The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-07-19
HAHNVILLE. LOUISIANA, SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1884,

grief. 1t is struck off. troddenon, cted
around, so battered and marred that
after passing the severe ordeal of the
Board, it would not bring five cents in
! any secondhand shop in Chatham
street. Naturally, some of the owners
of the forbidden and broken hats get
angry at their treatment, although they
might have been prepared for it; but
the brokers do the mischief so rollick-
ingly, with such an overflow of spirit,
that, the vexation soon dispelled, they
in turn become the Incorporating
enemies of their associates white hats.
Fun, even when boisterous and violent,
is contagious, and after few minutes
of this horse-play, the frowns of the
gravest brokers yield to sympathetic
laughter.
The price of membership, or a seat at
the Board, as it is generally called,
varies greatly, though as rule it Stead
| lily advances. Many Years ago it was
only thousand dollars. Recently it
was thirty-fiye thousand dollars; but the
long dullness of the stock market has
caused a decline from that figure of ten
thousand or twelve thousand dollars.
The latest sale reported was at twenty
eight thousand dollars.
When broker owns a seat he cannot
be deprived of it except by dismissal
from the Exchange for violation of its
rules. Otherwise, it belongs irrevocably
to him, and to his heirs, in case of death.
This is fortunate provision; for when
brokers fail so badly that they cannot
resume business, they still have their
seat, the sale of which will give them
something to live on, if deprived of their
income.
Brokers are continually failing, as
| they must with the endless changes in
the market, and the risk they are always
taking. At a particularly excited period
they are in constant danger, and may be
forced to suspend any hour.
Wall street is as uncertain as the
wind. When broker has been honor
ably unfortunate, no matter what his
losses, his fellows are willing and glad
to come to his aid. They will accept
almost any compromise he is justified
in offering; they not infrequently cancel
obligations due them in order to get
him started again. Such cancelings are
seldom taken advantage of but for a
| time of stress. When the broker fully
pay his creditors dollar for dollar, with
interest Much as the brokers are mis-
represented and abused, they are noted
for their delicate financial honor, and
they are generous to fault. Their
pocket-boo are ever open to every
appeal for assistance or charity They
give away more money than any other
body of men in New York, or in any
city under the sun; and yet they make
no professions of benevolence. They
are inclined to be cynical in speech;
but their cynicism rarely reaches their
hearts.
The hours of the Board are from ten
a. m. to three p. m. daily, Sundays and
legal holidays excepted. To stranger
all its meetings seem tumultuous and
frenzied; but they are very different. A
trained eye sees at a glance when things
are dull. The sales are sometimes
enormous--more than one million of
shares daily, representing one hundred
million dollars. 1t often happens that
they are too numerous to be recorded.
They average, perhaps, two hundred
and fifty thousand to three hundred
thousand shares, though they are occa-
sionally as small as one hundred and
fifteen thousand to one hundred and
twenty thousand.
When Wall Street is excited, when
the Bulls or Bears have control of the
market, the galleries are crowded, as is
the floor likewise. Nearly every broker
then appears to be wholly frantic. The
Exchange looks like mass of whirling
arms and jerking heads; press of bod
les SWAPS to and fro; the din echoes and
re-echoes from the Walls and roof; the
roar is deafening; hundreds of throats
are clamoring shrilly or hoarsely in
their wild hunger for gain; Babel is re-
viyed and intensified. The swinging
doors of the main entrance on Broad
Street, and those leading to New Street,
are ceaselessly banging, as the human
tide GIBBS and flows. The telegraph in
struments, if you could hear them, are
all clicking like mad, as they ought to
do, to agree with the madness raging
around them. The telegraph messen-
gers, being little fellows, make their
way mysteriously through the packed
throng, creeping under mems legs, and
climbing almost over their backs, to
deliver their dispatches telling of sue
cess or disaster, and enjoying the
hurly-burly which they blindly increase.
The delirium of speculation is at its
height. Scores of men are selling large
amounts of stocks that they do not own,
and buying heavily what they have not
the money to pay for. What does that
matter? Speculation is the greed of
gold that is hoped for.
Click, click click! Bang, bang. bang!
Yell, yell, yell! Roar. roar, roar!
The President waves his handkerchief
to "a boy, who observes the signal, and
beats gong vigorously. 1t is heard
above the crash and strife and noise
The hand of the big clock above the
desk is exactly at the point of Three; the
Chairman pounds fiercely with his
gavel, and sudden comparative hush
descends upon the Exchange. The
brokers seem to return to their senses.
The transition is almost startling.
Speculation with all its hopes and fears
and anxieties, its terrible temptations
and its numberless woes, is over-until
to-morrow.-Junitts Henri BrOlUne, IN
Youths Companion.
"A correspondent of the Raleigh IN.