The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-27
COCKERILL'S LETTER.
Pathetic Dizziness Pervadiug the
Speculative CenterS.
Anthony Comstock and His Work-The
Story of Pair of Pistols and the Part
Col. Babcock Played In 1.-THE
House OF Poe.
IcoPYRIGHT. 1892. I

crowded closer TO the curb, and the
legitimate business man takes his place.
At the present rate the broker and his
customer will soon be pushed out of the
street altogether, and firms repre-
senting other lines of business
will be found in their places.
Wall street. therefore, is still a
busy place; one of the busiest, indeed,
in the city. But it is not the effer-
vescent champagne variety Of busl-
ness which stock speculation represents.
Some Of our largest manufacturing con-
Germs have their offices in that thor
oughfare; many of the big corporations
are there, or in the vicinity, and several
important banking institutions are in
the Wall and Nassau districts. Big in
surance companies crowd the neighbor-
hood. 1t is the home of some of the
biggest law firms in the city, and SO,
with one line of business and another,
Wall street is crowded, and the specu
lator who formerly held high court
there is shifting into less expensive
localities
The public, | am told, is completely
out of stock speculation, and old-time
brokers are getting out of it as fast as
they can. Some Of them have made
money, and have kept it, but the ma
iority are ready to turn their attention
to anything that promises an honest
dollar, and in some instances old habits
will make it easy for them TO waive the
qualification as to the dollar and take
the coin itself for better or for worse, as
it were. To stand on the floor of the
Stock exchange it still has the appear
ance of business, but it is of the most
superficial kind. The brokers are
simply betting on the next quota
ton. Formerly deals were made by
men able to make them, and
prices were pushed up or down many
points. Perhaps a stock was cor
nered" and lifted out of sight. The ele-
ment of excitement was always present,
and millions were made and lost. The
brokers who brokered and did nothing
more, made money, but when they sue
cumbed to the fever of speculation and
took flyer" on their own account,
they lost their money and their bust
ness. These were the ''gallus days."
when the public was in the street."
and business men, their clerks, and,
occasionally the preachers, We're
specializing from Maine TO Cali
fornia and back again. Ninety-nine
out of every one hundred of these rural
spectators have lost their money, and
this has cut off the supplies from Wall
w. Sow Il
stock speculation to-day. The brokers
and commission houses are practically
doing no business, and, unless all prece-
dents are overturned, speculation will
peter out still more.
/ In the Consolidated Stock and Petrol
cum exchange the situation is still
worse. Seats in this exchange are sell
! ing around one hundred dollars. Not
many months ago they were selling at
three times this price, and not many
years ago they were nearer one thou
! sand dollars, Business has dwindled to
a pitiful point, and the boys are having
! hard shedding. Not many of them can
| longer afford the luxury of an Office. In
some cases several brokers join together
!
plan This looking BACKWARD
system makes the look forward
a trife better for the landlord,
but even under these circum-
stances if he is a nervous man he may
not be entirely at ease. 1t is a fact that
many Wall street brokers are not now
making one dollar a day in their bust
-lu
dreds, and in some cases thousands. /
know of brokers who not many years
ago had wealthy clients and became
/ wealthy themselves, who are now fill
ing some humble clerkship at twenty
dollars week, or perhaps less. They
are scattered all around and are in all
kinds of business. between Wall
street and the farm is long dis
tance, and during these years Of glitter
and gold in speculation there has
been nothing in common between
the be-diamonded broker and the pa
tent, plodding farmer, and yet the
Wall street broker of to-day rises with
hope and goes to bed with a prayer
that he may some day be able to settle
down on a farm. There are now several
erstwhile regal roysterers raising gar
den truck in the vicinity. Some have
gone into the hotel business in neigh.
boring towns, and we hear of them here
and there in strange and humble walks
as compared with their former business
ANTHONY CoMsToCK AND Els WORK
A figure of growing Importance in the
life of this city, a man who has made
more enemies, perhaps, than any other
living New Yorker, is Anthony Com
stock. l saw him on the street on the
very day on which the entire edition
of the illustrated weekly called Truth
was called in, as far as the Union New:
Company could do it. Mr. Comstocl
is large, dignified and very
voluble man, with considerabl,
periphery and an aggressive man
ner. As the leading agent of tn,
Society for the Suppression of Vice
with whose doings his name has beer
identified for years in the public eye
Mr.. Comstock has. beyond question
been the means of accomplishing vas
deal of good. He is not an old man yet
and may have many years Of activity I,
live. He is fully aware of his own i'm
portance, and, many people think
makes his personality too conspicuous
but the means he uses 20 accomplish
his ends. as odious as the,
sometimes seem. are unquestion
ably within the letter OF tn
law \ hairbrcadth transgressiol
; on his part would at ONCE subjec