Bismarck weekly tribune., 1886-01-29
A CLASS OF WORKERS.
OPERATIONS OF PRIVATE NEWS
MoNGERs IN THE CAPITAL.

00OPa0 VINO G0tner Information and S0xl
It to Private Individuals--AM Mar !5
ket for This Kind Of Talent
Sharp Practice.
Washington Cor. Boston Traveler.1
There is one class Of workers in Washing
ton who are present every where and yet
whose calling, while som times suspected,
Is never known for an absolute certainty.
Such people go through the departments
from day to day, and gather information Of
various kinds and sell it to whoever win
purchase it This class does not include the
men who earn a precarious living by col
lecting outside information for the purpose
Of disposing Of it to the newspaper CORE.
spondents for pc uniary consideration,
but is q distinct set, whose interests are an.
tagonistio to the correspondents Their In
formation is for the private and not for the
public ear. Nearly every day man with
heavy gray beard, usually dressed with
extreme neatness, even approaching to ele-
gance, comes down street and enters tina
treasury. He is universally known, but
there is probably not one man in 100 in
Washington who knows his business.
GAINING INSIDE INFORMATION.
He is suave, polite, and genial. but he
permits no one outside of certain sacred
circle to gain his confidence. Some people
look upon him with suspicion. but person
ally he is every inch gentleman. His
business is the gathering Of information in
relation to customs decisions. He is main
tanned bere in good style. fact which
shows that his services are valuable to his
employers, and it is said that he has become
quite wealthy. AT any rate. he was poor
man when he came to Washington, and
now there are none Of the comforts and but
few of the luxuries Of life which he does
not enjoy. His pred died, leaving
quite sum Of money behind him. which
by no means represented the extent of his
income, as he was in the habit Of living at
the rate of 1000 a year at the least calcu-
lation. The present incumbent is said to
be very successful in gaining inside infor-
nation sufficiently in advance to enable the
dealer to profit immensely.
There are several men who look after the
liquor, beer, and tobacco interests in the
International revenue bureau. Others look
out for the tobacco men, and a few com.
bine all three Upon either of these topics
good round sum can always be obtained
for reliable information. The interior de-
partment is also kept under sharp surveil-
lance by these people. Anything affecting
the railroad interests is a matter from which
they invariably reap rich harvests The
greater part of this class are men who have
been here for years. Their entire stock in
trade is their acquaintance, and they work
it for all it is worth. No new man could
come here and avoid making blunders
which would be disastrous to his employers
There is market for this kind of talent,
and it evidently pays well, as there are
more men engaged in it at the present time
than ever before
-. AN AGENTS SHARP DEAL.
An incident was related to your CORES
pondent few days ago which shows that
one Of these agents has his eye teeth cut to
say the least. By some means or other he
became informed that certain decision had
been agreed upon by the United States
supreme court. This decision would affect
the stock Of one of the Pacific railroads.
which was then booming skyward under
the influence Of strong bull market. He
wasn't sure when the decision would be
promulgated, and he didn't care to risk any
of his own money upon it. The first thing
he did was to 60 to broker and tell him
about the decision. He said that he wouldn't
ask q cent for the information, but would
call it square If the broker would sell short
2,5UO shares of the railroad stock and
divide the profits with him. The broker
accepted the terms. Then the agent won't
to broker No. and told him the same
story with the addition that he knew that
he knew that the decision would not
be made public for two weeks, and that 1t
was good chance to jump in and out on
both sides Of the market. He con.
vinced broker No. q and he also bought
2.5O0 shares, the profits Of which he agreed
to divide with the enuerprsing agent In
the meantime the stock doomed and doomed,
and when it had reached its highest notch,
broker No. . disposed Of his stock, and sold
the same amount short. ......
While this was going on broker No. was
in fearful state of mind. The agent had
his confidence ard from day to day gave
him such cconfirmatory information that
he decided to hold on. H. had to remargin,
but that didn't lessen his grip. In day or
two afterwari the decision was made and
the crash came. The stock got black eye
and tumbled down and down, until the peo-
pie who held it thought it never would stop
Then both brokers closed their accounts and
divided with the agent. In two weeks he
had cleared over $40, 900. The beauty Of
his position was that he couldn't lose. No
matter what turn the stock took he was
bound to win, but owing to his shrewdness
and foresight he profited by both turns
There have been instances OF similar ma
ture here, but this is the only one up to date
where the agent pullei both parties out at q
profit to himself and to them. .- . ....
A. Ho% =, orosa Voll