The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-01-03

takers would IKE 10 sec repeated.
There may not have been much style,
but the seamless sacks and flour bags
saw as much pure enjoyment as does
the finest and gaudiest attire of to-day.
l-Boul1er iCol. Mirror.
Wall.Street sBucket Sheps.''
The term bucket Shop is used in
Wall street to describe IS blackboard
exchange" Blackboard exchanges
are of recent origin, having sprung in
to being since the Stock Exchange adj
vanced brokers' commissions, and since
the numerous class which formerly
specialized in stocks has becume SO inn
povcrished as to buy or sell as much as
100 shares of stock with difficulty.
A blackboard exchange is a con-
Germ where firm or individual opens
an office and receives orders to buy or
sell any amount of any stock dealt in
at the Stock Exchange; in some rs
small an amount rs one share can be
bought or sold; in others five shares is
the lowest amount dealt in. The pro-
prietors of the bucket shop sell all
the stocks ordered bought and buy all
the stocks ordered sOld-at least, this
is the theory; in reality, no stock is
bought or sold. The profits made by
the :. bucket shops lie in the fact that
in large majority of cases specula-
tors are wrong, and therefore the
''bucket shop wins in say eight cases
out of ten.
The bets Cor purchases and salcs) are
made by customers as the prices come
out on the telegraph tape; they are then
Immediately chalked upon the black
board and customers make their bets.
Hence it will be seen that the telegraph
tape reports are important in the bust
| ness.
To break up the business, the Stock
Exchange have adopted the system of
mixing up the quotations as they go
over the tape-that is, to take quota
tons for ten minutes. reverse them and
send them out in a bunch. There are
twenty-six ''bucket shops and thou
sand members of the Stock Exchange,
who have, say. sos telegraph instru-
nicnts in their Offices; these latter are
all disturbed by the course taken by the
Stock Exchange to kill the "buckct
Shops and brokers say that the course
adopted by the Stock Exchange Com
mittce, in this matter, is not different
from what it would be for man in his
night. clothes to stand out on the Ice, in
a December night, for the purpose OF
freezing to death dog Of which he
wished to be rid:
1t is considered unfortunate, by the
members of the Stock Exchange who
reflect, that such prominence should
have been given to the subject by the
Stock Exchange, as it brings before the
people the fact that stock exchange
speculation is SO unsafe for outsiders
that it is perfectly safe for anyone to
take whatever bets the public choose to
make on the prices of stocks--and moi
only safe, but profitable, for those who
act in exactly the reverse way to the
public.
The reason that the concerns arc
called "bucket shops is that for a
small sum of money person can GO
through all the stages of intoxication
which follow speculation, while at the
Stock Exchange a fortune may be nee.
essary to get the same experience.
At the real "bucket shops in the old
Five Points enough liquor could be got
for ten cents to intONicate whole con-.
pany. The Wall-street name is an
adoption of the old Five Points name,
and for reasons that are apparent.
The most frequented of these ex.
changes is on the first floor of build
ing on Broad street. On pushing open
door well curtained with green baize
the stranger finds himself in long
room running the whole length of the
building. Half of this room is the ex.
change, and the other half is used by
the bookkeepcrs and cashiers who stand
behind wire nettings making good the
exchanges losses and receiving the
margins. Four lines of chairs extend
from the windows on Broad street bach
to the cashiers desk, and from ten
to three o'clock there is scarcely chair
vacant. On the wall is large black.
board divided into columns few
inches wide; at the head of each column
is the name of some stock, and the quo.
tations are marked beneath as they come
from the stock indicator and are shouted
out by a watchful clerk. Cigars
are handed around by one of the estab
IlSnmenC boys, anu the room Is 1ull OF
smoke. Three young men patrol from
one end of the line of chairs to the
other, and take down on a slip of paper
the orders to buy or sell. The persons
who occupy the chairs are broken-down
operators, merchants clerks and boys.
The calling of quotations, the orders to
sell or buy and the Stock Exchange jar.
gon of nearly hundred excited men
make a noise which renders the greater
part of the transactions which take
place unintelligible to stranger. To
give an idea of the working of this
"bucket shop description Of the fol-
lowing transaction may be useful: Next
to the reporter of the Euenisg Post sal
a young man, apparently not more than
twenty years old, flashily dressed and
evidently at home. When Lake Shore
stock was marked on the board as al
59!, he gave an order to buy five shares
and handed one of the walkers five dol
lars, for which he received a sort of re
ceipt for his shares, which cost him 500
When the stock was next quoted on the
board it was at 59!; he had an oppor
tunity to close the transaction and make