The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-27
-----------S-~a-S------
WALL STREET GAMBL ERS.
Scene in Commission Brokers Of
flee.

mces
From 1.-THE Squeeze in Transit" in the
Popular Magazine for January.
1t was a large room-the largest of
the suite that comprised the office of
the firm on the third floor of the New
Broadway building. One entire side
! was of glass-the windows that look
ed down into the dark and dreary can
yon that is known as New street,
where Neil could see the dim figures
of dripping messenger boys racing to
and fro like restles souls foredamned
to eternal motion.
Another wall was given over to a
huge blackboard, ruled into slim YER
teal columns by thin, white lines of
paint, each lettered at the top with
the cabilistic initials of one of the
more active stocks. At the foot of
the board ran a narrow platform of
wood, on which was stationed a small,
neat, bright boy, with a stick of chalk,
and an eraser. And at the window
end of the platform was the ticker
in its glass case, emitting frantic
spasms of clicks and slowly disgorging
an endless ribbon of paper tape, on
which purple characters were being i'm
printed by the droning, clicking wheel
within-characters meaningless save to
the initiated
But the lanky, weary man with his
hat on the back of his head, who sat
atop the tall stool by the side of the
ticker, was of the elect. The tape was
ever running through his fingers ere
1t wound Snakily into the wicker bas-
ket; and his eyes never left it. As
it, by fits and starts, emerged from
the slot, his heavy, melancholy voice
doomed hollow through the room, in
terpreting:
Reading, an eighth; Central, 1.17%;
The small, neat, bright boy raced up
and down the platform, his ears cock
ed to eternal attention, erasing and
writing down the figures which the
somber individual called out to him
erasing and rewriting tirelessly.
From time to time, the little assem-
blage of quiet, subdued, intensely ex-
cited men in the heavy, upholstered
armchairs inspired sharply. They hung
on the lips of the man at the ticker:
in pauses their weary eyes reverted
almost piteously-to the ever-chang-
ing lines of figures on the blackboard.
There were perhaps forty of them
men of all stamps. all attired in a
way that would seem to indicate more
or less material prosperity-and all
smoking nervously. fiddling nervously
with their fingers, restlessly ever
changing their positions. Now and
again one would rise and walk over to
the cashiers window-a two-foot square
hole in the wall barred with brass
| and scribble a hasty notice on one of
the blanks, which he would push through
the bars to the cashier.
The firm was a commission house
| pure and simple. Men used it to spec
ulate in the stocks and securities list
ed on the trading list of the New York
Stock Exchange. They filled out The
| little blanks with hieroglyphics that
meant Buy Tor selD for my account
so many shares of this or that stock
at the prevailing market rate" And
these orders being received by the Of
rice force. were telephoned over the
| firms private wire to the floor of the
| Stock Exchange, where the firms tele-
phone operator notified the board
member" who promptly went forth and
bought or offered for sale the guam
| tity of this or that specified. For which
! service the house received a commits
sion of one-eighth of one per cent. or
| the par value of the securities-that
is to say, $3.50 to every 100 shares
| dealt in.
The lanky, weary man perched or
the STOOL wound MS striped trousers
around the legs of his support and
glued his eyes to the tape.
Southern Atlantic" he began. anC
stopped because the ticker ceased fol
a moment.
The auditors sat forward suddenly
| gripping the arms of the chairs. One
| little, gray-headed mouse of a man
less able to control his agitation than
| his fellows, jumped to his feet, his
hands working, his eyes fastened or
| the lips of the reader. He held his
| breath.
Atlantic. 1.75-and half-1.sO--'
"Ah!"
The mouse man sat down and began
to figure rapidly with the stub Of g
| pencil on the back of an envelope. An
other man arose, walked to the window
| said something in lone, hopeless tone
| to Briggs, and went out from the Of
flee. The rest sat motionless, trans
| fixed.
"Atlantic-1. 95-"
"Bzzz- brrr-click olicketty-click" rat
tied the ticker.
zone hundred"
ooh, my God!"
The mouse man had collapsed. start
ing open-mouthed at the board, shak-
ing like a dry leaf in strong wind.
His eyes bulged, his hands were per-
petually restless. his face the color OF
ashes. He attracted no attention. save
from Neil.