The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1902-09-30
WEAR AND TEAR OF WALL ST.
financiers Built Up by the Great
Fighter.

written q successful novel about Wall
Street.
This literary neglect will probably
be borne with resignation by the Street.
which, just now, is feeling the lack OF
proper representation in the world Of
Fact, rather than in the realm OF Fic-
ton. The real need Is for some one
who will tell the truth about Wall
Street and correct the false ideas enter
tanned by many people concerning the
men who do business there.
Clara Morris and other writers have
managed TO dispel the once general be-
lief that the life of an actress was q
dream Of glittering ease, and the pub
lie now understands something Of the
true drudgery of stage life. Other
writer's have demolished the fiction
that artists seldom worked, or paid
their bills; that journalists only wrote
when they felt like 1t; that doctors
merely wrote prescriptions and seldom
went out at night; that bankers never
worried and that rich men never
worked; but no one has yet described
the nerve-trying life Of the Wall Street
broker. The general public still be-
lieves that he leads life of gilded
ease. Knowing that the brokers' day
begins at 10 o'clock and ends in the
early afternoon, IL assumes that he has
q particularly easy time of 1t and en-
vies him accordingly. Again and
again have Wall Street men, hurrying
downtown on the crowded 10 o'clock
train, heard strangers in town say:
swell, guess that must be nice, easy
life, I'd like to have q snap like that
myself. Out my way people begin to
work before 8 o'clock in the morning
and keep it up as long as daylight
lasts"
And the brokers look 1t each other
and smile little, for they know what
the Wall Street life really is. Often
enough, too, they look at their out-of-
town critics enviously, thinking how
gladly they would change places with
the visitor and work from 8 o'clock un-
til sunset IL, thereby, they could rid
themselves of the grinding care and
responsibility which is the daily portion
of the Wall Street man.
Only those who are in the thick OF
the work really know how great Is the
wear and tear on the mind of Wall
Street man, There is no responsibility
so great as that which Is borne for
others; no anxiety so trying As the fear
that Is felt for another. Those who
think that the hours Of broker are
short should shoulder his responsibility
once; then they would know that there
are times when q minute seems like q
week, and when the emotions of q life
time are concentrated in 9 day.
1t is no wonder that the average
Wall Street broker does not live long.
There are plenty of men who thrill and
worry over the winning or losing Of two
dollars, but the men Of Wall Street
must often risk MILLIONS without show
OF concern. In the crowd returning
from a race track it is easy enough 70
tell who has had q good day, or who
has lost his money, but In the hard
school Of Wall Street men must learn
fortitude Of bearing that betrays
| neither elstion nor dismay. Ii Is q
nerve racking life, that tries the mar.
row of a man. He has seldom time t1
think Of himself, although he must
often hold in his hands not only his OWE
prospects, but the fate of his dear one:
as well. No one gives more preciou:
hostages TO fortune than he-and Is II
wonderful that five hours a day Of such
work suffices him?
| Most Of the worry Of the Wall Street
man is forced upon him, too, at the very
time when he most needs clear judg
I ment. The ordinary man can spar.
time to think OF his troubles, but tn,
Wall Street operator must keep hi
mind clear; he must be able unerringl,
TO distinguish between the things tina
are useful to his customers and thos,
that are not. Everything he does mus
be for his customers, for the successful
Wall Street man Is successful onl,
through his customers. Their success
is his. His failure, II it comes, is hi
iown personal property.
More and more, of late years, tn
leaders of Wall Street have come I
regard their life as one for which the
must train as carefully as an athlet
TRAINS for q race. One Of the moe
daring operators on the Street mair
tains at his Office q corps Of masseur
who prepare him for his days work
tOthers place themselves unreservedl
| in the hands of Robert Fitzsimmon'
lwho, from his Bensonhurst Institut.
prescribes for them the diet or exercis
! which he considers will best enabl
them to do their work. Fitzsimmons
credited with having made over
: more Wall Street men than any or
/ who has ever been known TO the Stree
He is a rigid and inexorable disciplil
arian and, 1t Is said, has no hesitatio
about summarily "discharging" ar
, one OF his pupils who proves recalc
trant, or who disobeys his orders. 1t
not often that Fitzsimmons appears {
n the Street. but when he does he is a
II TO create 4 furry and TO read the ri
act TO some luckless broker who thougl
" IL safe TO "bresk training" Just once.
NJ Fitzsimmons, and the other physiqu