The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-09-18
PHASES OF WALL STREET LIFE.
MEN, ONCE RICH, NOW BUCKET
SHOP SPECTATORS.
How Fortunes are Lost in Vain At
tempts to Guess Which Way the
Market is Going--A Place Where
Honest Poverty Does Not Exist.

Market is Going--A Place Where
Honest Poverty Does Not Exist.
New York Times)
In Wall street men remain poor be-
cause of the immense possibilities for
getting rich. Paradoxical as this may
SEEM, it is a fact, and is accepted as
such by every old habitue of the street.
Ask any of them as to its truth, and he
will tell you that it is so, and will illus
trate it with stories of his W expert
n and that of others whom he will
point out on every hand, who have
been specializing there for many years.
Men are to be found there who could
write experiences of twenty years of
poverty in Wall street, poverty that
will not down in that place of quick
and immense fortunes.
Wall street, the infatUating; Wall
street, the home of the ignis fGtuWs of
speculation; the graveyard of reputa-
ton, and of inherited and acquired
wealth, has its seamy side-more seamy
and shiny than that of any other sec
ton of the city, because of its great
contrasts. Honest poverty does not
exist in Wall street; dishonest, indo-
lent, willful poverty is to be seen on
every hand. Honest poverty prevails
throughout various sections of the city,
where the poor are willing to work,
and are anxious to get employment;
where an honest return for their Drawn
and muscle is all that is desired, and
where they have no idea of great spec
ulative returns.
These men remain poor because of
their inability to obtain steady employ
ment at the trades in which they are
proficient. In Wall street you will find
men who have lost fortunes and who
have been On their last legs, financially,
for years. How they and their fami-
lies have existed while they have been
trying to cure the bite with the hair of
the dog that bit them, heaven only
knows. There are to be found men
who have lived in ef1uence; men who
have been at the head of large corpor-
0U4OL5 vi OOE44CCEC6S A4Cn WIZ udNO
inherited and lost fortunes in specula-
ton. and who have not done a days
labor since they lost all-manhood, po-
sition and money, years ago. Yet
these men live, and turn UP in the
street from day to day to talk finance,
the affairs of the country, and specula-
tive commodities with as much assur-
N of being right and ultimately get
ting back their own as they had years
before, when they had money with
which to try to carry out their ideas.
Their faces are familiar to most of the
brokers and traders, and the stories of
their lives are known to all but the
latest Corners. They borrow a few dol
lars here and a few dollars there, from
friends who knew them in their more
prosperous days, with which to pay
their rent or butchers bill, and straight
way again fall victims to the siren
ticker and her twin sister, "informa-
tion." What the ticker but half accom-
plishes it's sister information" COM
.pletes in perfection.
Poverty and wealth have their loca-
tions as clearly defined in Wall, Broad
and New streets as they have in the
districts from Fifth Avenue across and
through "Mackerelville" to the East
river. In the speculative center, pow
erty's degrees are as clearly marked,
and its quarters r as well known to
those accustomed to the street as they
are in other sections of the city to those
who have occasion to pass through
them. The poor man of the tenement
district is honest with himself. The
poor man of Wall street and it's en-
virons is dishonest with himself. He
spends all of his time cheating his
weary mind withsophistical arguments
that he can enrich himself without
labor if he is only fortunate enough to
catch the tide of speculation. He is
always waiting for speculation to bring
wealth and lay it at his feet, and this,
notwithstanding the fact that in many
instances he has lost fortunes while
waiting, and has dissuaded himself
from proiting by his past experience.
Speculation, or the desire to acquire
much by risking little, is innate. 1t is
characteristic of the race, and will ex-
pire only with the last man and he,
even then, will hope to gain a blessed
eternity for the trifing good that he
has done-to reap much where little
was sown.
Wall streets vast speculative mael-
strom must be kept circulating year in
and wear out. that those who look ON