Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-06-02
@ .0|llf8io Statesman, 1jl
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
The Ohio Statesman Company.
THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 2
THE GAMBLERS CARNIVAL.
An Hour Among the Bulls and Bears
ON Change-HOw the Thing Is done.
lErnm the Round Table. ]


change Place. There was a tremendous
crowd there and every body seemed great
ly excited. Large numbers of elegantly
dressed young gentlemen conversed fever
ishly on the curbstOne, and conference.-the
looking old persons of the kind indelicately
denominated "buffers," button-holed each
other with effusion in the middle the street.
Small boys with portfolios and cash-boxes
and 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 caves dropping
air. The atmosphere was charged with a
magnetic equality quite new to me, and
was forcibly impressed with sense that
something had happened.
1t was therefore relief for me to see my
friend DIG. in the crowd. He used to do
business in that region some years ago, and
knows all about it; so l asked him what was
the matter.
"There's been panic" said he, sand the
street hasn't got over it yet. Stocks have
been knocked higher than burnt boot"
This eccentric statement explained to me
the crowd, the feverish conversation, the
magnetism of the atmosphere. Men who
had been rich at breakfast time are penni-
less now. Men who had been penniless are
suddenly rich. The Juggernaut wheel of
fortune had made grand revolution, and
many lame ducks were crawling from be-
meath its ineXorable tire.
Are you going into the outside board?"
asked d. G..
AS was an outsider, l thought this must
be my proper place whence to seek what
stock market is.
III should like so to do," said.
"You can't get in without some indOrse-
ment or authority" said ID. g.; but guess
L can get YOU an admission"
i asked him to do so, and he did. He
procured slip of paper whereon was writ
ten date, and request to 'admit the
bearer and oblige"-a tolerably well known
firm. ID. 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 ap-
pealed to answered, 'No, but that the note
for sixty thousand dollars" had '.just come
in" ..
/, who do not believe in such sums gen.
= orally, fancied the conversation to be inn
provised for the purpose of conveying an
air of responsibility on the part of the firm,
to my friend. Possibly, these people want
ed to borrow a dollar from him. Subse-
quently, learned that this firm does bu-
siness involving millions.
Very few people know what is going on
in the stock market region every day. !,
lOT Out, ildu lOJ ltltiS Slllcu any Cnll llhC IL.
| had fancied that there were excited
groups on Wall street, but l was wrong
William street is the centre of financial de-
lusions, and the "Outside board" as 1t is
called, in contradistinction to the Irregular
board,' is the very Babel and pandemo-
MUM of finance.
AT three o'clock P. NJ. or thereabout, l
entered the room where this pandemonium
is daily held. The doorkeeper took my pass
and scrutinized it.
s'That is good, isn't it ?" asked, innocent
ly. He laughed and turned to the next
conner. The signature of firm worth
millions is rarely questioned in William
street. ''.
The room was large, dusky, dirty, and
crowded. Plain wooden seats were arrang-
edin semicircle-precisely like the benches
of u concert saloon-around a place like a
pulpit. In this stood an old gentleman,
with grey hairs and whiskers, holding i'm
one hand pOnderous mallet of rosewood,
and in the other a bass drum stick. Behind
him hung a small gong, and beside him sat
a strange looking, skeletonlike young man,
with long hair and an account book.
The benches were full of men, all with
their hats on, and anxious of eXpression.-
Rather good blocking set, generally, but
with hideous exceptions. A vast number
of them bore unmistakable traces of q He
braic origin. All these persons were vo-
ciferously talking at once, and the din OF
voices were insupportable. Several arose
simultaneously in their places pointing
at each other vindictivcly, and shouting
phases that sounded like insults. Thought,
for time, that free fight must inevitably
result, till found that they were merely
trying to buy or sell stocks.
/ cannot begin to repeat the mysterious
e Il, oil oil To
me and worse. The main object seemed to
be an increase of the confusion already
reigning, and when ten or fifteen persons,
young and old, Jew and Gentle, get to the
pitch of their voices, yelling themselves
purple in the face, the old gentleman in the
pulpit added to the demoniac roar by beat
ing sturdily upon his gong with the drum
stick and upon his counter with the gavel,
crying "Order! Order, gentlemen!" !" as loud
as any of them.
In the course of my varied studies
of the human being under variour excite
ments, have penetrated to those unhal-
lowed chambers devoted to the joyous but
expensive games of faro and roulette. Like
wise have witnessed the playing of brag
and poker upon the turbid bosom of, the |
Mississippi; bat nowhere have seen card |
gamblers who would for moment have
tolerated the undignified, the insane, the |
graceless and avaricious confusion that |
characterized this meeting of the outside |
board of stock brokers. Hitherto my idea |
of down town business had been associated |
with some notions of heavy respectability-
and quiet Importance; bat such notions are |
shattered and scattered forever, lean only |
remember this scene as a type of bedlamite
financial debauchery, and flummery ire
trievable. Instinctively l buttoned my
pockets somewhat needless precaution,
perhaps, but scrutable avarice permeated |
the atmosphere, and l had vague fears of |
losing the coat off my back, my hat nv
boots, my senses, anything and everything
that might possess. ss@-s. ~
There were many boys present, of ages
from fourteen to twenty. Some of these |
bought and sold heavily, eXhausting their
shrill treble voices toadegree of hoarseness
quite painful. Most Of the, youngsters,
however, contented themselves with taking
notes of the flunctuation in price of the |
different stocks. Such were probably sent
there by their employers, for the purpose.
I was told that they often acquired great
skill in judging the market thus, and came
out strong as brokers on their own account
ere long. One such, known as 81 Little Char
ley,''was pointed out to me as knowing far