Even
the good Dominie, led away by the temptation, had invested all his
savings, and had his pockets full of Chapman's "equivalents," from which
he looked for a fortune in a very short time. Finally the innocent
settlers began to regard Chapman as a great genius, who had invented
this new way of making their fortunes out of sheer goodness. "I want to
tell you, my good friends," he would say to them, patronizingly, "you
will appreciate me better as we become better acquainted. Invest your
money, and there's a fortune for you all." And they took his word, and
invested their money, and, many of them, everything they had.
We must go back into the city now. It was a morning in early May. Knots
of men were standing on the corners of Wall and Pearl streets, each
discussing in animated tones some question of finance or trade. Men with
hurried steps and curious faces passed to and fro, threading their way
through the pressing throng, as if the nation was in peril and they were
on a mission to save it. And yet it was only an expression of that
eagerness which our people display in their haste to despatch some
object in the ordinary business routine of the day.
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