Just outside of the city of Paris was located one of the largest,
most complete manufacturing plants in the world, doing an enormous
business, employing an army of skilled artisans, consuming vast
quantities of raw material and making in profits a fortune every
year.

The controlling interest was a man of large wealth, estimated at
sixty millions of francs, and of national reputation. His gallery
of paintings was famous in art circles the world over. His family
moved in the highest strata of society and in their magnificent
home entertained with regal splendor. The man was universally
respected in business, in art, and social circles.

On the board of directors of one of the great Paris banks were two
other men, almost equal in wealth and station to this manufacturer.

These three men, with a few associates of minor importance, entered
into a hare-brained scheme of speculation in our commodity, that
in the very nature of things was bound to terminate in complete
failure. When they realized this and the enormous losses which had
been entailed, in an effort to recoup they took up another commodity,
and then followed the wildest speculation, in any merchandise, that
the world had ever seen.

When the final crash came, with their own magnificent fortunes
swept away and the bank involved, the two directors found suicide's
graves, and the other man went to prison.