The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-26


formation which they thought UndoubU-
eddy authentic. and this was their oDpor-
tunlty TO recover their lost money. A
plunge was made, the result was the
same as before, and the spectators with
inside information were made paupers.
With money gone and brain almost
paralyzed, they continued 70 stand about
the EXCHANGE or the Offices in which they
formerly did business. The broker who
kindly took their orders for an eighth
each way IN the past, will occasionally
lend them few dollars to get them out
OF the office, for they are death heads
al a feast. as they relate their expert
ences which always had disastrous end
lngS. Certain brokers, through compass
sion Tor their former customers families,
Will at times buy fifty or 100 shares of
stock and carry it for them without mar
gin, and, after realizing q point or two of
prohJ on II, VIII present the profit to
them, accompanied with good advice
about keeping it for home necessities.
The recipients of these favors are always
very thankful, and, promising to place it
where IL viii do the most good, hurry out
and to other brokers' offices to speculate
with it in some stock with no better
knowledge of its probable fluctuations
than the word of some Wall street tout,
OF winch there are many. There are
touts OF all classes in the street, from the
shabbiest to the most fashionably
dressed, and some there are who receive
large salaries from INSCRIPTIONS brokers
TO advise spectators on what they declare
to be positive information, and yet are
not above asking for a portion Of the
profits if any are realized on their
guesses.
Instead of trading in hundreds. or more,
as they formerly did, they will take the
gl1tS OF their broker friends, and trade in
tens and twenties. These trades will be
made on an exchange upon which they
formerly looked with disdain. They will
fan TO ind the same wealthy class of
spectators there that they were formerly
accustomed to consort with. They will
find themselves in q more democratic cen
ter, ana will recognize many men who are
doing as they are, who also swung their
thousands Of shares. They will listen to
as much wisdom and knowledge outside
the rail as they did in the high-toned, but
no more honest brokers' Offices, who aided
them to lose their fortunes. They will
follow the same old beaten paths of specu-
latlon that they followed before, and will
lose their money with the same positive
conviction that their luck is dead against
them, because, as they declare, if they
could have held on but a little while
longer the market would have been GER
tain to come their way Again, they find
themselves upon the street without a dol
lar They walk down town in the morn
ing and back again at night. They find a
free lunch" at midday, and think only
of the time when their luck will turn.
They do not seek for employment, as it Is
too slow process for obtaining money
and they say to themselves that even if
they could get situations the salary
would be so small that it would do them
no good, and so they continue to borrow
dollar here and dollar there and wait
and hope for years. Their hope is based
upon nothing more substantial than
stories of men who have taken a $40 bill
and run it up into thousands of dollars
They never lack for company. The street is
full of just such, as they, in various stages
OF poverty, all of whom are acquainted
and know of each others past wealth and
former power in the market. Former
bankers and brokers, merchants, whose
names were respected throughout the
commercial world a decade ago, and many
others, all of whom were wrecked by
speculation meet from day to day. They
form a sort of nomadic brotherhood. They
are all on level, past glories have de-
parted, and they are willing to borrow a
dollar whenever they can. They have
become ingrained pessimists, who see no
good in anything except charities to
themselves, and these they accept as be-
ing their due upon the Supposition that
the world owes it to them.
They have long since moved downward
from the exchanges TO the bucket shops,
and through the various grades of these
until they are to be found in the rooms of
the very lowest class of foul, ill-smelling
ones, where they will sit all day, day
after day, in fetid atmosphere, listen
ing to the calling of prices from the ticker
and watching the underpaid and dirtily-
dressed boy chalking the prices upon the
blackboard. They sit there nodding and
sleeping in their chairs in warm weather,
ana huddled about the ill-smelling stove
In winter TO keep their scantily-clothed
bodies warm. Do they ever speculate
after reaching this conditions Yes, at
times. When by some means they have
obtained four or five dollars, they will buy
or sell Two shares of stock on q point
margin. If the market goes their way
and they make the two points proht
to which the proprietor of the bucket
shopIlmlts them, they take their profit,
less double commission, for one must
pay well TO trade IN broken lots that are
never delivered, and go up town at /
O'Clock with a adhare, self-saJisfied
feeling that their powers have not yet de
serted them. Upon these occasions thes
are looked upon with respect by thu
patrons of the bucket shop VINO have lost
lnaJ Gay, ana their opinions are asked as
they were years before, when they al
times manipulated the market. They are
as well pleased with themselves at get
ting two points profit on two shares Il:
they were formerly in getting ten point.
on 1000 shares. The following day theii
steps are little more elastic as they en-
ter the bucket shop, for they see success:
at the far end OF long vista of misfor
tune.
-Four shares of stock are purchased thi,
time, for the market closed above the
point at which they were compelled Il
close their contracts by the proprietor OF
the bucket shop the Gay before, and they
were told years ago, when they first went
into the street, TO play a market as long
as it goes your way.n 1t takes theil
former capital to pay the commission.
on the four shares, and the profits of the
DAY before are put up as margin. The
markets continues strong for an hour Oh
so, and they receive congratulations OF
their prospects from the others in the
room Real or supposed news that affects
the market is received in the Street, q
sudden drop takes place, and their mar
gin is wiped out, and once more all is
gone. This time the bucket shoI
proprietor smiles while the specu
lators sit and curse their luck
They have patiently waited for
months for the opportunity to make
those two trades, and now that they have
come and gone, and terminated like all
the former ones, they drop back into
their moody silence, and sit and watch