Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-05
The Game of Speculation
As 1t is Conducted in New York.
 Ca pnI1offT !

rCorrespondence San Francisco Buletin.l
 In New York at present there are 1000 stock brokers or persons calling themselves such, 1000 produce brokers of whom ?, 300 belong to the exchange, and 2,OOO cotton brokers. of whom only 366 belong to the ex- change. Judging by the estimates of the most careful brokers whom have been able to talk to, about $50 out of those H ,OOO brokers are really engaged in buying and selling actual grain, cotton or stocks for per sons who wish to export, or weave, or grind, or invest permanently. The 13,65O other we'll. dressed gentlemen who pass their lives with their feet up on desks watching the stock ticker through the smoke of half-dollar cigars gamble on their own or some one else's account.
 Do you see that handsome man buying strawberries at $6 quart ?" said friend Of mine as we were walking past fashionable importer of southern and hothouse fruits yesterday. Do you know how he makes living? Well, he has done nothing for the last five years but buy and sell fictitious lot Of 100 bales of cotton. He passes his life at it. He buys it and sells 1t half a dozen times a day. when the fluctuations are heavy. He does not know one grade of cotton from an other; he probably never saw cotton field or the inside of cotton mill, and 1t Is doubt full whether he ever sees any cotton even ln bale but his calculations in life his inter est, his very being, are wrapped up In that lot of cotton, which exists only on paper He is nothing but an inveterate gambler, en gagged in f1eecing foolish people In reality he is not particle better than the faro player upon whom the police might pounce-but do not. The social difference, however, Is im- mense; one is pillar of the church highly respected member of society, who cannot find words too severe for the faro player, while the latter is & social outcast-
 Al,,o ot,1 rr-tT Tnl nFTNa all men once or twice, that man will be car ried out of his depth by some run of luck, and will be tempted to extend his operations beyond the 100 bales of fictitious cotton. l He may make a fortune in a week. The chances against his keeping it are go to | | Once a gambler-always a gambler He ] knows no other pleasure. Since he was an office boy he has known and heard of noth- | ing but buying and selling 100 bales of cot ton He knows nothing of books, art or music and of the theatre he knows only the | worst side. His intellectual vision is limited | to the gyrations of that 100 bales of cotton l He is elated or depressed according to its l behavior When it makes $40 or $50 day | for him. he rides home in cab and buys | some straw berries at $6 quart"
 This is not pretty picture, but it is a true ! one. One has only to listen to the talk of | the young men who haunt the neighborhoods | of our exchanges to find thousands of just such men. They are intelligent young fel | lows in appearance, sprucely dressed, quick | in talk and always with their red leather covered note book in hand. If they have got to the supreme happiness of actually buying and selling stocks, they sell certificates among themselves which answer the purpose almost as well. A gives to a paper which says in substance, Good for bale of cot ton at 12:5O today, February 24'-a value of S5G 9, the standard bale of cotton being supposed to weigh 450 pounds At o'clocl l the transaction Is closed. If cotton at tht exchange has gone down to 12 cents pound A makes $2 p, or half a cent a pound, CT 45O pounds, which B is obliged to pay. | cotton closes at 13 cents a pound, A lose | S225. This is simply betting on the prici of cotton at certain hour; but supposed dignity is given to the operation by trading in fictitious bales of cotton.
 After all, what the brokers boys do in tn
 streets is precisely what the brokers do in more systematic fashion. They are betting on whether cotton or grain will go up O down, the size of the best depending on tn
 amount of the fluctuation. No better illus tration of the extent to which speculation II our exchanges overtops legitimate buying ant selling can be given than by quoting iron the last report of the cotton exchange, iron
 which it appears that during the year endlni
 May 27, 1884, actual cotton was sold on tn
 exchange as follows For export 143, 26
 bales for spinning, l5l, ,96l bales; for spec
 ulation (holding in store for rise), F, 13
 bales in transit, 3, 16O bales. Total, BIO, ,51
 bales representing the entire strictly legiti mate business of the exchange. During tn
 same period, 26, 721, 800 bales were bough and sold for future delivery-that is, piece
 of paper representing bets on that amour
 of cotton were exchanged, no actual cotto
 appearing in the transaction.
 The question, 'Who supports the 14,OO
 New York brokers who live in luxury ?'' mus
 suggest itself to every one. They canno
 live on one another for long. A gang o
 sharpers cannot subsist without pigeons t
 pluck and the same rule holds good with tn