The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-22
THE NEW YORK GOLD ROOM.
A Lively Pfcturo-HOw the Operators
Shout and Speculate.

visited the Gold Room in New York, and has
written description OF it, which is the best and
most interesting that we have seen. We copy
the material passages:-
THE GOLD ROOM CURIOSITY.
''New York is the commercial focus of the
continent and the Cold Room is the focus of
New York In little courtyard surrounded by
four walls, and closed in with roof, having
circutous passage-way from Broad street. may
be witnessed, at any hour of the day, and six
days in the week, a scene which has motifs like
ness in earth or heaven. Whether its parallel
can be found in hell will not undertake to say.
Perhaps It can but this much / consider GER
tain that the New York Gold Room is to-day
the greatest curiosity in the world.
Imagine a rat-pit in full blast, with twenty
or thirty men ranged around the rat tragedy,
each with a canine under his arm, all yelling
and bowling at once, and you have as good
comparison as can be found in the outside
world, of thee aspect of the Gold Room, as it
strikes the beholder or his first entrance. The
furniture of the room is extremely simple. 1t
consists Of two iron ratings and an indicator
The first railing is circle, about four feet high
centre OF the room. In the interior, which
represents the space devoted TO rat-killng in
similar establishments, is a marble Cupid throw
inc up jet OF pure Croton"
LAME DUCKS
" THE other railing is a semicircle
twenty or thirty feet from the central one. This
outer rail fences Off the lame ducks and dead
beats'-men who have once been famous at the
'rat-plt, but have since been cleaned OUT
Being unable 10 settle their differences they
are not allowed to come inside. Solvency is the
first essential Of the Gold Room. Nothing
bogus is allowed to interfere with the serious
business in hand. Nevertheless these lame
ducks and dead beats cannot keep away from
the place. Day after day they come and range
themselves along their iron grating and look
over at the 'rtt-pit with the strangest express
sion OF intelligent vacancy and longing DESPAIR
that can be found this side of purgatory. They
seem to be part OF the furniture of the room.
While was there did not see one of them
move or speak, and when they winked it was
with much the same spirit that an owl at mid
day lowers the 6lm over his eyes aud hoists it
again.
TIE INDICATOR"
"The Indicator which is the third piece of
furniture in tue room (Or the fourth, if we count
the dead 6eats), is piece of mechanism to
show the changes in the market. 1t is some
thing like an old fashioned New England clock,
seven or eight feet high, with open space at the
top disclosing three figures AMI fraction, as
l4li, at which the market stood when | entered
The figures being moveable, slight manipula-
tlon will manifest. any change in the market.
Connected with the indicator is plain desk,
with book on IT, in which are recorded all the
movements OF the indicator, with the hour and
minute at which each movement takes place
The floor of the establishment is rather a pave
ment with circular steps or terraces rising
from the centre to the circumference. Neat
but not gaudy' is the general aspect OF the pre-
misses. Or course such an institution could not
exist without telegraph office. ACCORDINGLY
we find one, communicating with the G Did
Room by a row of windows, through which
dispatches re constantly passing.
THE SHOUTING.
Having given the external appearance of the
concern, we now come to business Three
things seem 10 be in demand-lungs, note books
and pencils. Wow-wow ow-wow- wo w-wow, yah
yah-yah-yah-yah, from twenty or thirty throats,
around the pit, all at once, and kept going from
morning till night from Monday till Saturday
is what presents itself to the ear of the beholder
The voices OF the gentry around the circle are
for the most part teROri, with now and then a
fdtSehO and bdsSo. ! shall not soon forget a
6dSSO prOtundO in the ring, who drew his breath
at regular intervals, and announced his desires
with seriousness truly remarkable. He was a
thlcS-set man, with capacous chest shaggy
head, keen eyes, and rusty Whiskers, which
curved upward from his inferior maXlllarg bone
in the most determined manner. He cooked his
head on one side, thrust his chin as far over the
railing as possib 2, and made himself heard eVery
time. He put in his fiat IN regular cadences
like the trombone performer in mill pond of a
summer evening, drowning tor the moment all
the hddles in the frog cOmmunity-or like the
douoe-bass crashes IN the overture to Tam
hduSer, which, by-he-way, mightspass for Gold
Room Potpourri' without the alteration of a
single note.
BUSINESS.
Among the faces constantly swinging around
the circle there Is marked preponderance of
lsraeiltes. But they do not, by any
young Yankees here, apparently not more than
twenty-one years OF age, with downy cheeks
and shrewd eyes, wow-wowing and yah-yahing
at each other across the railing, and Whsking
their pencils with phOnogIaphiC velocity. You
see no smiles in this ring. Many of the opera
tors are smoking, bat they have no time for
ConundTums. Commencing bettmes in the
morning, they must buy and sell gold enough
before night TO pay for Chicago twice over.
Putting the purchases and sales together they
VIII not untrequently amount to one hundred
millions of dollars. In few cases only is the
gold actually delivered. Balances are settled
with gold certificates The existing method of
settling the business of the day is by giving
checks-each man drawing check for each
purchase, or receiving one for each sale. But
they are not satisfied with the slow-coach
method OF doing business. They must needs
have god clearinghouse, where the whole
business OF the room can be thrown into a
hopper and the "diferencen ground out Mt one
turn OF the Wheel This project is now on foot
1t will, OF course, facilitate business very much
"But what does it all amount to? had
almost said that the Cold Room regulates all the
prices in the United States. 1t does not regu.
late, but it records them. The Gold Room is
itself regulated by the outside world. Each
movement of the indicator is the resultant of
all the forces at wolk in America, Europe, Asia
and Austria, which can possibly affect the value
OF United States currency or United States
bonds. 1t follows that the operators in the
Gold Room should be, at the same time the best
informed and the most intelligent BUSINESS
men in the country. They must not only have
the best ano latest information, but they must
be able to determine instantly what is the effect
OF any given fact which may come to their
knowledge. They must be able TO resolve the
most complicated problems in mental arith-
meuc without moments hesitation.
SPECULATION.
''If the Secretary of the Treasury has decided
upon certain measure Of financial policy or The
President upon certain measure Of ioraign