The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-08-05
SPECIALIZING MANIA.
How Ithas Developed on wall
street.
New York Tribune

Said an old broker on Broad street to
Tribune reporter the other day:
"The outward evidences of the increased
mania for speculation among Americans
doubtless strike an occasional visitor to
the street more particularly than thew do
Us unhsppy habitues. The grow tn has
been gradual TO us; il is before our ewes
all the time, while you, coming down af-
ter an absence Of a year or two, see at
glance the great change and development
of the business"
Has there not been great increase n
the magnitude of trsnsaetions2"
The most wonderful part of the whole
business2 We deal in millions where we
dealt in thousands 8 few years ago.
Transactions involving the control of
lines Of, railway many hundreds Of miles
in length, and stocks way up in the mil
lions, are every day occurrences. Syndi-
Gates Of a dozen bankers take up at sim
gle grab greater loans than the Govern
nsnt at fret feared 10 appeal to the whole
nation 10 take as a war measure. The in
divIduai spectators who used TO come
down into the street for flyer, say once
q week, are here now every day, aud they
buy or sell thousands Of shares where
once they dealt n fsw hundred. Once,
too, II was their custom to deal exclusive
" in favorise stock, much as one might
bet on single card at faro; now they
study the state Of the gse,eraI market
and dea;sin s.Fhyy9allFlis The ectdm'tt'--
m ga ftlSh and manure 4 hopld 6e
HAS the class of specrr~t<s chsnged2"
VERY greatly 1t used to be called
gambling in Wall street, aud many peo-
pie avoided speculation because they felt
that il was risky TO trust brokers' as well
as something akin to the disreputabIe 10
deal on margins. Now merchants and
manufacturers who never thought few
years ago of induiging in any other ex-
cept their legitimate business take almost
daily flyers in stocks. Then there is
another important class newly innoculat-
ed with the mania for specializing. /
mean the lawyers. OF late years the
courts aud consequently the lawyers have
played important parts in the great
transactions of the street; particularly in
railway operations, and the lawyers have
been led into speculation as thousands of
others have been before them. And
through tho lawyers their clients have
come TO take hand. 1t is a very iufec-
tious disease, you must know. Never had
it? But you are young yef-with a
smile and oontemptuous shrug of the
shoulders.
Il suppose it is true that Congressman
and legislators and Government officials
are large speculators2
"They not only nearly all speculate, but
they speculate heavily. 1t was not always
so but ideas as TO the propriety of off
Gals in possession Of legislative and
Government secrets and plans are much
less rigid than formerly. When a mem
Der of Congress or the Legislature knows,
or thinks he knows, what committee
will report on bill likely to acct the
money or stock market, be has great
temptation to use his knowledge to his
own advantage Lawyers In the same
way being possessed Of information of in
tented motions affecting stocks have been
drawn Into speculation, some have great
success, but the multitude only to get
shorn."
"And women; or is it all fiction about
them?"
'sLargely fiction; the number has been
greatly exaggerated in all the reports l
have ever read; sensational stories main
~; but still there are many women who
deal in stocks through brokers who are
personal friends, and who keep their ac-
counts under other names; or the women
deal through their lawyers, who employ
brokers for them. There is sort of
women ofhce somewhere up town, but 1
know nothing about il"
"Have not great many brokers from
other cities recently come 10 New York;"
every many, mainly mining share
brokers'. have settled here since the min
ing fever broke out. But the great specu-
iators and hnanoiers of other cities have
also come to this city as the center of
financial America: Keene, Mills and that
class of fnanciers on big scale. All the
large operators of San Francisco have
come to New York in the last four years.
There are many out-of-town members of
the Stock Exchange, some living as far
distant as st. Louis. rhen all the railways
have tkeir Offices here just as every bank
In other large cities has its agency or
correspondent here. There is no place TO
dispute with New York it's claim to be the
financial center Of the Continent"