The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1894-08-04
BYA FAR0-B0x GAME.
How g. Il. Stearns & Go. Now OBJ
tain Their Quotations. =.
The Betting Modus 0perandi Is the
Same as Formerly.
But the Firm Now Manufactures
Its Own Fluctuations.

The stock brokerage firm of q. ii
6tearns & Co., at a Broad street has
invented a new scheme to secure the
dollars Of the gullibles who infest the
region of Wall street. This Is the con-
Germ which 1.-THE Evening World' ex-
posed last April. when 1t was doing
business as the New Haven Mining
Z Exchange" No one In Wall street had
ever heard of the Exchange" until
Stearns & Co. opened large offices in
the Edison Building, and put up an i'm
mense blackboard on which were dis
played the prices of the mining stocks
dealt in.
The names of these stocks were as
new to the habitues of the street as
was the game introduced by Stearns &
Co. The firm was composed OF G. H.
6tearns. n wealthy resident Of Chicago;
w. D. Valentine, his son-in-law; A. H.
Coleman, and w. S. Fender, of st.
Louis. Valentine used to be well known
on the Pacific coast and in Butte Mon,
- q gambler. and Coleman has been on
the race track In the West.
When @. H. Stearns & Co. opened
here. in April, they worked their game
through the medium of the New Haven
Mining Exchange. located at 500 Chapel
street. New Haven, Conn, and the
Manhattan Quotation Company, which
purported to be a telegraph ticker con-
eern, furnishing quotations of stocks.
Al q matter of fact, the Quotation
Company only handled quotations be-
tween the Mining Exchange" in New
Haven and Stearns & Co.'S Office in this
city.
The members of the firm OF G. II.
and officers of both the New Haven
Mining Exchange and the Manhattan
Quotation Company. Until recently the
Kew Haven %Ss T kari dozen as doS@s on
the Exchange bought and sold between
themselves every day. the stocks OF the
hitherto unheard Of mines, which the
Exchange had brought to light
These transactions furnished the basis
for the prices which were telegraphed
by the Manhattan Quotation Compa-
this city. In little room on the second
floor OF the Edison Building, just over
the PUBLIC offices OF Stearns & Co, sat
from the gang in New Haven. As fast
as the prices came In, the operator In
this little room would transmit them to
one Of these tickers stood out OH the
floor for the inspection of the firms
customers, and the other was placed be-
hind the long desk at which sat the
cashier and sheet writer's. AS fast as
the ticker gave out the quotations a
man behind this desk called them out,
and boy at the big blackboard across
toners to read.
A queer thing about these prices was
that after a universal! rise of several
had begun to buy stocks" there would
be sudden and unanimous drop In the
prices wired from New, Haven, and
Stearns 4 CO. emphaticaliy denied
that they had anything to do with the
sudden and always, to them, favorable
turn In quotations. and stuck to II that
Exchange floor up in New Haven.
The old adage, that "a sucker is born
every minute" held good IN this case,
Stearn's customers wer known to ever
win In their .speculations, the business
hourished and the game made money.
But now. the firm of G. H.. stearn's &
Co. has invented new and cheaper way
Of securing quotations to mark up on It's
big blackboard and reel out on its
The New Haven Exchange has been
abolished as too costly adjunct, the
brokers having found that they could
satisfactorily without it. This method
follows:
EVERY night, aIter business Tor the day
is over, a great lot OF cards bearing the
names Of the several mining stocks"
together with various prices, are put In
a box and shuffied or mixed up. Then
they are dealt out exactly as In faro
game, the names and prices being re-
corded on a ticker tape as they are called
off by the dealer.
This tape is then wound up and at
tached to the ticker III Stearn's office,
and everything Is ready for the opera
tors to unroll quotations tle next day
in room in the Edison building just
over the Office OF Stearns & Co.
Stearns co. claim, however, that they
sar %sy from New Haven ana nde deny
that they manufacture their own prices
by faro-box methods: However this may
be the Company Is doing rushing bust
a reporter visited the place. The big
room where the quotations are displayed
was crowded with men Of every class
there was pushing and crowding to
place bets on the next turn of the ticker
wheel that ,resembled the rush in the
days OF pool-rooms 10 place a bet just
before a race was called.
This morning the prices were all on
the decline and the talent were losing
brokers' clerks and boys and a mass of
hanger's-on about the street and back
doors OF the Stock Exchange.
A. II. Coleman, who was manager for
Stearns & Co. when the business first
opened and who went into the concern
under the impression that II was work
ing on legitimate basis, severed his
connection with 1t as soon as he found
that the business was subject to severe
criticism, and that Police Supt. Byrnes's
attention had been called to it,
Reputable brokers In Wall street saw
now that Mr.. Byrnes should inquire into
the methods of Stearns e Co. They re.
gard the scheme as simply. a game, with
the chances all on one side. Stearns e
Co. say they are within the limits OF the
law, and that they cannot be interfered
with.
United States Not In N Combine T.,