text:  But where the ruthless hand of his brother man has wrested those valuables from their possessor instead of inevitable death's tearing him from them--where that very owner and his family are present sadly listening to the ceaseless jokes (thoughtlessly inhuman) lavished by the auctioneer and re-echoed by the crowd over those old familiar objects--witnessing the happy excitement of rival bidders and the universal pleasure over his ruin like the cry and flocking of vultures over a battle-field witnessed by wretches still alive though mortally wounded; what can exceed the shocking transgression of human brotherhood presented by such a scene! A scene of every-day occurrence--a scene never seeming to excite even one reflection kindred to these natural surely and obvious feelings--yet one terribly recalling to the pensive observer that axiom _Homo ad hominem lupus est!_ Doubtless the fraudulent or utterly reckless debtor is in the eye of reason the first "wolfish" assailant of his brother