Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-13
BOY GAMBLERS IN WALL STREE
Youngsters Who Begin in Very Small Way In the Bucket Shops and Work Up.

Youngsters Who Begin iR Very Small !
 Way 1n the Bucket Shops and Work l
 Up.
 From the Boston Herald.i
 There is nothing Wall street man is so l opposed to as speculation when it is indulged l in by his help or his relatives. He lives by l it. but it is forbidden to all who are de- pendent on him or serve him. The other day broker, who is a junior partner in one | of the principal houses on Wali street, be- came suspicious that one of the office boys was Grading" as the Wall street folks DO litely call gambling. He liked the boy, and thinks him one of the brightest lads he ever saw, 50 that he determined to make an ef fort to catch him breaking the rule against trading and to warn him that if any other member of the firm ever caught him at the practice he would have to lose his place. The question was how to expose the lad but an opportunity was speedily offered. A customer came in while the boy was writing at desk.
 The customer said: Central pretty live lya"
 Instantly the boy dropped his pen and asked: 'fWhat is it now?'
 cone hundred and nineteen said the cus- toner
 Then the broker saw his chance ''What did you buy at, Billy4' he inquired of the l boy.
 Before the boy had taken time to think of
 the confession he was making he replied:
 "One hundred and fifteen ,sir." He was so pleased at having made profit of four points on his trade that the words slipped l from him.
 'tNow I've got you, Billy" said the broker;
 Ego and sell out and quit speculating for as
 long as you remain with this house. The
 next time you're caught at 1t you'll have to ge."
 | In another office it was noticed that all the
 office boys were in the habit of collecting
 around the ticker whenever their elders were
 not looking over the tape, and that they 1 whispered 8 great deal whenever they were
 there together. One of their employers call,
 ed them all before him one day and, upon
 cross-examining them, discovered that the
 eldest and brightest boy was running baby 1 bucket shop on his own account, with 8 cen point as the standard of value, instead of {
 dollar as on Change, and had initiated all hi
 associates in the full mystery of stock gamb ling. They were trading long and short, anc
 initiating, on a microscopic scale, the opera
 tions of the customers of the office, somi taking bulls as their models and some betting with the bears. The baby bucket shol keeper was exaeting a tiny premium ol profits and scooping in the losses quite Hk
 an adult. He was discharged and the res were made to promise that they would no
 transgress again.
 One of the shrewdest and quickest boy that ever turned up in Wall street obtained a place in German banking house as an office boy at $5 week less than three year ago. He does not get more than $8 or $1( now, but in the meantime he has grown to b. seventeen or eighteen years old, and has be l | come such figure that the best way to de | scribe his appearance is to say that he dress es like John Bloodgood Like the garment of that leader of fashion and popular broker 1 his clothes are always neat and chosen .wlGl l genteel taste, being made of the costliest ma @ terials, cut to fit as fluid fits whatever :; fills, and yet never gaudy or loud. Las ] Tuesday I met this boy and asked him hoS ] he was getting along.
 f bad week of it. dropped s1,200 on wheat. I little questioning brought out the fac . that this boy had begun, as all the others de
 by small dickering in bucket shops, based ol
 what was said or done in the office where h , worked. By putting the bucket shop win @ nings by, and combining with another yout l on good tip or two, he had gathered capita enough to make a regular trade on the stoc 6 market. That had turned out well. and h 6 had then become a regular gambler O. , | Change. Viewing this case in one way, tn i. bucket shop was certainly to blame for max !. ing gambler of him, but he got his point
 from the legitimate gamblers, and is now on |
 as he wins and his employer doesn't find hir
 1 out.
 n But the stories that are being told to in 9 fiuence the public against the small quota tion peddlers do not stop within any sue i. limits as those above narrated. The. v contain tales of rich bankers and broker driving about at midnight to this house an
 that, and begging uen to surrender check i, cashed during that day for wayward sol !, who has forged to get money to meet tradinl l losses, and who has then become frightene' 8 and confessed to the rich father ere the ex n posture of the next day came. They inelud
 tales of petty thefts by some clerks, and tn = running of homes by others who have got tn f fever without money to feed it. Althoug e the impression left in an outsiders mind s that the district attorney might as well go O
 with the prosecution of the bucket shop
 now, and that, if he could next turn his al a tention to the regular exchanges, no grea q harm Monld result to the world.