CHAPTER XI.


WALL STREET.

If you pass down Broadway to the main entrance to Trinity Church, and
then turn abruptly to your left and cross the street, you will find
yourself at the head of Wall street, the great financial centre of
America. It is a narrow street, extending from Broadway to East river,
and lined with handsome brown stone, marble, and granite buildings.
Scarcely a house has less than a score of offices within its walls, and
some have very near three times that number. Space is very valuable in
Wall street, and some of the leading firms in it have to content
themselves with a narrow, small, dark hole, which a conscientious man
would hardly call an office. The rent demanded for these "offices" is
enormous, and the buildings bring their owners princely fortunes every
year. The houses are all covered with signs, the names on which one
will immediately recognize as famous in the financial world. The
streets running into Wall street, for the distance of one or two
blocks, on the right hand and the left, are also occupied with the
offices of bankers and brokers, and are included in the general term,
"Wall street," or "the street."


ITS HISTORY.

Wall street has always been famous in the history of New York. It was
originally used as a sheep pasture. Its natural condition being partly
rolling upland and partly meadow of a swampy character. The name of the