The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-09-13
CROWD THAT BETS ALL
Men at the Waldorf Who Live
at High Pressure.
GANG is BREAKING UP
The HeaIths of Most Members
Can't Stand Strain.
Il wonder If it is going TO rain?"

| Web IL VIII. IQySG L
IAN right; III bet you SO you are
wrong
There you have 1.-THE spirit of the
Waldorf crowd of Wall street players.
They viii bet on anything, from the
properties Of radium to the exact way
a hen should lay an egg.
! Probably they bet on the market There
are not enough opportunities from 10
o'clock a. m. 10 O'Clock D. m. In the
| New Hork Stock Exchange, so they bet
frantically on the London market also,
which opens at 5 o'clock a m, New York
time. Then, If nothing better offers. they
will wages a few thousands on a horse
| race or prize fight or a roulette game.
Money" said Col. Ike Hill. the Demo
cratic warhorse and philosopher from
Ohio. is nothing but green paper unless
| you spend it
Money" says the Waldorf crowd, lis
nothing but green paper unless you bet
! IT,"
| For Eve or six years the Waldorf crowd
have been betting furiously. They began
with the great bull market that started
| after McKinieys first election and ended
last September. They kept on during the
slump. engineering bear raids whenever
they were able. They lived strained, few
erish lives.
II Is no joke to deal in forty or fifty
thousand shares Of stock a day. as a room
trader sells. II is no joke to keep watch
of the ticker tape when three points one
way means fortune and three points the
other a squeeze And when this siren
-,
concomitants the Waldorf can furnish to-
gether with the frequent excursions TO the
race track and TO other places where
wagers are to be made. with practically
sleepless nights and the nervous strain
that comes 60 every soldier of fortune,
something eventually breaks
The break has begun. The Waldorf
crowd is disintegrating. John w. Gates.
at torty-eight, is seriously Ill. Henry We'll
has retired He has had enough. Jacob
Fields physician has issued imperative
orders that he must get out and keep
quiet or he will become a nervous wreck.
James r. Keene. while not strictly mem
Der of the Waldorf crowd, lives at the
big hotel and is under the same influences.
He, too, is ailing
For several years the Waldorf crowd
has been a factor in the stock market.
It has been rea sonably close corpora
ton To be sure there have been scores.
even hundreds, of men who have sat and
strutted about the cafe OF the Waldorf
and talked wisely Of stocks and bonds
and values. They have gathered in knots
around the tables bought wine and dazed
guileless country folks who have strayed
into Mr.. Bolts hotel by the magnihcence
of their conversation. But they have
never belonged. They were the fringe
The real Waldorf crowd has shifted in
membership from time 70 time for We'll
and Gates and Field are not the first ones
10 go out. but the basis has been these
men: John ". Gates Jacob Field. VII
liam Oliver, Charles Gates. Max Pam
and Edward Wasserman. The great men
OF Wall street-Iorsan. the Rockefellers.
Kuhn. Loeb & q, Jacob Schlifr-the real
big fellows. ha1k never considered the
Waldorf crowd Aore than the small fry.
Everybody else In the market has con-
sidered them whales. and, OF their kind.
they really were whales.
There has been no difference between
a bet on a high card and bet on the
market with the Waldorf crowd. Each is
a speculative proposition. Their principal
desire is action. They hunger for urgency.
Precipitateness Is blest with them II is
more exciting 10 bet SIS 90 on a thing
that comes out in a minute, even II you
lose. than il is TO make an investment
and wait for profit
They have the game at their finger
ends II a stock goes w a few points.
unless they know why. they sell II on the
assumption that where there is a rise
there must be fall. II the public Is
plunging in they bet against it. The
public. they believe IS largely composed
OF lambs anyway II dividend is TO be
passed and wind Of II comes they plunge
for few points against the stock of the
concern that is 70 pass the dividend. Sell
IL, realize quickly and get il again. That
r. their system.
The Waldorf crowd never miss propo-
sition for a wager. and IL there is moth
ing better in sight they will stake few
hundred on the color OF the eyes OF the
next man who comes through the door or
around the corner.
IL the old DAYS the Windsor Hotel was
known as Little Wall Street" jay
Gould and other financial giants met there
night after night and made their plans
for the next days campaign. Shortly
after the Waldorf was built the night
centre shifted there That IS the meet
ing place Men Of ali sorts and condi-
tons in the market went there because
that was the clearinghouse for news
and opinion Out 81 this condition grew
the distinctive waldorf crowd. which s
now going TO pieces. because its members
are human beings and car stand Only -
much strain before a break.
This Waldorf crowd organised itself II
grew out Of the association Of men with |
money and the same tendencies There !
are scores Of Wall street operators who |
would never get into such q combination l
even II they went 10 the Waldorf every /
night for eve years They were not born /
for tina, sort OF thing. Qualifications 70 /
the Waldorf crowd are rare enough a. 1
though IL Is true that every man Is more |
or less Of a Spectator. TIE average cid |
zen IS Handicapped BY caution. He doesn't |
want to lose. The real Waldorf crowd |
man wants 10 win OF course. but he 1
doesn't care so much II ne loses SO ious ]
as he has a chance 10 bet
The gentls-na- ~ho built I'd the New 1
York Stock Exchange furnishes ne /
dunn for speculative transactions such as 1
the world has never seen before They
provided a machine ths. enables even TIE 4
greatest gluten for betting 70 safe him /
SELF The Waldorf crowd. whose mem