations and habits of thought. Another reason is that I do not wish to make the same
mistake a second time. A man can excuse his mistakes only by capitalising them to his
subsequent profit.
Well, having made a five-hundred dollar mistake but not yet having localised the
trouble, I just looked at the fellow to size him up as a first step. I'll be hanged if he didn't
actually smile at me an understanding little smile! He seemed to read my thoughts. I
somehow knew that I did not have to explain anything to him; he knew it without my
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