... the roads and public safety made travel a danger-ous, slow, and extremely uncomfortable endeavor.At a stroke, the railroads made overland travel cheap, safe, rapid,and relatively comfortable. ... financial chaos of Paris arrived a most extraordinaryScotsman: John Law. After escaping the hangman for killing a man in a 1694 duel, he studied the banking system in Amsterdam and even-tually ... builders,and particularly real estate brokers in places like Omaha, Sacramento,and a small junction town called Chicago.“Wall Street Lays an Egg”So quipped the headline of the entertainment newspaper...