Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-09
THE BROKERS' EXPERIMENT.
How He Made n Tidy Sum on n Mys-
ferrous Trip.

"A man in my business" said a New
York broker to a Star reporter, has nu-
merous opportunities to depart from the
path of strict rectitude, and l am panied
to say that not all of neglect to en-
brace those opportunities. In fact, have
not always been neglectful. myself. in that
regard: but only once he FASTENED to
add he noted the look of shock and
pain ON the face of the honest reporter at
this information, land that time l think l
was justified in acting 1 did 1 had be-
come pretty well known in the street and
on the stock exchange, when one day a
woman came into my office heavily yelled
She handed me a letter and walked out
without saying word, though l tried to
discover what she looked like, or who she
was. The letter. which was typewritten
bore no marks of Identification, and stated
tEat the writer was a woman holding a po-
Sition where she could secure valuable in
formation in my line and that if 1 would
agree to give her one-tenth of my profits
on any deaf made a her suggestion the
tip would be forthcoming.
My reply was TO be sent to Ajax at
one of the big daily newspaper offices,
where hundreds of letters sent every
day in response to advertisements.
AT first L felt like wanting to take a
club to this betrayer of her employers con-
fidence. and L rejected the proposition with
scorn. Then l gave it second thought
and felt less unkindly. Several more
thoughts followed, and at last | wrote an
acceptance, which 1 did not put my name
to- 1t didn't make any difference you I'M
derstand, for the whole thing was crook
ed. anyhow. l heard nothing from it for
ten days, then l received a note telling me
to buy a certain stock, which had been
hanging betwixt and between for months
with a tendency to go lower though it was
already pretty near the bottom 1t was A
very fimsy foundation to build much on,
but l took a gamblers risk and bought
Not great deal, but enough to show what
kind of tout l had watching over my in
te1ests, and. by jove. within week / was
ahead ten thousand dollars.
Il felt ashamed of myself. and never told
anyone how L had come by my informa-
ton. and at the same time / resolved to
shake my tout and have more to do
with her crooked work. even though it
was profitable to me. 1 also resolved to
punish her duplcity by giving her no part
of m! ill-gotten gains, bat 70 give her
share to charity. AS an immediate relief
to my conscience ! distributed the charity
fund at once in hundred-dollar lots, and
then smiled to think how my lady would
feel when l had informed her of my ac-
ton.
THE test was made that evening at my
apartments, when two ladies called and
hadn't expected that kind Of call and /
was in the room before 1 knew what was
up. But l made bold bluff and refused
to show down. Then they began to coax
me by telling me a few things I thought
We're secrets of my own BOSOM and the up
shot of the interview was that 1 handed
over the sum agreed upon. They were not
biackmailers, they said. and only asked for
what was theirs by right and L felt so
mean over the entire TRANSACTION that /
yielded. l never saw the face of either of
them, and, of course. never knew who the
party was who furnished the tips, but 1 do
know that when another tip came 1 refus-
ed to act on it. and lost a chance to have
made hundred thousand. But 1 didn't
regret 1t; one sin had paid me eight thous-
and. charity one thousand and somebody
L I
to make the balance of my money honestly
not at ALL