activity that they are initially reluctant
to participate in on the promise of a
sure thing. In both cases, the results are
tragic as one man takes his own life and
the other descends into madness.
4. Finally, Jadwin’s seduction by the mar-
ket and ultimate downfall reminds one
of Warren Buffett’s sage advice, “Mr.
Market is there to serve you, not to
guide you. It is his pocketbook, not his
wisdom, that you will find useful. If he
shows up some day in a particularly
foolish mood, you are free either to
ignore him, or take advantage of him,
but it will be disastrous if you fall under
his influence.”
Instantly a tumult was unchained. Arms
were flung upward in strenuous gestures,
and from above the crowding heads in
the Wheat Pit a multitude of hands, eager,
the fingers extended, leaped into the air.
All articulate expression was lost in the
single explosion of sound as the traders
surged downwards to the centre of the Pit,
grabbing each other, struggling towards
each other, tramping, stamping, charging
through with might and main. Promptly
the hand on the great dial above the
clock stirred and trembled, and as though
driven by the tempest breath of the Pit
moved upward through the degrees of
its circle. It paused, wavered, stopped at
length, and on the instant the hundreds
of telegraph keys scattered throughout
the building began clicking off the news
to the whole country, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific and from Mackinac to Mexico,
that the Chicago market had made a slight
advance and that May wheat, which had
closed the day before at ninety-three and
three-eighths, had opened that morning
at ninety-four and a half.
Brian Grinder is a professor at Eastern
Washington University and a member
of Financial History’s editorial board.
Dr. Dan Cooper is the president of Active
Learning Technologies.
Notes
1. Consider, for instance, this description
from chapter three of The Pit:
Then suddenly, cutting squarely athwart
the vague crescendo of the floor came
the single incisive stroke of a great gong.
2. Pizer notes that three of Norris’s seven
novels “…have significant and frequently
noted anti-Semitic elements.” While his
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Peculiar Jai Hind share
last novel, The Pit, “…has a few neutral
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Sources
Buffett, Warren E. “Mr. Market, Investment
Success and You,” in Charles D. Ellis and
James R. Vertin, eds., Classics II: Another
Investor’s Anthology. Homewood, IL: Busi-
ness One. 1987.
Crow, Charles L. “Bruce Porter’s Memoir of
Frank Norris.” Frank Norris Studies 3, pp.
1–2. 1987.
“Frank Norris Near to Death.” San Francisco
Chronicle, p. 8. October 23, 1902.
McElrath, Joseph R. and Jesse S. Crisler. Frank
Norris: A Life. Urbana, IL: University of
Illinois Press: 2006.
Norris, Frank. Collected Letters. San Francisco,
CA: Book Club of California. 1986.
Norris, Frank. The Pit: A Story of Chicago. New
York: Penguin. 1994.
Pizer, Donald. American Naturalism and the
Jews: Garland, Norris, Dreiser, Wharton,
and Cather. Chicago, IL: University of Illi-
nois Press. 2008.
Pottle, Emery. “To Frank Norris.” The Satur-
day Evening Post, p. 40. 1902.
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