he sold it at and thus make a profit of the difference between the two prices.

"Gambling on prices is betting on the rise and fall in market prices by means of pretended purchases and sales or pretended employment as a broker or commission merchant to make pretended purchases and sales. In other words, it is using the forms of buying or selling, or the forms of employment to buy and sell, where no real buying or selling or real employment is contemplated, the parties agreeing to settle with each other by the mere payment of differences of the prices of pretended purchases and pretended sales.

"Thus it appears that in speculation and in gambling on prices the result depends upon an uncertain future event. The difference is that, in one the parties are engaged in legitimate business beneficial to both of them, while, in the other they are engaged in an idle and useless occupation beneficial only to the party winning and, when carried to excess, injurious to society."

The Practice of Short Selling Sometimes Abused.-That the practice of "short selling," though ordinarily legitimate, is sometimes perverted so as to work an injury to the public is shown by the following extract from a message of Governor Sulzer of New York, sent to the Legislature of that State in January, 1913:

"The subject of so-called 'short sales' is one requiring your serious consideration. A contract to sell property which a man does not own at the time, but with which he can provide himself in time for the performance of his contract, is a general transaction in various branches of business.

"The best views seem to be that short selling in and of itself is not wrongful, but the abuse of this practice works injury to the public.

"Your efforts should therefore be to draw a distinction, so that what will be condemned is the perversion of a legitimate form of business to improper ends."

Exchange is that system of transactions by which debts and credits of persons residing in different places are settled without the actual transference of the money.

This is effected by what are known as Bills of Exchange (which see): Thus A in London is creditor to B in New York to the amount of $5,000; C in London is debtor to D in New York in a like sum. By the operation of the Bill of Exchange the London creditor is paid by the London debtor, and the New York creditor is paid by the New York debtor. This is the principle of Bills of Exchange, and its great convenience is the foundation of exchange itself.

The Course or Rate of Exchange.-That variation above and below par, which is called the course of exchange, results from the same causes that act upon the prices of commodities of every other kind. If bills upon New York be scarce, that is, if New York is but little indebted to London, the London creditor, who wants bills on New York to remit to that city, is obliged to purchase them at a premium; then the course of exchange is above par. If, on the other hand, London owes less to New York than New York owes to London, New York bills will be proportionably plenty, and the exchange with that city necessarily below par. Hence, it is a maxim that, when the course or rate of exchange rises above par, the balance of trade runs against the country whence it rises. When two countries trade together, and each buys of the other exactly to the amount that it sells, their claims will balance each other, if the Exchange be at par. This, however, is of rare occurrence, inasmuch as there must always be a balance owing to the one side or the other. The course of exchange, or the rate at which bills of exchange may be obtained, is affected by variations which may be either real or nominal. They are real when they grow out of circumstances affecting trade; nominal when they arise from any discrepancy in the actual weight or fineness of the coin, from the use of paper currency, etc.

Transactions in foreign exchange are usually conducted by persons known as exchange brokers, who are acquainted with different merchants in various cities at home and abroad. Exchange transactions between different parts of the same country are generally conducted by bankers.

Punctuation is the use of marks in writing or printing, for indicating the grammatical divisions of sentences.

Some idea of the importance of knowing how to properly punctuate may be gathered from the following:

It seems that some years ago, when the United States, by Congress, was making a tariff bill, one of the sections enumerated what articles should be admitted free of duty. Among the articles specified were "all foreign fruit plants," etc., meaning plants imported for transplanting, propagation or experiment.

The enrolling clerk, in copying the bill, inserted a comma, accidentally, making it read, "All foreign fruit, plants," etc. As a result of this simple mistake, for a year, or until Congress could remedy the blunder, all the oranges, lemons, bananas, grapes and other foreign fruits were admitted free of duty. This little mistake, which any one would be liable to make, yet could have avoided by carefulness, cost the government not less than $2,000,000. A pretty costly comma, that.

1. The Comma (,) denotes a slight pause and divides a sentence into its component parts. It must be used in sentences which would otherwise be misunderstood.

2. The Colon (:) is placed between the chief divisions of a sentence when these are but slightly connected and they are them.

1

selves divided by some other marks, and is also placed between clauses when the connection is so slight that any one of them might be a distinct sentence.

3. The Semi-colon (;) indicates a shorter pause than the colon and also divides compound sentences. When a clause especially explains the meaning of some other expression, it is separated from that expression by a semi-colon, and one is used to divide a sentence into sections when the parts are not independent of each other, enough to require a colon.

4. The Period (.) denotes the close of a sentence. It is placed after every declarative or imperative sentence.

All abbreviations and initial letters standing alone are fol lowed by a period; used also to separate whole numbers from decimals and after the enumeration of letters or figures.

5. The Interrogation Point (?) is used after every sentence or part of a sentence containing a question.

6. The Exclamation Point (!) is used to denote wonder, surprise, or astonishment.

7. The Dash (-) indicates a sudden change in the subject. One is usually placed before the answer to a question when they both belong to the same line. Often used instead of the parenthesis marks.

8. Quotation Marks ("") indicate the words of an author or speaker quoted. Every quoted passage should be enclosed in quotation marks. Quotations consisting of more than one paragraph have the first quotation mark at the beginning of each paragraph, but the second is used only at the close of the last paragraph.

When one quotation includes another, the latter is enclosed by only one of each of the first and last marks, (' ').

9. The Parenthesis () is used to enclose an explanatory remark, which might be omitted without injuring the grammatical construction of the sentence.

10. The Hyphen (-) is used to connect the syllables or parts of a compound word, and to connect a word broken at the end of a line, when the remainder follows on the next line.

11. The Caret (^) denotes that some word or letter has been omitted by mistake; as,

18 Brackets [] are used chiefly to give an explanation, or te

supply an omission; as, Yours [the United States] is a great country.

13. The Apostrophe (') placed between letters and above them in a word denotes a contraction; also used before or after the letters to denote the possessive case; as, O'er, John's book, James' house.

14. The Stars (***) or N. B. are used to invite special atten tion.

15. The Brace {

connects several words with one common form.

16. The Paragraph (¶) begins a new subject.

17. The Section (§) is used to subdivide chapters.

18. The Asterisk (*), Parallels (|), Dagger (†), Double Dagger (+) are used as reference marks.

19. The Commercial A (@) used in market quotations, means "at" or "to."

20. The Sign "" means per, and “b” means pound.

21. The Ellipsis (***) or (

ters or words.

-) denotes the omission of let

22. The Index () points to something of special impor

tance.

23. Underscore (— —) is a line or lines drawn under words in writing that is intended for printing. One line denotes italics two lines, small capitals, and three lines, large capitals.

SPELLING

Very few rules for spelling can be given to which ́exceptions are not so numerous as to render the rule of little value, but the following are a few of the more general:

Words ending in e drop that letter before the termination able, as in move, movable; unless ending in ce or ge, when it is retained, as in change, changeable, etc.

Words of one syllable, ending in a consonant, with a single vowel before it, double that consonant in derivatives; as ship, shipping, etc. But if ending in a consonant with a double vowel before it, they do not double the consonant in derivatives, as troop, trooper, etc.

Words of more than one syllable, ending in a consonant pre ceded by a single vowel, and accented on the last syllable, double that consonant in derivatives, as commit, committed, but except chagrin, chagrined.