Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-10-03
WOMEN AS GAMBLERS.
THEY ARE NOT AT ALL GIVEN TO
WALL STREET SPECULATION.

They Operate as Typewriters and Teleg-
raphers OnIy-A Bit of Experience In
Fair Sex.
The managing clerk Of a big Wall street
brokerage firm unbent his official dignity
after office houss the other day and chat
ted about the women who are more or
less concerned in Wall street life. He was
having his boots blacked, and after the
operation was over he solemnly matched
coins with the ragged boy to see whether
he should pay 10 cents or nothing for the
work. The man won, and the boy went
calmly away as though accustomed to
conducting his business in that amer.
He had evidently grown callous to the
vagaries Of luck.
That" said the brokers' clerk tran
GULLY, makes nine times that I've had
my boots polished for nothing" He was
an easy recognizable Wall street type-a
O-year-old face, and the talk manners,
and attire OF a youth. His clothes fitted
with great snugness and he wore several
snowy rings. About the neck he looked a
bit rugged, scanned, and cracked, but his
eye was bright and he ratified ahead in a
high, metallic, and business.li like voice.
women are indispensable to the
street" he said, "but only as employees.
All that stuff in the papers-and particu-
larly those out of town-about women
brokers is rot. There are no m
brokers and as for the female spectators,
there are not two Of them to 100, 200 oper-
ators of the other sex. The old happy go
lucky days down here are gone. 1t is no
longer possible to win by playing the
market by instinct. The dashing specu-
lators of olden times nave been succeeded
by studious and thoughtful men, who
look into the roots of matters, and learn
the causes of every fluctuation in stocks.
It takes years and years Of hard study
and investigation. Women can not for a
moment hope to compete with such think
ers as these men, so they keep away, as q
rule. At rare intervals, however, we
have an experience with one of them.
The wife OF one Of the best known sport
ing men in New York came down here
about two Gears ago and insisted on play
ing railroad stocks. She lost $4,000 In
five days, paid up with n guilty little
grin, and went home again. She's never
been down here since.
ONLY ONE LITTLE PLACE.
had read a good deal about uptown
bucket shops and half-penny brokers' Of
fees which made a speciality OF trade
with women in the region Of Union and
Madison squares, and when we opened
our second branch on upper Broadway |
spent a week uptown looking the ground
thoroughly over. succeeded in finding
one queer little place where women
played, but no more. 1t was just below
Fourteenth street, and it hadn't even a
ticker. There were besides, two women's
banking flrms-run by men behind female
fgureheads-who pretended to do a bank
ing and brokerage business, but they were
very transparent, merely money-lending
firms, you know. So there you have the
whole extent of the much-talked-Of
women gamblers in New York. The truth
ought to be told, if only to clear the fair
nam of our mothers, wives and sisters,
who are, according to some OF the out-of-
town papers, the most rabid n reckless
gamblers in New York.
Are there many women In Wall
street,"
thousands and thousands OF them.
First, there is an Amazonian army OF
typewriters, who receive from lawyers,
brokers and business men salaries rang
ing from g to SIS a week according to
their experiences. Many OF them are
good, brave girls, the daughters Of for
merly well-to-do families who have met
with misfortune. They are very often la
dies Of good breeding and many accomp.
lishments. The number Of them who
marry rich clerks, and occasionally the
OUNCE members Of established firms, Is
surprisingly large. Then, too, there are
very many girl telegraph operators. They
are far preferable TO men as far as my
own experience goes, for they are neat,
trustworthy, take up little room, do not
smoke cigarettes or chat with the other
clerks, and attend strictly TO their duties.
There are innumerable female bJokkeep-
ers, clerks, accountants and stenos :aphers,
and their numbers increase constantly.
They have a good effect in every Office in
which they are employed. Me2 are less
boisterous, noisy, and profane Ia the pres
ence OF the iDnumerable ladylike and in
telligent young women employed in and
around Wall street."-New York Sun.