The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-05

temptation to speculate, and cannot / shall
leave at once and 60 farm in California" It
would be well for others to do likewise
In the old Produce Exchange Building there
was a room in which some fifty boys from six
teen to twenty years of age, connected with the
various houses, met to clear grain contracts or
''ring' them ont. They knew much about
the modus operandi of speculation as their en-
ployers, and soon put the fact to proof. IL was
not long before the boys began to hold calls
twice a day, the same as their employers. They
traded only in one-hundred- bushel lots; they
settled the differences, rang out their contracts,
traded between calls" by going around to one
another's Offices. and in most respects indeed
closely initiates their employers. The one start
ling innovation was that they required no mar
gin; they were still so young that they relied on
the honor of the trader Yet singular to say
none of the boys ever "laid down" on their con-
tracts, and there was only one serious failure.
This was when one OF them announced his ina
bility to meet his liabilities of $50. He was not
sold out under the rule, but q pariah or leper
was not more despised or Stunned than this
youthful bankrupt was ever after. The boys all
carried notebooks in which to jot their transac-
tions inst like their employers. Que of them
carelesslv left bis book on desk in his Office one
day and his employer happened to see it. Its
revelations were astounding. Here was broker
in embryo who made the eyes of his ''boss' start
out like those of choked toad That ended the
boys call. The alarm was sounded, and under
severe pelalties the juvenile option business was
suppressed. When the new exchange was opens
ed, however some of the boys who had grown
up began to speculate in the ring, while others
devoted their spare time to the bucket shops. the
establishments which, by curious farce are al
lowed to do business when the horse or card gam
bling resorts are raided by the police
This trading by clerks is really prejudicial to
the interests of the employers. clerk having
a large buying order to execute will buy on his
own account before he executes his employers
order. or he will sell in contrary circumstances
He can sell short for himself and then beat
down the market with selling orders from his
house, and thus pocket an assured profit or he
can buy on his own account and then advance
the price in buying for his employer Brokers
do this themselves in some cases and think it is
all right. and some of them even give their
clerks permission to speculate in the ring but as
rule they are opposed to it. They are hood
winked by their clerks, and college for practi-
cal instruction IN gambling is what the Produce
Exchange has become. will soon become if
more earnest measures are not instituted to sup
press the growing evil. It would be invidious to
point to any one member the dean OF the
faculty in this college of speculation; but il
seems undenable that the Hon. Franklin Edison
was one of the fathers of the option trading at
the New York Produce Exchange, and that he
was assisted by numerous professors and tutors
profound in speculative methods.
OSCAR WILLoUGHBY RIGGS.