Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1864-06-15
THE GAMBLERS CARNIVAL
AN HOUR AMONG THE BULLS AND BEARS on
CHANGE-HOW THE THING IS DONE.
[From the Round Table. ]

From the Round Tablet
one pleasant Saturday afternoon hap
pened to be in WiIliam-street, near Ex-
change Place. There was tremendous
crowd there and every body seemed great
ly excited. Large numbers of elegantly
dressed young gentlemen conversed fe-
verishly on the curbstone, and semi-res-
pootable looking old persons of the kind
indelieately denomihated buffers, but
ton-holed each other with efusion in the
middle of the street. Small boys with
portfolios and cash-boxes aud check
books darted hither and thither. Seedy
men, with nothing in their pockets save
their hands, stood about listening to the
talk Of others with an eves-dropping air
The atmosphere was charged with mag
netic equality quite new to me, and I was
fOrcibly impressed with sense that some
thing had happened
1t was therefore a relief for me to see
my friend D. G. in the crowd. He used
to dc business IN that region some years
ago, and knows all 3atB,ojat it; 50 I asked
him what was the matter.
There's been a panic, said he, 'and
the street hasn't got over it yet Stocks
have been Knocked higher than a burnt
boOtp
This eccentric statement explained to
me the crowd, the feyerish conversation,
the magnetism of the atmosphere Men
who had been rich at breakfast time are
penniless now. Men who had been pen
niless are Suddenly rich. The Juggur-
naut wheel of fortune had made a grand
revolution. and many lame ducks were
crawling from beneath its inexorable
tire.
Are you going into the outside bOard?
asked D. G.
As was an outsider, I thought this
must be my proper place whence to seek
what stock market is.
1 should ike SO to DO, I said.
You can't get ii without some indor-
soment or authority said D. c.; but 1
guess can get you an admission
asked him to do so, and he did. He
procured a slip Of paper whereon was
written date, and request to admit
the bearer and oblige'-a tolerably well
known firm. D. G. told me that the man
who gave him this pass asked, a moment
after, if that check for one hundred
thousand dollars had been given. out
yet The boy appealed to answered,
No, bit that the note for sixty thousand
dollars had Just come in
I, who do not believe in such sums
generally, fancied the conversation to be
improvised for the-purPose of conveying
an air Of responsibility On the part of the
firm, to my friend. Possibly these peO-
pie wanted to borrow dollar from him.
subsequently learned that this firm does
business involving millions.
Very few people know what is going
on in the stock market region every day.
I, for one, had rot imagined anything
like it. 1 had fanciod that there we're
excited groups on Wall-street, but was
wrong. William-street is the centre OF
financial delusiOns, and the outside
board, as it is called, in contradisdnction
to the regular board, is the very Babel
and pandemonium Of finance.
= At three o'clock N, or thereabout,
entered tie room where this pandemoni-
um is daily held, The doorkeeper took
my pass and serutinized it.
That is good, isn't if?' 1 asked limo
+ Gently. He laughed and turned to the
next conner. The signature of a firm
worth millions is rarely questioned in
S William-etreet.
The room was large, dusky, dirty, and
crowded Plain wooden seats were ar
+ ranged in a precisely like the
benches Of Il concert saloon-around a
d place like pulpit In this stood an old
: gentleman, with grey hair and whiskers
holding in one hand pOnderous- nallet
of rosewood, and in the other bass drum
stick Behind him hung a small gong
and beside him sat a strange looking
5 skeleton like young man, with long hail
and an account BOOK.
The benches we're full of man, all Will
: their hats on, and anxious of expression
Q Rather a goOd-looking set generally, bu
> with bideous exceptions. 4 vast nun
Der of them bore unmistakable traces o
a Hebraic origin. All these persons wer,
vociferously talking at once, and the dil
of voices was insupportable. Several rOs
simultaneously in their places pointin;
at each other vindictively, and shouting
phrases that sounded like insults.
thought, for a time, that a free fight mus
inevitably result, till found that the.
r we're merely trying to buy or sell stocks
It I cannot begin to repeat the mysteri
~. Forr,,,l, tbav uttered II was III