VOObyM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
"It would look particularly well on a man of my inches," replied Bob, drawing himself
up.
"And how did you say you were going to pay for it?" asked Jim Murphy, who was the
star tip-chaser of the office.
"By a judicious investment of a temporary character, James. That's how," answered Bob,
who knew that Murphy merely wanted a tip.
Sure enough, Jimmy asked, "What stock are you going to buy?"
"Wrong as usual, friend. This is no time to buy anything. I propose to sell five thousand
Steel. It ought to go down ten points at the least. I'll just take two and a half points net.
That is conservative, isn't it?"
"What do you hear about it?" asked Murphy eagerly. He was a tall thin man with black
hair and a hungry look, due to his never going out to lunch for fear of missing something
on the tape.
"I hear that coat's the most becoming I ever planned to get." He turned to Harding and
said, "Ed, sell five thousand U. S. Steel common at the market. Today darling!"
He was a plunger, Bob was, and liked to indulge in humorous talk. It was his way of
letting the world know that he had an iron nerve. He sold five thousand Steel, and the
stock promptly went up. Not being half as big an ass as he seemed when he talked, Bob
stopped his loss at one and a half points and confided to the office that the New York
climate was too benign for fur coats. They were unhealthy and ostentatious. The rest of
the fellows jeered. But it was not long before one of them bought some Union Pacific to
pay for the coat. He lost eighteen hundred dollars and said sables were all right for the
outside of a woman's wrap, but not for the inside of a garment intended to be worn by a
modest and intelligent man.
After that, one after another of the fellows tried to coax the market to pay for that coat.
One day I said I would buy it to keep the office from going broke. But they all said that
it wasn't a sporting thing to do; that if I wanted the coat for myself I ought to let the
market give it to me. But Ed Harding strongly approved of my intention and that same
afternoon I went to the furrier's to buy it. I found out that a man from Chicago had
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