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the growth of American wealth, nearly all 
these securities are now held by the Americans 
themselves, so that Wall Street is now the 
chief market, and the influences affecting Wall 
Street will control the prices of American 
Railway Securities. 
Bearing these factors in mind, the above 
rule embraces all the knowledge which is 
requisite to enable anyone to invest safely 
and profitably in stocks and shares, and if it is 
closely observed, in scarcely any event can 
capital be exposed to danger. 
But the investor must clearly understand 
that the observance of any part of the rule will 
avail him nothing if he is unwise enough to 
disregard the remaining portion. The efficacy 
of the rule lies in the mutual support which 
its component parts lend to each other, and, 
finally, it is their combined sustaining power 
which preserves the equilibrium of capital. 
In the early part of this chapter we gave 
an illustration of the result produced from an 
investment in three British Trustee stocks, 
viz. ; Birmingham Corporation Stock, London 
and North Western Railway Company Deben 
ture, and Southern Mahratta Railway Company 
Guaranteed Stock. We there saw depicted a 
loss of rather more than 20 per cent, on the 
original cost within a few years from the time