, 1881-01-02
Total. S., ,0ss9, ,505,a71 $50, TO 6es7 6e71
0i1t Siin NJ X,rt ss1l A83 1t2 1A T15 95s3

Outside n. Y'rz ~ .983, IL 19, ,715,253 Isl
Outside Of New York City the clearances
| generally represent actual, substantial COM
nlerciat transactions, payments for goods
purchased, or in other bona tide transfers OF
exchanges OF property: There may have
befn some speculative or stock gambling in
ciuu..s; III the clearances Of these cities out
side # New York, but the proportion is
small. In New York, however, the rule is
reversed. There the ciearances were mainly
Of checks delivered in stock transactions.
IN New York the betting is enormous A
man with ahundred thousand dollars can
bet OH the rise or fall of q million or two
million Of dollars Of railroad stocks. He
has only to deposit his check for a margin Of
i, {, or 10 per cent, as the case may be. To
continue the business money is borrowed right
and left, and checks are duplicated and tripli-
Gated in the'countless fluctuations and varia~
tons Of the days gambling operations. The
operators are not confined to New York.
tho all the business is done there. With
in q circle Of 200 miles from Chicago there
are thousands of persons more or less regu-
i..f1y engaged in stock gambling. These
send such sums to q Chicago broker as they
can scratch up, who RENTS to a New York
broker, who Immediately invests the money
in margins. This same thing is going on in
all parts Of the country,-a1lt the wool clipped
from the lambs going direct to New York,
rarely to return; men and women once beset
with taste for stock speculations, with a
desire to get rich suddenly, and without
labor, care, or economy, never profit by their
failure experience. Even those "lambs"
that are shorn down to the very skin wait no
longer than their new fleece is grown long
enough to clip to offer itagain to the shearers,
The enormous figures exceeding S04 mill
ions represent the clearances in New York
City in single week. a portion Of this only
represents commercial, bona fide transac-
tons in which property is exchanged and
payments made therefor. The great bulk Of
these clearances represent checks put UP as
stakes on bets made as to the rise and fail OF
stocks Of all kinds in Wall street, Certain
men bet that certain stocks will not sell for
less than certain sums within a specified
time; other men bet that such stocks will sell
for less; these betters stake all they have
on so many shares, all they can bor-
row, and all they can seduce the flats
and dupes and credulous men and women
throughout the country to intrust to
them to be staked. Desperate men bet
desperately, recklesly; every hope and ex-
pectation is hazarded; money is borrowed
at ruinous rates for week, for day, for an
hour, and even for a half hour, and the great
mass of these daily transactions go to swell
the supposed record Of the legitimate trade
$kn +ofn
Ss04, ,0oo. coo ina single week.
The enormity of these figures, the de-
formity Of this unnatural aggregate, is best
shown blythe footinss Of the clearances in
New York City for the year 1850. The total
OF the clearances for 1850 aggregate the sum
Of nearly S23s G44 2440 SIS which reads thirty
eight thousand six hundred and forty-four
millions two hundred and forty thousand
five hundred and seventy-eight dollars; or,
stating it'in other terms, nearly 80 billions Of
dollars, or twenty times the American Ma
tional debt. The human mind can hardly
the meaning or magnitude Of
these figures; It is more than double the ex-
pcnditllres Of the United States Government
from 17S9 to the present day. It largely ex-
ceeds the greatest aggregate Of clearances in
London in any one year.
The entire wealth. consisting of real and
personal property, in the: whole United
States, including the Territories, In 1870 was
only 30 billions, and is not 10 billions now.
According to these figures Of the New York
Clearing House, the value OF the entire prop
erty Of the whole Nation as it stood in 1870,
with 80 per cent additional, has passed
through the New York Clearing House dur
ing the year 1891
It only needs this illustr alton to show how
inflated and fallacious is this exhibit of the
New York clearinghouse as an index Of
the real. substantial commercial business OF
that city. These stock-gambling and sweat
,loth operations Of the bulls and bears in
watered stocks on Wall street represent but
little bona-fde dealings They |
form but small part Of the actual trade OF |
Eha city. only q fraction nf urODertV is