Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-05-26
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
The Big Towns Brokers of Va
riOus Sorts and Callings.


Exchange Members.
NEW YORK, May 25.-[Spccial. Let
us consider the brokers of New York for
little space.
There are about :, 500 of them, counting
the membership of the best known ex-
changes; LOO in the Stock Exchange,
about LOO in the Consolidated, about
5000 in the Produce and the remainder
distributed among the Coffee, Cotton,
Metal and Merchants exchanges not to
speak of the brokers in real estate and
other lines.
Brokers and Brokers and Brokers.
The Merchants Exchange is least
known to the general public, as the Stock
Exchange is most familiar The business
done by the Merchants might be supposed
to fall within the province of the Produce
Exchange, consisting as it does, of but
ter, egg and cheese transactions. But not
so. Dry produce only is handled by the
latter and bigger organization. The Mer-
chants is located a mile or more to the
northward of the Produce Exchange and
is surrounded by commission houses han
ding the commodities of which it makes
speciaties. The floor Of the Merchants,
though large and of the same design as
the others, is quietness itself compared
with their rattle and rush and roar.
1t is not easy to tell Consolidated Ex-
change stock broker from one who opcr-
ates on the older, far richer and more OK
elusive Stock Exchange, but there's big
difference in their transactions and the re-
spect accorded to them on the street. 1t
isn't easy to say why, but, although the
Consolidated has now been running n long
time and transacts q big volume of exactly
the same kind of business, its standing
doesn't approach that of the other. Its
seats, even now, are held at only few
hundred dollars each, while Stock Ex-
change seats are quoted above $50, 900.
Moreover, while you might suppose the
"curbstone brokers'" so called, making
up the Overflow board" would gladly
join the Consolidated on opportunity,
they seem not to care for 1t at all
There is a big difference between the
appearance of Stock Exchange broker
and one connected with the Produce Ex-
change. The latter may look as business
hke-often more so, in fact-but his air
is more that of IA man who deals in sub
stantialities and not paper, though, of
course no matter how bona fide the trans
actions on the Produce floor the grain is
represented by certificates no bulkier and
no more real than the stocks and bonds
dealt in on the stock Exchange. Possibly
1t might be said of the Produce Exchange
men that they have a suggestion of the
west in their ways and dress, whereas the
stock brokers are essentially eastern in APP
pearance as rule. Cotton brokers reseln-
BILE Stock Exchange men more closely than
any others.
Many Inactive Members.
Although the New York Stock Ex-
change boasts |, 100 members, whose seats
are worth, say, 1893, 900, 900, not nearly
that number are active on the floor. Last
year at about this time it was said that
the active members could not be more
than 400 in all, and pretty. well posted
chap, counting up today, declared the cs
innate not far from the present truth.
George Gould and his brothers Edwin,
Howard and Frank all hold seats, the last
named having taken his recently, but none
of the three older Goulds is ever seen on
the floor among the stock gamblers. Both
John ID. and William Rockefeller are Stock
Exchange members, but they'd as soon be
seen in any other impossible locality as
among its rushing, gasping yelling
habitues. Russell Sage has right to
trade in person on the floor, but he doesn't.
ton, f. c. Benedict, August Belmont, X.
T. Wilson and whole lot Of other men
prominent in affairs generally who hold
Stock Exchange seats never avail them
selves of the floor privileges in person. In
these days Of great speculative interest the
Stock Exchange floor is one of the most
popular exhibitions in town, and the gal
leries are crowded with spectators through
out each hour of every business day. We're
the magnates above mentioned to be per-
sonally on show the rush for places from
which to view their antics and hear their
yelps in the mad rush for dollars would
be simply unprecedented. Membership of
the Stock Exchange is quite handy to
these men in their business, however. 1t
enables them TO keep a closer finger on the
financial pulse than they otherwise could,
and besides members are privileged to
trade on the exchange without paying
brokers' commissions.
Wall streets "kitty."
These brokers commissions bear the
same relation to transactions on the New
York Stock Exchange that the kitty"
does to a well regulated game Of poker
In other words, the broker who handles a
deal in securities gets his commission
therefor in any event. Stocks may go up
| or down, some men may De ruined Wnllc
others win fortunes, but the Wall street
"kitty' goes on no matter what happens
that is, as long as there is any Wall
street trading TO yield it. There was a
time in the midst of the depression which
| began in 1898, however, when the trans
actions We're too small TO yield commits
sions to all the active brokers' and some
of them were forced to sell out. Others
who kept their seats practically went out
of business for the time. Others who gave
up their offices and discharged their clerks
| hung on as "$2 brokers, keeping their
seats because of the desirable insurance ac-
compartments and in anticipation of the
| good Wall street times now actually here
The "$2 broker" rarely takes business
from an outsider, but is glad to get COM
missions from fellow brokers more fortu-
nate than himself, who pay an unvarying
fee of 50 for each transaction, thus sub
contracted, as it were. Quite number Of
Stock Exchange men who managed by the
"$2 racket" to keep their heads above wa
ter are now in good circumstances again.
1t is quite the thing among many per-
sons to revile the brokers as a class and to
look upon them all as spendthrift chaps
to whom money comes easily and from
whom therefore it is parted with ease.
But the fact is the brokers are much like
the rest of us. The notion that they get
their money without exertion is surely
wrong, for the nervous strain endured by
| most brokers would break down the ma