Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-16
AMONG THE BULLS AND BEARS.

AMONG THE BULLS AND BEARS.
"Suppose we take look at the me-
nagerie ?" suggested my Wall street
friend.
he menagerie? Where is it p
ust up the street. We sometimes
Ca it the bear garden, or the lunatic
asylum, for change.
By either of these names, it seems,
the New York Stock Exchange is more
Familiarity knewn in the region of bulls
and bears than by its proper one. A
stranger, entering at a time of excite
ment In the stock market, would GER
tainly consider the last name the most
appropriate At such time, downright
madness reigns supreme. The scene
presented is one of such c,arnor, con-
fusion, furious gesticulation. and wild
surging and swaying of the crowds of
brokers on the floor, that person wit
Messing it for the first time might very
naturally regard the roaring, hustling,
believing throng as mass-meeting of
violent lunatics.
Standing in the gallery provided for
the public, and looking down upon the
three or four hundred men who struggle
and shout and scramble below, the
stranger may well wonder what all the
business can be done in the midst of
such mad confusion. It seems impossi-
BILE that these men can understand each
other. They are scattered In swaying
groups over the floor of the large cham
Der, and almost every man in each groud
appears to be In desperate alteration
with his neighbor. A hundred hands
are shaking violently before hundred
faces a hundred throats are roaring as
though their owners were so many
screaming dervishes and, to make the
deafening din still greater, squads of
well grown boys rush hither and thither
between the groups, calling brokers by
name in the highest and shrillest key
their voices can command. Surely, no
bedlam ever presented more turbulent
scene, or one more dazing or bewilder-
ing to an unaccustomed mind, than may
be witnessed in the New York Stock Ex-
change when the excitements of a field
day stir up the spirits of the bulls and
bears.
Strangers visitingthe Stoc' Exchange
always express surprise at youthful
ness of the men by whom > enormous
business of the place is transacted.
Hearing so often of the money kings of
New York, and naturally picturing
to themselves sohd-looking men, well
on in middle life, as the bulls and bears
of the great stock market, they are as
toHished at finding merely multitude
of young men. most of whom have the
appearance of clerks, and any one OF
whom Will, on the slightest provocation,
yell at an unknown visitor like Co.
manche or Apache savage. The mag
mates of the street, who are the men We
Tread of In the newspapers, are hardly
ever seen in the Exchange, and some
even are not members of it. They gen
orally remain in the background, con
coct their plans In little private Offices
and issue instructions to their various
brokers as General issues orders to hi
subaltern on battlefield. One of these
magnatesm may have half dozen broker.
employed in the Exchange at the sam,
time, without one of the six knowing
that five others are executing order,
from the same man that employs him
It is by the secresy of their operations
that the leading bulls and bears achiev,
particular success and, In order tina
there shall be no leakage of informa
ton, they keep all their plans and pur
poses to themselves. The whole mum
Der of brokers who have the privilege o
trading in the Exchange is about on
thousand, while the number of opera
tors recognized as leaders probably doe
not exceed twenty-five or thirty. Thes
are the captains who organize and con
duct campaigns the others are theranl
and file who do the fghting-bellowin,
and goring, or growing and squeezing
accordine to their classification unde
the signs of Taurus and Ursus.
A broker desiring to become mem
Der of the Exchange is required to IN
derqo q sort of inquisition before com
mittee. in order that his qualification
NAV be determined. He must also max
full statement of his business affairs
and satisfy the committee that he Is l
a proper financial condition. If b
passes the examination successfully, n
must then purchase seat in the Board
or. in other words, pay for the privileg
of membership. This privilege Is q
expensive one. At the present time
seat costs from eight 20 nine thousan
dollars, which must be paid before 10
purchaser can do any business In tn
Exchange. A year ago the price wa