The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-15
An Hour among the "BulIs aud
Bears IAN inside View of the
Gold Room.
SFV'1Ve q I1to OI1ICI4VV 4TIUITTI9'
NEW YORK. Dec L 1896.

bearS "-..An inside View OF the
Gold Room.
Correspondence Of the Chicago Tribune.
NEW YORK, Dec. /, 1866.
New York is the commercial focus of
the continent, and the Gold Room is
the focus of New York, In a little
court yard surrounded by four walls,
and closed in with roof, having a cir
cultous passage way from Broad street,
may be witnessed, any hour of the Cay.
and six days in the week, a scene which
mas not its likeness in earth or heaven.
whether its parallel can be found in
nell, will not undertake to say. Per-
haps it can, but this much consider
certain, that the New York Gold Room
IS to-day the greatest curiosity in the
world: 1t beggars description. In at
tempting to give the reader some i'm
preston OF 1t, begin by saying that it
can neither be penned or painted, and
that when it Is finally closed by re-
turn to specie payments, posterity will
have lost a most vivid illustration of
the capabilities OF the human mind.
Imagine 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 COM
parison as can be found in the outside
world, OF the aspect of the gold room.
as it strikes the beholder ON his first
entrance. The furniture of the room is
extremely simple. 1t consists of two
iron railings and an "indicator.O The
first railing is circle, about four feet
high and ten feet in diameter, placed
exactly in the centre of the room, In
the interior, which represents the space
devoted to rat killing in similar estab-
lishments, is a marble Cupid, throwing
up jet of pure Croton. The artistic
conception is not good. Instead of a
| CuDid throwing II n "a
into tho mir, there should have been a
hungry Midas, turning everything to
gold, and starving to death for inability
TO eat his own currency. The other
railing Is semi-circle 20 or 80 feet from
the central one. This outer rail fences
of the "lame ducks" and ''dead beats'
men who have once been famous at
the rat pit, but have since been "cleaned
out" Being unable to settle their 'IdiF-
terences," 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
dead ducks" and "dead beats" can
not keep away from the place. Day
after day they come and range them
selves along their iron grating, and look
over at the rat pit with the strangest
expression of intelligent vacancy and
longing despair, that can be found this
|
part of the furniture of the room While
L was there L did not see one OF them
move or speak, and when they winked,
it was with much the same spirit that
an owl at midday lowers the film over
his eyes and lowers it again. The sin
dlcator," which is the third piece of
furniture In the room, (or the fourth, If
we count the "dead beats,'') is a piece
of mechanism to show the changes in
| the market. 1t Is something like an old
fashioned New England clock. seven
or eight feet high, with an open space
at the top disclosing three figures and
n fraction, as 141h, at which the mar
being movable, a slight manipulation
Will manifest any change in the market.
Connected with the indicator is a plain
desk with book on it, in which are re-
corded all the movements of the indi-
Gator, with the hour and minute at
which each movement takes place. The
floor of the establishment is rather a
pavement, with circular steps or ter
races rising from the centre to the cir
cuInierence. "Neat but not gaudy," is
the general aspect of the premises. OF
course such an institution could not ex-
ist without telegraph office. Accord
| ingly we find one, communicating with
the gold room by "a row of windows,
through which dispatches are constant
ly passing.
Having given the external appear
ance of the concern, we now come to
business. Three things seem to be in
demand-lungs, note books and pencils.
W3w-wow-wo w-wow-wow, yah-yah-
yah-yah-yah, from twenty or thirty
throats, around the pit, ull at once, and
kept going from morning till night,
| from Monday till Saturdny-is what
presents itself to the ear of the behold.
er. The voices of the gentry around
the circle are for the most part tenort,
with now and then fdLSetto and a bds-
so. shall not soon forget a 6dSso pro
JL1IdO in the ring, who drew his breath
at regular intervals, and announced his
desires with a seriousness truly re-
markable. He was Il thick-set man,
with Capacious chest, shaggy head
keen eyes, and rusty whiskers, which
curved upward from his inferior max
Hilary bone in the most determined
manner. He cooked his head on one
side, thrust his chin as far over the rail-
| ing as possible, and made himself heard
every time. He put in his B fiat in
regular cadences like the trombone
performer in mill pond, of a summer
evening, drowning for the moment all
the tiddles in the frog community-or
like the double bass crashes in the
overture to 1dnILtduSer, which, by
the way, might pass for "Gold Room
Potpourri" without the alteration of n
single note.
Among the faces constantly swing
ing around the circle, there is marked
preponderance of Israelites. Since the
day that the brokers of Jerusalem
were driven out of the temple, this
persevering race seem 10 have had a
peculiar liking for "monish''-not for
wealth merely, but for metallic cur
rency. Wherever there is gold or sill e.
yer to be handled, you will be sure to
find them. The art of navigation and
the art of usury-equally necessary
and honorable branches of commerce,
are presented to us in the persons of
Antonio and Shylock. Shakespeare had
net learned that "usances" are Just as
useful as argosieS. but he had hit upon
the idea that the Jews are the born mon-
ey-changers and bankers of the world.
Political economists tell us that money,
whether of gold, silver, leather, shells,
or paper, is not wealth, but merely the
counter OF wealth. The Jews don't be-
lieve that. In Amsterdam, Frankfort,
Paris, London and New York, you will
find the children of Israel holding
closer relations with the precious metals
than any other people, and generally
holding more of them than any other.
The Gold Room is their peculiar joy.
They gladly resign the Babel of the
Brokers' Board for the wow-wow and
the yah-yah OF the Gold Room. But
they do not, by any means, monopolize
the business. There are young Yam
KEGS 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 whisking their pencils with
Photographic velocity. You see no
smiles in this ring. Many of the ope-
rators are smoking, but they have no
TINA for