The Boy Broker Or, Among the Kings of Wall Street   By: Frank Andrew Munsey (1854-1925)

[Illustration]

THE BOY BROKER

or

Among the Kings of Wall Street

By FRANK A MUNSEY

Illustrated

[Illustration: HERBERT RANDOLPH EMERGES FROM THE CELLAR IN WHICH HE HAS BEEN KEPT A PRISONER.]

THE BOY BROKER;

OR,

AMONG THE KINGS OF WALL STREET.

BY

FRANK A. MUNSEY.

NEW YORK: FRANK A. MUNSEY & CO., PUBLISHERS, 81 WARREN STREET. 1888.

COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY FRANK A. MUNSEY.

[ All rights reserved. ]

PRESS OF FERRIS BROTHERS. 420 Pearl Street, N. Y.

TO MY DEAR FATHER, WHOSE RIGID NEW ENGLAND DISCIPLINE SEEMED TO ME AS A BOY SEVERE AND UNNECESSARY, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED WITH THE GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT HE WAS RIGHT AND THAT I WAS WRONG. FOR THIS TRAINING AND FOR ALL ELSE I OWE HIM I CAN PAY THE DEBT BEST BY LIVING THE LIFE THAT WILL PLEASE HIM MOST.

PREFACE.

The best story for boys is the one that will help them most and give them the greatest pleasure the story that will make them more manly, more self reliant, more generous, more noble and sweeter in disposition. Such a story I have aimed to make THE BOY BROKER. The moral or lesson it contains could be put into a very short lecture, but as a lecture I am confident that it would prove valueless. Boys are benefited little by advice. They seldom listen to it and less frequently make any practical application of it. Imitative by nature, they are easily influenced by those with whom they associate, and no associate, in my opinion, has so strong a grasp upon them as the hero of some much prized book. He becomes a real being to their young, healthy imagination their ideal of manliness, bravery, generosity, and nobility. He enters into their lives, their sports, their adventures, their kind acts, a companion, a model so much idealized and admired that unconsciously they grow to be like him in so far as their surroundings will permit. In a good story plot and action are but the setting to the gem the means of conveying a lesson in disguise in such a way that the reader will not suspect he is being taught. Let it once occur to him that he is reading a lecture and the book will at once be quietly but most effectually packed away. Many authors, it seems to me, fail in their purpose by devoting too much time to the gem and too little to the setting. Others go too far the other way and write stories that give young readers a wrong idea of life stories whose heroes do improbable and unnatural acts. While my purpose has been to make THE BOY BROKER interesting I have aimed to give a true idea of life in a great city. So much nonsense of a misleading character has been written about benevolent old gentlemen who help poor boys from the country that I have sought to turn the light of fact on the subject and picture a little real life about such life as a boy may expect to find if he comes to New York friendless and alone. He might find it much worse; he could not wisely hope to find it better.

FRANK A. MUNSEY. NEW YORK, September, 1888 .

CONTENTS

PAGE I An Introduction to the Great City 11 II An Effort to Obtain Employment 20 III An Evening with Bob Hunter 26 IV At Mr. Goldwin's Office 34 V The Contest Between Herbert and Felix 41 VI A Ray of Sunshine 50 VII Bob Hunter Thoroughly Aroused 57 VIII Felix Mortimer at the Bank 65 IX Bob Assumes a Disguise 75 X Something About Herbert Randolph 83 XI Imprisoned at the Fence 87 XII Bob's Brilliant Move 94 XIII A Terrible Fear 102 XIV Bob Outwits the Old Fence 108 XV Bob and Herbert Meet 113 XVI The Old Fence in a Trap 120 XVII Bob Goes for an Officer 126 XVIII Tom Flannery is Hungry 133 XIX The Rivals at the Bank 138 XX Felix Mortimer Discomfited 142 XXI Two Young Capitalists 154 XXII The Great Banquet 161 XXIII Bob Hunter's Ambition 178 XXIV A Visit to the Banker's House 182 XXV Tom Flannery's Sickness 191 XXVI A Crash in Wall Street 196 XXVII Dark Days 201 XXVIII In Business for Himself 210 XXIX Tom Flannery's Funeral 218 XXX In a New Home 224 XXXI The Boy Broker 228 XXXII The Conspirators' Fate 233 XXXIII A Glimpse at the Future 236