Wichita eagle., 1888-07-15
ghe Il eagle
ON A DULL DAY.
SCENES IN WALL STREET WHEN
BUSINESS Is STAGNANT.

Light Ripple OF Interest-At the Pie
and Sandwich Counter-Richest Woman
in MISUNDERSTANDING New Conner.
After Business Hours.
Things are dead as a door nail on the stock
market The clerks and messenger boys who
come and 60 from the Exchange travel at a
walk, and the doors that slam behind them
give exit to none Of the noises native to a
busy day on the floor. A few late break
fasters are playing knife and fork at Del
monico's, and not broker among them
They are, to a man, lawyers, whose trade
thrives when all others are dull The scat
tered loungers against the ratings and tele-
graph poles Of New street are talking of the
opening of the baseball game, and the couple
Of brazen voiced curbstone brokers with
privileges to sell shout their seductive propo-
sitions forth in vain A hopeless looking
man leads a melancholy dog up and down,
as IL be expects purchaser to drop from the
skies Both man and dog look hungry.
A reporter from some news agency goes
by At q run, and an intimate among the
.idlers halls him:
Il "Hey, Jackl who's bustedl"
"Blodge," shouts the reporter, as he van
fishes under the Stock Exchange, to make .
short cut by the basement into Broad street.
This starts little ripple of interest. Blodge
gone up, cha Well, any one might have ex-
pected it. There isn't dollar in the bucket
shop business any more. A man is an In
fernal fool who plays cent in them.
A whistle blast, announcing that it is u
O'Clock, brings a stream Of brokers out of the
Stock Exchange doors, and for the time being
makes the streeSlively enough. Delmonicos
fills up, but the biggest crowd is at the end
where the ten cent pie and sandwich counter
Is Only two bottles of champagne are visible
along the whole row of tables, and deep
seated melancholy has possession of the shaven
waters
"How are things, AugusteF' asks a giddy
young scion of an old banking house, who is
Investing some Of the paternl cash in a feast
that makes older men, who have to work for
their money, open their eyes. ''Slow, ehF'
"Ah, sareI" thus Auguste, with his shoul-
ders to his ears and his hands out, palms up
ward; son bear market, sare, re vaitare he
starve."
Dodging out of one Of the nests Of Offices
ON Broad street comes an elderly woman in a
shabby gown, with hand sachel bullying to
bursting clutched in her ungloved hand A
Identify his trade by, trots beside her, listen
1g submissively to her observations, and
nush Of awe falls on the street during her
passage. Among the whispered fragments Of
comment that follow them you may catch a
few, such as;
"Betsy Brown"
"Richest woman il America"
"Bet you the beers she's got million in
that gripsack-"
"Heard she's gone in for j. P. S. Con-
solidated."
4 Two or three men who have few quarters
left hurry OFF TO the nearest bucket shop to
buy j. P s. Consolidated for rise, because
Betsy Brown is said to have gone in for it.
Later, the members discover a new conner.
he is a smartly dressed young fellow, who
has lately bought seat, and who has been
lured on the floor for the first time by the
appearance of the theatrical visitors. His
new associates hail him with much effusion.
Zone grasps his hand warmly.
my dear boy" he says, $50 glad to see
you here, upon my word, am"
He congresses the new members hand In
q grip that makes him squirm, while another
conspirator snatches the new members new
white hat OF and losses it into the air. In
fash the whole exchange is in an uproar.
The hat bounds aud rebounds in the air like
ball, never getting lower than the line Of
heada A circle forms around the astonished
new member and commences a weird and
barbaric dance accompanied by chant that
would do credit to band of Apache Indians
ON the war path The new member, who had
iii now forgotten all about the hazing that
the exchange practices, makes an attempt to
break the circle and reach the door, and be-
comes lost in a tangle of stockholders who
rend the wellln with the most unearthly and
inhuman cries The visitors are in an ecstasy
and applaud wildly When the new member
finally bolts out at back door, with his
spring suit IN ribbons he is followed by
owl that must be audible in Jersey.
truck loaded with sacks Of silver dollars,
ke bags of meal, jolts away from the sub
reasury and breaks down dozen yards of.
Thus gives the unemployed mob something to
look ct, while the driver and couple of
volunteer assistants stack the treasure up
along the curbStone, to await the arrival of
another truck
By ten minutes past the exchange is
locked up, New street is empty, and Broad
street nearly So The bar tenders commence
\ to wash up their glasses for the day. and the
raiters gather in the corners of the restau-
ffants, and compare their returns with dark
ening brows. in the brokers offices the char
women begin to sweep out, and In the beer
saloons the men with dogs, and shoestrings,
and playing cards, and what not else 10 sell,
industriously work the free lunch counter,
and talk as soiennly OF the dreadful dizziness
as if they were personally interested in the
millions that have not changed hands.
The brokers are going up town a-foot and
ON wheels, but mostly a-foot. They do it for
exercise they say 1t is a popularity Of
Wall street that bear market is always
amazingly provocative of athieticism among
the brokers, while luxury and a desire for
, ease and repose come in as invariably when
the bulls have the field to themselves
Alfred Trumble in The Argonaut
Beating Carpets in Paris.