The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-12-26

| taking whatever you have got and all you
have got in whatever quantities we can
| get it-you can buy and sell small lots
| with as much advantage and the same
| facility as large ones.
This is picturesque fact. The victim
can get as much advantage out of small
lots as he can out of large lots.
| Probably more-he may not lose so
much.
For fear the trader" may not know
how to get his money to the bucket-shop
| In the most direct way there is some
| general information" in the little book
to thoroughly post him. The man who
lives away from the city is tenderly
cared for also in this chapter with this
| pleasing information:
| IL is a mistaken idea that those pres
ent at every session can trade to better
advantage than those who send their or
ders by mail or wire. Those who are
| away from the hustle and turmoil of the
exchange (''eXchange is a place where a
bucket-shOp exchanges experience for
money! and the surroundings can form
safer and more reliable opinion of the
market and trade with more chances of
success than if present, where they nee
essarily are more or less influenced by
the many conflicting rumors always in
the air. The experience of brokers
| this is the commodity they have in large
quantities for the purposes of exchange)
is that their country department. aver
ages more successful operators than their
| city.
Moral-If you live in the country be a
country operator.
But if you happen to be unfortunate
enough to live in the city, the book says:
| 1t is desirable to be close to the scene
of trading, to watch the changes closely
so as to jump in and get your profits as
soon as the price warrants.
Perhaps, therefore, if you live in the
city, 1t might be better to be a city
| operator.
1t is understood, of course, by all except
the victim, that what the bucket-shop is
after is any operator.
Chapters on How to Trade" MAR
gins, Commissions" Commodities and
Quantities" and Making Trades" then
follow in rapid succession. Each has
different phraseology, but each says the
same thing:
Bring us your money: we'll show you
how to run up
And it never comes down.
After the reader has become saturated
with this assurance of prospective wealth
he is ready for the closing chapter on
"Pyramiding." The salient feature of
this is as follows:
Pyramiding is modern term used to
express the idea and process of building
up from a comparatively small beginning
by increasing ones holdings as the mar
ket advances or declines. In other
words, it is forcing ones profits as fast
as the market will permit.
The method to be pursued is as follows:
With $50 or 500 buy 5000 bushels of
grain or 80 shares of stock on 1 or per
cent margin. When the market advances
1 nat,tc, Oh, -
buy 5000 bushels more. An advance of
another l 1-S cents, will show n further
profit of 500, with which buy 10000
bushels, when an advance of another Is
cents shows a further profit of $500, and
so on. Starting with 5000 bushels, an
advance of cents a bushel will make a
net profit of SD, $50, besides our commits
sion of Is cent bushel.
This is a fascinating proposition.
1t shrinks somewhat before the funda
mental fact in trading that when Il market
rises slowly nine points it has never been
known to do so without temporary
break" somewhere along the line, which
would wipe out the 'pyramider," and if
it avoids the break it does so by rise
so fast that it would be impossible to
make the sales and subsequent purchases
in time to keep pace with the rise.
The bucket-shop force can only run up
is early. at 1:1j p. m. This is unfOrtu-
nate, for it frequently happens that there
are victims who still have money left and
who may be tempted to spend some of
it before the shop opens again in the morn
ing. This would be manifestly a distinct
loss to the bucket-shOp, so in many cases
there is side adjunct to correct this leak.
game" 1t fourishes independently as
well and raises its head with
great show of responsibility in many
parts of the business district from
SumptuOus Offices. 1t has all the
outward appearances Of the bucket-shop,
with blackboard, tape, stocks and "suck-
ers," but shorn of the entangling alliances
of statistics as to grains and markets
and foreign dispatches.
1t is purely game of chance, or, rath-
er, no chance for the operator. There are
certain alleged mining stocks listed on
the blackboard. A sum of figures for
ups and downs of each ''stock" are print
ed at random on the tape. This tape is
run out at intervals of a minute or so,
and the victim guesses whether the next
quotation on a given "stock" will be up or
down, as he pleases, and, winning or los
ing accordingly, minus fixed "commis-
SION to the house.
These listed stocks on the blackboard
are purely imaginary. They are "stocks
in trade"
If "T. r." Too Tough is quoted on the
board at 1914 he does not have to get mix
ed up with Too Tough's past history in
order to properly speculate on what Too
Tough will do next. Too Tough is an
orphan without ancestry or history and
is decidedly on the fence at 1914, ready to
Then there is "T. G. c." on the board
with enough figures under it to endow an
elementary arithmetic. Perchance the
follower of fortune would daily with "Y.
A. c." or SD. w. g." or "B. 7. L." or
some one of the other kindred mines"
The same airy look of intelligence and a
little cash are all that is required to sat
isfy the ambition.
The city is full of men and boys pos
sessing these qualifications and they keep
the places full, groups replacing groups
as fast as the money gives out. Big
signs announce that Minors are not al
lowed" This should not be taken too
literally. 1t refers only to those who are
too minor" as, for instance, to babes
in arms. They are liable to cry and, be-
sides, do not have any money.
There are picturesque features in the
clock game that only the disinterested
spectator can appreciate.
Neatly printed forms are arranged at
the sides of the main blackboard in which
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