Evening star., 1902-03-01

ON BROAD STREET.
more rapidly the number of employees in
creases in direct ratio. There are, for eN-
ample. more messenger boys to the acre
throughout the financial district than on
any other spot of equal size In the world.
Each active trader on the floor of the stock
exchange has from two to five assistants
or messengers In every office a similar
wealth in the number of assistants Is to
be found, while the number of messenger
boys call il also unusual 1t Is esti-
mated that there are from eighty to one
hundred special messengers available upon
each acre OF the Wall street district. The
boy population of the office buildings is
rather more than twice this. For every
sergers Imagine acre lot filled with
80 boys. They would pretty comfortably
crowd it.
The Daytime Population.
1t is difficult to realize the extent of the
enormous daytime population of the Wall
street district. 1t is crowded with great.
intricate hives of office buildings. all of
which are densCly populated. The largest
office buildings in the world are to be found
within stones throw Of the exchange and
many of them have long waiting lists. The
natural congestion on the surface iS in
creased by the unusual narrOWneSS of the
lined with tWenty-StCry structures. are lit
tie more than alteNWays. Should all the in
habitants of the great buildings on Wall
street, near Broa Iway. chance, for instance.
to leave their offices at the same instant
there would only be standing room for
about one-fOurth of them. In other words,
the population of Wall street between
Broadway and Broad street would be suffi-
cient to completely fill the street four times
over. The fatal crowding of the famous
Calcutta
comparison.
The enormous volume of mail matter Of
all classes which finds its way in and out
of the Wall street district daily Is another
striking Indication of its tremendous ac-
tiVity. The average business man through
out this section receives his mail every day
by eighteen different deliveries A delay of,
say. thirty minutes in delivering a letter
is likely to be a far more serious matter
ir the street than a similar loss of
day or two in almost any other business ac-
tlvitY. The efforts of the postal authori
ties to satisfy this demand are unequaled
In any other part of the country. In a sim
gle building on Broad street, with a 'front.'
age of less than forty feet, there are, for
example. three letter carriers constantly
busted delivering the mail. And the let
ter boxes to be found at every corner are
absolutely inadequate for holding the mails.
Every building of any pretension, and there
are scores of them, has one or more mail
chutes extending from the first to the twen-
tletn moor, or Whatever II may De, "nlcn
are in constant use.
When Brokers Eat.
1t has become something of an axiom that
MEN in Wall street have no time even to
cat. And this is literally true as far as the
regular business hours of the day are con-
cerned From 10 to g. while "Change" is
the center of so many revolving dollars. the
great majority of brokers never cat. Each
minute is far too valuable. But the pop
ulation of Wall street is so enormous that
restaurants are naturally an important fea-
ture of it's daily life. The financial district
is so bounded with great rivers, far re-
moved from the resident section. that every
one is dependent upon the public dining
rooms. There are restaurants at every
turn. on the roofs of sykscrapers in cellars
far below the street level or in the interiors
of great buildings far removed from any
possible daylight There are restaurants
book The millionaire dimes in restaurants
famous the world over whose very names
are household words. The man who has
lost practically his last dollar the office
boy or the bootbiack are served with dishes
for few pennies alongside the palatial
cafe or dining clubs so crowded is every
one for space
The most picturesque feature Of the street
in the curious open-air pushcart cafes. No
where else are they to be found in such
variety. They are arranged with stoves
and broilers in winter and with ice in sum-
mer. and they offer limitations more or less
palatable of practically every dish of the
expensive restaurants and for or cents,
seldom more. 1t Is the time-honored GUS
tom for the carts to assemble in the side
streets leading into Broad street, near the
stock exchange, just before noon. At the
first stroke of the clock they all start in
one mad rush to gain the most advantage
eOus positions. Not infrequently a cart is
Overthrown In the hurry and a literally
fr1., t. rod l>r.St <t,@
A Push Cart Menu.
The menus of the pushcart cafes are
amazingly varied. You may enjoy a variety
of sausages cooked to order and served hot,
for penny. The waffle wagon from which
this pastry is served with sugar or syrup
at a cent a portion. is one of the oldest
contributors to the bill of fare. Other
wagons make specialties of soups. still
others serve some vegetables. such as hot
corn in the season. The desserts are offered
in even greater variety than the more sta
BILE dishes, and one is simply bewildered by
such delicacies as ice cream, water ices,
pies. cakes and puddings. Hundreds are to
be seen daily crowded about the pushcart
cafes
Not the least important detail of the
mechanism of Wall street Is Its elaborate
system of detective protection. A very
effective dead line has been established at
Cortlandt street for years. beyond which no
crook known to the police, nor even a sus-
demonstrating person. is allowed to pass.
AS an additional precautiOn, however. a
score or more of central Office detectives
are constantly on guard at the principal
entrances to the financial district. They
usually congregate In the vicinity of the
United States treasury building at Broad
and Wall streets.
Millions of dollars are constantly being
carried past this point 1t comes in gold,
packed in sacks and carried by the ton in
steel wagons: it is brought down town IL,
cabs or carried in ordinary travelling bags
or in the pockets of the crowd which con-
stantly pOurs into Wall street. Such a
thing as hold up is unknown. cry
for help in the financial section would in
stantly bring a formidable force of armed
detectives to the spot. The men who stand
guard here can usually tell from their long
experience when a man carries a large sum
of money from the nervousness of his man.
ner or some sign of self-consciousness, and
a careful eye is kept upon him.
The Twn RenNisifaa