These huge buildings were like beehives, swarming with life and
activity, with scores of elevators shooting through them at
bewildering speed. Everywhere was the atmosphere of rush; the spirit
of it seized hold of one, and he began to hurry, even though he had
no place to go. The man who walked slowly and looked about him was
in the way--he was jostled here and there, and people eyed him with
suspicion and annoyance.
Elsewhere on the island men did the work of the city; here they did
the work of the world. Each room in these endless mazes of buildings
was a cell in a mighty brain; the telephone wires were nerves, and
by the whole huge organism the thinking and willing of a continent
were done. It was a noisy place to the physical ear; but to the ear
of the mind it roared with the roaring of a thousand Niagaras. Here
was the Stock Exchange, where the scales of trade were held before
the eyes of the country. Here was the clearing-house, where hundreds
of millions of dollars were exchanged every day. Here were the great
banks, the reservoirs into which the streams of the country's wealth
were poured.
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