The Russellville Democrat., 1883-08-23
Stock Speculation.
Stock is certificate of owsership Ii

Stock is certificate of ownership in corporation property, like railroads, gas companies, quick silver companies,
 mines, or anything that requires like consultations of money. Just as you take a piece of ground when you make
 town and divide it into lots and
 parcel those lots out among the incor- porators. so the stock is parceled out among the numerous people, often strangers to each other who unite to
 own railroad This form of property
 has great advantage over real prop
 crty. It is, indeed, kind of paper
 money and especially strong kind of
 security. If you own a honse or a
 farm, you must often wait for GUS
 toner when you want to sell; but stock,
 if it be good, can be sold any day in
 the week. and generally three times
 day in the Stock Exchanges, The first
 Stock Exchange in this country was
 established in Philadelphia, but New York soon put up another, and in a
 little while it became the main Stock
 Exchange of the United States. be
 cause capital from abroad and enter
 prise. in corporations soon began to
 center here. and the original settlers of
 New York brought with them finan-
 cial genius from their forefathers, who operated on the Bourses of Amsterdam,
 Paris. London and Frankfort. To put
 q atoek on the Exchange list is called listing it.and it can only he done by the
 consent of the governors of the fx-
 change, and by conforming to certain proper things such as making regular
 aud honest reports, and producing them at the Exchange.
 The business of the bro Kers. who are
 now about eleven hundred in number,
 is one of the most absorbing pursuits in the world. During the hours when the. Exchange is open, say from ten to three o'clock, period of only about five hours, there are series of calls down the list of those stocks; but not much
 attention is paid to it, since the mem bers group themselves on the floor of the Exchange, and when any particular stock is lively that group does all the buying and selling of it. The reason there is so much bowling in the Ex- change is that there is kind of auction
 for four or five hours. You, for in- stance. have l .00o shares of stock in the Panhandle Road and are possessed of information that you had better sell it
 before it shall go down, which may be
 to-Inorrow. So you employ broker
 and pay him commission, that com
 mission fixed by rule, to get your stock of He must get it off on the jump. He must have a countenance independ-
 ent of any fear or apprehension. In the larger operations of the Stock Ex-
 change there comes class of customers to these different brokers who are intent
 upon making huge sums of money in a very short time, and the skill and in- tegrity of the broker are the first things
 to be considered.
 A man on the Stock Exchange is in
 apparently feverish excitement for four
 or five hours of the day. He has his office full of customers, some wanting
 10 buy, some to sell, some with small orders, some with large, and he must get ail his work done in a little while, and dc it to the best of his ability. The telegraph is ticking of in the broker 8
 office, where the customers sit, the in slantaneous changes in these stocks, and difference of one hour would
 often be fatal to an operator. For speculative purposes the stocks are gem
 erally bought on margins-that is to say. small amount of money is put up. enough to cover the broker from loss by fluctuations, and if the tiuctua tions continue on the wrong side the broker calls for more margin. This in stantaneous, off-hand business could not
 be conducted by the cool and quiet
 means employed in ordinary business,
 where men sit with their day-books and
 ledgers, and put everything down, and take the money or a note on the spot
 Integrity is the first thing among these gamblers.
 The brokers themselves arc not gam blers at all, or ought not to be, but
 mere commission dealers. The temp iation, however, for brokers to go in on their own account is very great. Some- times their customers seduce them to
 take an interest in large general spec ulation. Among the brokers mere
 word passed and little memorandum iotted down on a piece of paper is gil ! that is necessary to make sale good. l Within certain time the stock is de- ! liyered, just as truly as if it was bought ! for investment The stocks. if not paid for, eau be sold again at the next morn | ing's board for there is no respite or
 mercy in operations of this kind any
 more than at Sherilf's sale. 'Gdth, n 1 ia Cincinnati Enquirer.