He believed sincerely that vast fortunes were to be made out of railroads if one only had the capital and that curious thing, a magnetic personality--the ability to win the confidence of others.

He was sure that Andrew Jackson was all wrong in his opposition to Nicholas Biddle and the United States Bank, one of the great issues of the day; and he was worried, as he might well be, by the perfect storm of wildcat money which was floating about and which was constantly coming to his bank--discounted, of course, and handed out again to anxious borrowers at a profit.

His bank was the Third National of Philadelphia, located in that center of all Philadelphia and indeed, at that time, of practically all national finance--Third Street--and its owners conducted a brokerage business as a side line.

There was a perfect plague of State banks, great and small, in those days, issuing notes practically without regulation upon insecure and unknown assets and failing and suspending with astonishing rapidity; and a knowledge of all these was an important requirement of Mr.Cowperwood's position.

As a result, he had become the soul of caution.