, 1881-02-05
BRO AID MS CHIPS.
From the st Thom@ Tidende

On Broad street 3 few doors from Wall
street, a marbls palace is rapidly being
pushed to completion, which, when finished,
will undoubtedly be one of the greatest gam
bling houses in the world. ! am not PARTON
larly good at moral analysis, and frequently
fail to see the subtle divisions Of modero
sc~clesiasticism and / confess that I see but
little difference between the man who lays
down his chip upon the jack of diamonds or
the ace OF spades, and the very respectable
agent with q white cboker on his neck aud
a hymnlbook in his pocket, who stakes a$100on
Northwestern or Lake Shore, or goes SO better
on Erie or Western Union. When John
Morrisey, of blessed memory, kept his little
dive up Broadway, only q few years ago, if
you dropped in there of an evening, you met
about as good average company as could be
found in any public pl ace in New York, It
was not made up ex clu sively Of blacksIegs and
cutpurSes, but with some miscellaneous and
heterogeneous materials, were members Of
congress, state Legislators, judges, lawyers,
merchants and gentlemen of leisure about
town. OF one thing you might rest assured
and that was-civil and courteous treatment.
and that is more than you can get upon the
Stock exchange. There was no bull doing,
no invitations 10 play, an d whether you play
cd or whether you did not, seemed to make
not the slightest difference in the courteous
entertainment of the hosts Not SO however,
10 the new gambling house in Wall street,
commonly known as the Stock Exchange. For
under certain cir ounstances, a greater set of
ruff rs could not be found at HagryHilPS Only
g few years ago 1t was q narrow, DIZZY. dizzy,
place, and these who freQuented it, were
regarded as = disrepu able set, q little below
g banko Steerer and something better than a
horse-tbief. In those days it, was not a costly
matter to become q member Of the board, but
now & single seat would be cheap at 100000.
The sums realized by these brokers are i'm
me nse. Every time a hundred shares are
bought and sold, the broker ~reaiises $500.
Now when you understand that shares are
frequently sold 10 blocks Of thousands, the
commissions realized by these Wall Street
sharks are simply This old build
ing, the front of which is now being altered,
was a shoddy, tawdry affair, the pillars gilt
iering with clear imitation OF gold, symbolic
of the motto of the Stock board, F" The more
you put down, the less you take up" La Au-
burn ani Sing Sing prisons are fftystWO bank
cashiers, b0okeepers, bank presidents Ind once
opulent merchants, VINO havs robbed their
friends andrnined themselves body and SOIL, on
Wall street. TIE officers of the Law seize
uPOH nVL1o ESoi WIrtlh9 WIZ CAPAO1 'Ao
vaults of e bank, or robbed bis employer by
perjury and false belspcesheets, aud the man
selected to take bis place, does the very same
thing right over again. Our noble police hunt
like sleuth bounds for a dirty little policyEshop
where some impecuuious dsrkpy, 10 search OF
fortune, invests 25cents on q saddle, yet daily
these guardians of the public morals fail to
see eight or nine huudred maniacs shrieklng,
bOWling. screaming their gambling games, III
q manner to be found nowhere outside ofa
madbouse, and to be rivslled only 10 that
place which Bob I~ngersoll has assured us
does not exist, and which it will bs exceeding.
lucky for the Wall street brokers If what Bob
says is tue. The alterations now going on
il the Stock Exchange will cost we'll on to a
a quarter a million dollars. 1t has taken in
the ground oecupied,by the Gold Room. andithe
whole, when finished, will be one Of the finest
halls la New York. As I stood in front of 1t
this morning, and saw the great blocks of
marble being swung into their places 10 the
magnificent front Of the buildings, could not
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