The Portland daily press., 1892-08-16
new YORK LETTER.
Pathetic Dullness PerVading the
Speculative Centers.
anthony Comstock and His Work-The
Story of Pair of Pistols and tho Part
Col. Babcock Played In 1.-THE
House OF Poe.
COPYRIGHT. 1921

lays Ado ISdNAiCeA q EOAAic 'AASAS ~ AZ
pathetic. use the term Wall street in
the sense of speculative center, for
every day the stock Spectator is being
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 bust
ness which MISREPRESENTATION 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
hood. It 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, I 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
jority 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 stock was 'scor-
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 a "hyer" 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, were
specializing from Maine to Cali
fornia and back again. Ninety-nine
81 -
spectators have lost their money, and
this has cut off the supplies from Wall
street. This is what is the matter with
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 dwindledt 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
and rent an Office on the cooperative
plan. This docking backward"
system makes the look forward
a trif1e better for the landlord,
but even under these circum-
stances if he is a nervous man he may
not be entirely at ease. It is fact that
many Wall street brokers are not now
making one dollar day in their bust
ness, where they formerly made hun
dreds, and in some cases thousands. I
know of brokers who not many years
ago had wealthy clients and became
wealthy themselves, who are now fill
ing some humble clerlxship at twenty
dollars a 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
lance, 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, Flooding farmer, and yet the
Wall street broker of to-day rises with
hope and goes to bed with prayer
that he may some day be able to settle
down on 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 HIS WORK.
A figure of growing Importance in the
life of this city, 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 News
Company could do it. Mr.. Comstoch
is a large, dignifed and very
voluble man, with considerable
periphery and an aggressive man
ner. As the leading agent Of the |
Society for the Suppression of Vice,
with whose doings his name has been
identified for years in the public eye, |
Mr. Cornsfoc1r has bevond question