Wall Street (river to graveyard); Don't Sell America Short

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Wed Aug 28 00:44:46 UTC 2002


WALL STREET (RIVER TO GRAVEYARD)

   I used NEW YORK TIMES full text for the famous, unattributed quotation
collected by H. L. Mencken, that "Wall Street begins at a river and ends at a
graveyard."
   The graveyard is Trinity Church's cemetery.  This has always been Wall
Street's location, but the citations start in 1904.

   10 April 1904, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. SM1:
   JAMES B. DILL, the corporation lawyer, has a modest wasy of attributing
his own bon mots to others when first he springs them on his friends.  The
saying in point was started in this way, but there are those who recognized
characteristics too familiar to admit of success for the attempted deception.
 Said Mr. Dill:
   "A woman client of mine who has made variegated investments during the
past three years asked me if I could give her a good description of Wall
Street.  I couldn't and she said:
   "'Well, Mr. Dill, Wall Street is short and crooked.  It begins with a
graveyard and ends in the river.'"

   14 August 1904, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. F51:
   Q--Why is Wall Street the shortest road to Heaven and Hell?  A--Because it
ends in a graveyard.

   21 December 1904, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 9:
   "Then come criticisms of Wall Street, with its sick hurry and frantic
arithmetic; that it is not the straight road to success, but a narrow,
crooked street, with the river at one end, and a graveyard at the other."

   29 January 1924, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 24:
   ...sent a shiver down the Wall Street spine which extended from "the
graveyard to the river."

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DON'T SELL AMERICA SHORT

   There's far less success with this financial classic.  The first hit is a
LORD & THOMAS ADVERTISING ad in the NEW YORK TIMES, 27 August 1925, pg. 12:

"Don't Sell America Short"
   --But Morgan never meant
   one always should be "long"

SINCE the late J. Pierpont Morgan uttered his famous "Don't Sell America
Short," some twenty years or more ago, American business has multiplied and
re-multiplied in proving his prophecy sound. (...)



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