The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-02 00:00:00

NEW YORK SPECULATORS.

Some of the country journals are endeavouring to
explain to their readcrs the phenomena of Wall.
street, with very slender success. It is no wonder
they fail. Wall-street is a place sui generic—unlike
the Stock-Exchange of London and the Bourse of
Paris, on both of which full time operations are
unknown—and equally unlike every other money
mart in the financial world. One requires to have
been in it to understand it. It is the greatest
gambling hell in the world-..a gambling hell com-
pared to which Baden sinks into insignificance, and
Frascati pales his ineffectual fires ; for the stakes
are millions, the gamblers, the merchants, divines,
lawyers, doctors, and property-owners of the
United States, and the " croupiers " men of the
calibre of Jacob Little. Just now all is pretty quiet
in that famous place. At present railway stocks
are under a cloud. The revulsion on the one hand,
and the failure of last year's crops on the other,
have reduced railway traffic so low that very few
roads are earning their expenses. The Erie is con-
fessedly insolvent ; the Central has just published
a- report which deserves to be bound up with
" Baron Munchausen " and " Gulliver's Travels ; "

the Reading is on its last legs ; the Illinois Central
has been driven to beg for a loan of money to pay
the interest on its bonds ; the La Crosse has gone
into the hands of bondholders •, other rail-
roads throughout the North and West are daily
awaiting the foreclosure of mortgages. So, on the
whole, railroad property is in bad odour at present,
and the public take no part in the operations of
Wall-street in this class of securities. This, how-
ever, does not discourage the regular operators of
that famour gambling hell. It is estimated that
there are 300 persons in or about Wall-street who
go by the name of stockbrokers, and who make a
living by selling and buying stocks—for the public
when the public is a speculator, for themselves when
no commission business is to be had. These are
divided into bulls, or partisans of a rise in stocks,
and bears, or advocates of a fall. About half of the
whole number occupy seats at the Stock Exchange;
the other half are either fallen angels, who have
once belonged to the board and have lost their seats
by reason of insolvency, or aspiring saints, who
want to get into the -board, or decided demons,
who know that they can't get into the board and
don't try. They are sometimes known as light
artillery, and sometimes irreverently as scally-
wags. All of these, in and out of Paradise, are at
the present time trying to make a living by
speculating in stocks in the absence of commis-
sion business. Brokers as they are they require beef
and bread, cassimere and beef for themselves, silk
and hoops for their wives ; so they buy and sell to
that end with an earnestness deserving of reward.
On Monday morning 200 of them believe that New
York Central is going up, and buy on an average
100 shares a-piece. This purchase of 20,000 shares
naturally puts the price up. The moment it rises
per cent. the speculators who bought first sell out
to make their profit, and the price falls. In, then,
come the other hundred, who believe that Central
is going down ; they sell 10,000 shares, for delivery
thereafter. This, of course, knocks down the price,
which so terrifies the bulls (who bought as above,
and did not sell out at a profit) that they instantly
sell out at a loss, and dine that day on cold beef and
pickles. Presently the bears, who sold for delivery,
begin to buy. A rumour goes through the street
that Erastus Corning and Duncan, Sherman,
and Co., have agreed to buy up 25,000 shares;
everybody rushes in to buy ; Jacob is buying,
Kowlaski is buying, Groesbeck is buying, White-
house is buying, Stebbing is buying ; the light
artillery declare, with tears in their eyes, that Cen-
tral will go to par in a week ; all the bears, in fear
and trembling, cover their contracts at a loss ; and,
after a terrible flurry of a day or two, a dead calm
succeeds. Jacob offers to sell a couple of thousand
shares ; nobody wants them, and the market falls
off at least twice as much as it rose. Such, in brief,
is the history of Wall-street speculation at the pre-
sent time. Wi hen " the public" come in the case is
different. Then the street combines against the
outsiders, and fleeces them to a certainty. But
when the brokers are left to prey on each other, the
fight is such as is related above, and a hard tight it
is. It is said to be difficult to make a living by
writing books, or painting pictures, or selling dry
goods, or breaking stones ; but the worst of these
must be an opulent calling in comparison with that
of a stock speculator in January, 1859.—New York
Herald.