Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-10-13
Thlevea


A New York correspondent of the Chicago
Journal gives the following in regard TO Wall
street honor; There is code of honor in Wall
street which to disregard Is to insure social and
financial decarding and disgrace The bulls and
bears will make all manner OF combinations to
battle, beat and ruin each other. II the former
can get corner" In the market they will run
stocks up to such an enormous figure as to bank
rupt the BEARS and then boast of their achieve
ments- They look upon any and every perform
ance of this character as perfectly legitimate,
and they glory in achieving them. At the same
time, they would scorn to do what they regard as
dishonorable thing or violate any OF the recogniz
ed laws of the street For example, if a broker
lays down" on bis contract that is, suspends,
not because he really is compelled TO do 30, but
to avoid payment of heavy losses, they will
drive him from the Board II finn or iudivid-
ual ever resorts to the courts to reolfy anything
pertaining to the Stock Exchange, disgrace and
social tabOoing follow. They regard the Gov
erning Committee of the Exchange as the pro-
per court of arbitration to adjust all their differ
ences. Such men as the dead James Fisk and
Jay Gould or Henry N. Smith might do business
till doomsday on Change, and they would never
be admitted to membership in the Stock Ex-
change. IL an individual is suspected even, of
being in any collusion with the courts for the
purpose OF defrauding his brother brokers, he is
spotted forever Note, for example, how quickly
g b. Grinnell Il Co, were expelled from
the Stock Exchange this week when the facts OF
their legal coup detdt came to be known. Bro
kers almost invariably pay to one another sums
OF money loaned Every day hundreds of thou
sands OF dollars-yes millions-are borrowed
from each other on collateral A rushes into BIS
office with 100 shares OF Rock Island stock, worth
at the market price, say 5000 and leaves it At
collateral for the loan OF say $4,000. No writings
are drawn up and, If SO disposed, the lender
could hold on to the Rock Island stock and
keep it, swearing that he had never received il
and thus make $1,000 by the rascally operation
But such thing wac never heard Of on Change
as not returning the collateral. Should per-
son attempt to do this he wodld be hootcd
from the street, During the present crisis the
brokers have done all they could to lift one
another from the Slough of Despond after doing
all they could to precipitate one another into
said slough. few years ago Commodore Van
derbilt set up in the stock business two young
relatives with the express understanding that
they never themselves operate in stock. The
firm of Barton Allen was set up on the express
promise of never specuating. they grew into
great house. The Commodore learned how
ever, that they had been specializing, and when
the crash came he turned deaf ear to their en-
treaties for aid, and they went to the wall Now,
the great house of George b. GriDnell Il Co
who did vast amount of busines for him, are
permitted to succumb because they did not fully
carry out his wishes. To cross the Commodore's
will is to secure lasting opposition.