BEGINNING OF THE BOOM.
As a consequence, however, of this improvement in the general international situation, international trade began also to improve and many industrial concerns began to enjoy greater prosperity; This, in its turn, occasioned an advance in market values of industrial securities here and in Wall Street, and by one of those curious psychological developments, as mysterious in the work) of finance as in that of fashion, American investors began to Win their attention from pure investment in income-yielding stocks to acquiring the more speculative shares_ calculated to appreciate in capital value. This tendency was quickly stimulated by astonishing profit statements on the part of a few big industrial concerns and the- declaration of enormous share bonuses, and it was not- long before financial interest in America had entirely centred in Stock Exchange speculation with little further care for the acquirement of foreign investments. , _