The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-01-19
REAL WALL STREET.
1T CONSISTS OF SECURITIES IN a LOT
CT LEATHER BOXES.

These Are Carried to Market Every Morn
ine-How They Are Guarded by Night
and by Day-What Would Happen Il
They Were All Lost or Stolen.
According to the map of the city OF
New York. Wall street is thorough
fare leading from Broadway to East
river. In business parlance it Is dis
trict extending quarter Of mile Oh
either side of that thoroughfare, with
spurs and branches on lower Broadway.
But neither of these definitions is cor
rect. The real Wall street is contained
in a lot of leather boxes about three
feet long by foot and half deep.
From 9 80 to 10 o'clock every weekday
morning the real Wall street comes out
from subterranean vaults and spreads
itself over the district About o'clock
in the afternoon it goes back again to
its lair, to repose for the night Ill the
dungeons of steel and solid masonry
that defy both fire and burglars, guard
ed by watchmen who all night long pa
troll the dimly lighted corridors Of the
stronghold.
This real Wall street consists OF Sc
curities to the value of about $500, ,OOO,-
900. The buying and selling of these
securities is the business of the brokers,
and man engaged in such buying and
selling is "in the street. These $780,
OOO, 600 worth of securities are sent to
market every morning by their owners
to be sold for the highest price they
will bring, just as farmer sends pig
to market, and the broker corresponds
to the hired man who takes the pig to
market and is paid for doing SO.
Wall street is often spoken of as a
place where people buy and sell what
they do not possess. That however, is
a dclusion. Wall street is securities,
and the business of "the street" the
buying and selling of them. There are,
to be sure, "bucket shops" where
things are carried on in some such fash
ion, but these bucket shops are not Of
"the street.
Each CT the above mentioned leather
boxes is carried by two Gle! sent from
the brokers' office to which it is bound,
and behind walks member Of the firm
or some trusted employee, such as the
cashier. There are leather handles on
either end of the box, by which the
clerks carry it, and the carriers walk
with brisk step. The representative
of the firm who walks behind keeps on
line half way between the carriers and
has one eye on the box and one on the
people about him. Some of the small
firms instead of having box for their
securities have leather bag, which is
carried by one man and watched by an
other.
All up and down the sidewalks these
moving bags and boxes can be seen dur
ing the half hour which is devoted to
their transportation. There is little cash
in these bags and boxes-sometimes a
few thousand dollars which the broker
has received after banking hours the
day before and put in the safe deposit
vault over night, but no great amount
1t is securities, stocks and bonds, rep
resenting the ownership CT $500, 900, 900
worth of actual property, that is in
them. 1t is, of course, impossible to es-
innate the value exactly, but the above
figure is fair approximation.
If it is day of "bear market, y the
value represented is (on the principle
that thing is worth what it will fetch)
somewhat less; if it is day Of "bull
market" more.
1t is an interesting object lesson in
the affairs of men to see the stream Of
leather boxes spread itself over Wall
street district in the morning and to
watch it recede and seek its caves at
night. Some of those boxes which start
ed out gay and buoyant in the morning
seek the seclusion of their steel dun
geons at night sadly detected, and some
that went forth timorously come back
with an opulent swagger.
While this transfer is being made
about a dozen we'll dressed men. who
seem to take only a languid interest in
life, may be seen lounging or strolllng
about at the place where Wall street
divides Broad from Nassau, or III that
immediate vicinage. They are Wall
street detectives, who, appearing to see
nothing, see everything. And under
their care this half billion Of property
is carried through the streets in perfect
safety.
Yet even if one could invent some
kind of fish weir which would catch all
these peripatetic boxes and could then
get away with them it would do him
no good. There would, Of course, be no
Wall street for awhile-until stocks
and bonds to replace the stolen ones
could be made OUTPUT the stolen Sc
curities would promptly be declared
void, and as soon as the new ones took
their places wall street. would reap
! pear.-Detroit Free Press