The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-03-01
ON WALL STREE T.
JOAQUIN MuLEg.

year or so ago. WHcu tCIt W aii s.reet, and announced Tn these papers ,ha, this wonderful place had the dry rot, and had seen its best days tor half ! cent nry. 1 was answered with derision. Brok CTS and dealers said sour grapes" and ven, on with their puts. calls" and .s,raddles.' Dry re, :'fspiped thin, pa.e man. with dim collar and dirty :utis. yesterday. as entered one of my old haunts in Wal street. after nearly ,wo years absence. Dy rot. It was quick consumption And this hellow- voiced spectre. which had been lion. here pressed dirty cuff up his sleeve, and moved about to the shady side oi the shop, where the light would not fall so heavily on his pitful figure. But he s;ill kept his weak eyes upon the tape sAsnd tucker. Now and then he would cSns forward, thread the ribbon through his bony angers, and, with feeble smile, fall back into the shadow. helplessly shaking his head. Oh, how this lion used. n he old days. 10 ieed upon us lambs, ,augh a; our calamity and mock when' fear fel upon us. He fed on canvas backs, too. al Delmonlcos every day for lunch then. think he now would be eery glad 10 have some one irea, him to 4 glass of beer and sandwich. And he $ only one ot a whole army of c'ipples- that limp aoout the battle tields of Wali street, helpless. hopeless, withou, pay or pension.
 D.lapidation IS over the place IS well as ihe men. IL was almost lmposS bic 10 alre the humblest ser, of an office in the old days of splendor there for money and for love. But now the signs to let are pi,ted so ,hickly over these same doors that they suggest smallpox. l, was me old comical story of the tulip craze 10 some extent; South Sea bubble ln our very door-yard. And yet some of the wisest men in the land believed in 1t. How weak we all are. And even now able men, all the brokers indeed. are bat ting ;o sustain Wall street, for. fl Wall s;reel falls, where are their jo 900 seats {. We, the lambs, l begin 10 see, suffered least, after all For when our money and eonce1 were no more. and fortunately this overlook the n ,;ority ot Us nearly two years ago we. very much hnmblec. quite ashamed Of oursels cs. shoyn 10 the ssln, feeling sneepish. indeed. stole quiet y away 10 some safer spot, where we could go ,o work unseen and let our wool giow.
 Bu, ,he brokers. the traoers, ,he men who kneS t all and laughed 50 mer lessly al us '' lambs. have s,i, fingered there. They are still there, numbers oi them, dying. starving, making a mean and miserable end of ii. One would have thought them three years ago the grandesi lot of fellows on top oi land Not so. They have met ,heir mented fate in cowardly and whimpering fash ion. once wroie that these brokers and traders buried their dead bravely and si- lently, and went on with the fight uncom. plain,ngly. Not quite so, md. IL was the other fellow dead they buried with such serene valor: we, us, the a lambs. But when lt came 10 their own funeral II was quite another affair. Some few blew their own heads ofi; dozen or two hid away in Europe as agents and the like tor more fortunate speCulat'ons two ab Sconded with treasures hundreds still hang helpless around the old haun,s They will die there. am :old, but do no, know certainly, ,ha, three of this once
  and many may be met with almost daily on Broadway waiting for hayseed coun- :rymen. No, one, so far as know has gone to work.
 And, as you see, when vent down into Wall street yesterday 10 look about and shake hands with the thin survivors, after nearly two years absence, l was rather glad l had been only little lamb" even if did get shorn to the skin and was laughed out of town al the ,me. And want 10 bear testimony here that these same Wall street men did no, behave, when the dark days came. with the valor and dignity of the old California gamblers when they out there literally had to ." pass in their chips" No, sir. And MT. keene, or any other hones, man who has seen both. as have, will con frm me in this. The old Calitornians also bear prosperity well. And i,. takes great men to bear prosperity.
 had been sent to Wall Stree, 10 write up some facts for a London publishing house, but finding it hard 10 get at the heart of the mysteries and finding it al most impossible to keep track of fiuctua- tons or remember one stock from arr other, resolved to buy little something just for a" flyer bought Wabash as it had homelike sound to me. found tha; after had bought couple of hun dred shares of stock could remember it very well for good while, and so very soon had great deal of stock on my hands which to this day have never for- gotten. As heard nearly every one cursing Jay Gould up hill and down, in all the wild delight and excitement of these wonderful days of wealth, took grea, interest in him, looked at the mans tremendous work in tying together old roads and making new ones noticed his industry. his simple and sober life. and came to the conclusion that he was en- tire.y great; possibly good. And so I, came about that named ehim. and praised him, too, in gloSing summary