The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-13

Wall Street and Its Operators.
Some of the country journals are cndeavoring
to explain to their readers the phenomena of
Wall street, with very slender success. It is no
wonder they fail Wall street is place sui &C.
neris-unlike the Stock Exchange of London
and the Bourse of Paris, on both of which full
time operations are unknown-and equally I'M
like every other money mart in the financial
world. One requires to have been in it to under
stand it. It is the greatest gambling hell in the
world-a gambling hell compared to which Ba-
den sinks into insignifcance, and Frascati pales
his Intellectual fires For the stakes are millions,
the gamblers the merchants, divines, lawyers,
doctors and property owners of the United States,
and the coupias men of the calibre of Jacob
Little.
Just now all is pretty quiet in that famous
place. At present railway stocks are under
cloud. The revulsion on the one hand, and the
failure of last years crops on the other, have re-
duced railway traffic so low that very few roads
are earning their expenses. The Erie is confess
eddy insolvent; the Central has just published
report which deserves to be bound up with
.
Reading is on its last legs; the Illinois Central
has been driven to beg for loan of
money to pay the interest on its bonds;
the La Crosse has gone into the hands Of
bondholders; other railroads, throughout the
North and West, are daily awaiting the fore
closure of mortgages. So, on the whole, railroad
property is in bad odor at present, and the
public take no part in the operations of Wall
street in this class of securities. This however,
does not discourage the regular operators of that
famous gambling hell.
1t is estimated that there are three hundred
persons in or about Wall street who 60 by the
name of stock brokers, and who make living
by selling and buying stoeks--for the public
when the public is Spectator, for themselves
when no commission business is to be had. These
are divided into bulls, or partisans of rise in
stocks, and bears or advocates of 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 scallywags.
All of these--in and out of Paradise--are at
the present time trying to make living by
specializing in stocks, in the absence of commits
sion business. Brokers as they are, they require
beef and bread-cassmere and boots for them
selves, silk and hoops for their wives; so they
buy and sell to that end with an earnestness de-
serving Of reward. On Monday morning two
hundred of them believe that New York Central
is going up, and buy, on an average, hundred
shares apiece. This purchase of 10000 shares
naturally puts the price up. The moment it
rises half per cent the spectators who bought
first sell out to make their profit, and the price
falls. In, then, come the other hundred who be-
lieve that Central is going down; they sell ten
thousand shares, for delivery thereafter. This Of
course knocks down the price. which SO tcrrifes
the bulls (who bought as above and did not sell
ont at profit, that they instantly sell out at
loss and dine that day on cold beef and pickles.
Presently the bears, who sold for delivery, begin
to buy A rumor goes through the street that
Erastus Corning and Duncan, Sherman 4 Co.
have agreed To buy up twenty-five thousand
shares; everybody rushes in to buy Jacob is
buying, Kowalsh is buying, Groesbeck is buy
ing, Whitehousc is buying Stebbins is buying;
the light artillery declare, with tears in their
eyes, that Central will go to par in week: all
the bears in fear and trembling, cover their con-
tracts at loss; and after terrible furry of
l. 4 4
to sell couple Of thousand shares; nobody
wants them. aud the market falls off at least
twice as much as it rose.
Such. in brief. is the history of Wall street
speculation at The present time When "thc
public" come in, the case is different. Then the
street combines against the outsiders, and Heeces
them to certainty. But when the brokers arc
left to prey each other, the fight is such as is
related above, and hard fight it is II is said
to be difficult to make q living by writing books,
or painting pictures, or selling dry goods, or
breaking stones; hut the worst of these must be
an opulent calling in comparison with that Of u
stock speculator in January, 1859.
COLD WEATHER-THE DIsrREssEs OF ruE
PoOR.--While the comforts and convenience of
all classes in the community are materially af-
fected by the present cold weather, the severity
of the season has brought much and bitter suffer-
ings to the poor, as may be seen by the daily re-
ports in our columns of deaths from exposure |
and destitution, men and women crippled by the
frost, and pcrsbing infants, whose parents had |
not wherewith to sustain life in them. Yet we
have not heard Of any action on The part of the |
public to alleviate the distress of the needy |
One good Samaritan, touched by the condition
of the poor, has sent us the following communi
cation, with its enclosure -
10 THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.
NEW YoRK, Jan. ~, 1859
sec aud hear great deal said about the cold, and
about tho suerngs Of the poor during the present cold
Dn do not find Offering Their mite for comfort