15 TO 17 BROAD STREET NEW YORK.
To My Readers:
The following pages are intended to throw some light on imperfectly known events connected with Wall Street speculations and investments, and also upon the condition and progress of the country from a financial standpoint, during the fifty years which I have experienced in the great money center.
The theme is worthy of an abler pen, but in the absence of other contributors to this branch of our National history, I venture the plain narrative of an active participator in the financial events of the time in which I have lived.
I have also made a brief retrospect of the history of Wall Street, and financial affairs connected therewith since the origin of the Stock Exchange in New York City.
In sketching the men and events of Wall Street, I have freely employed the vernacular of the speculative fraternity as being best adapted to a true picture of their characteristics, although probably not most consonant with literary propriety.
I have simply attempted to unfold a plain, unvarnished tale, drawing my material from experience and the records of reliable narrators.
HENRY CLEWS.
New York, March 31, 1908.