The Boom As It Really Is

Last summer I overheard two men talking as they were digging away in the mines and one said: "Jim, they say thar is a big bum up at Rome." "What's that?" said Jim. "Why, hit's a kind of thing whar one feller gits nothing for something." "Why, that's a faro bank or a lottery, ain't it?" said Jim. "No it ain't. I teil you its a bum - a kind of new tradin' business what swells and shrinks, and the sweller and shrinker stays down in a cellar and works the machine. They trade in stock." "Horses and mules?" said Jim. "No, hit's all on paper, and nobody can see what he's buyin'. You put your money in and wait foraswell. If it comes you are all right, but if a shrink come you are busted, and yau feel so ashamed that you don't say anything about it, and it never gets into the papers - nothins but