So
obviously dramatic is this incident that it has become sadly hackneyed.
Again, we have bankruptcy following upon a course of gambling, generally
in stocks. Here there is evident opportunity, which has been frequently
utilized, for a series of crises of somewhat violent and commonplace
emotion. In American drama especially, the duels of Wall Street, the
combats of bull and bear, form a very popular theme, which clearly falls
under the Brunetiere formula. Few American dramatists can resist the
temptation of showing some masterful financier feverishly watching the
"ticker" which proclaims him a millionaire or a beggar. The "ticker" had
not been invented in the days when Ibsen wrote _The League of Youth_,
otherwise he would doubtless have made use of it in the fourth act of
that play. The most popular of all Bjoernson's plays is specifically
entitled _A Bankruptcy_. Here the poet has had the art to select a
typical phase of business life, which naturally presents itself in the
form of an ascending curve, so to speak, of emotional crises.
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