Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-07-31
LoNDoN's BULLS AND BEARS.
Eating and Business go on Together
at "the Throg.'

Eating and Business go on Together
at "the Throg.'
| The London Express-There are
some 5000 men connected with the
London stock exchange. and most of
these at some hour Of the day are to
be found in Throgmorton street. I go
into the Throgmorton restaurant, the
"Thtog, as they call it, and sit in a
gorgeous palace among these terrible
bulls" and bears" The frightful
din Of the street is shut OUT we are
In golden rooms deep under the earth s
surface; and yet the hubbub is so
great that l can scarce hear what is
said to me. I remark upon this noise.
do you notice it?" laughs q broker;
I'VE don't notice it at ALL I can hear
every word you say perfectly. The
exchange develops keener hearing;
we live in a roar"
How wonderful it must be for them
when at night they turn out at coun-
try stations and drive through quiet
fields and folded woods to their homes
under the stars!
Here it is Babel. The servants
move silently, thick carpets cover the
floor, no rattle of plate or cutlery
comes from the kitchens beneath. But
there is a roar through the whole of
this underground restaurant like the
roar of train coming through tun-
mel. 1t is the roar of men talking
money. There is no break in the days
work, no interruption of the toll for
pleasant talk Of wider things. Eating
and drinking, they are buying and sell
ing. A whisper across the table
means thousands Of pounds, the wink
of an oyelid affects millions. More
business is often done in this restaur-
ant than in the street above-busi-
mess affecting every corner of the
globe
| 1t is interesting to study these men.
The grim old English fnancer, with
locked lips and hard brow, is giving
place to a newer breed, a breed in
which one does not feel so much con-
fidence, a more bored and blase school,
Here and there among the older men,
or the nliddle-aged, one sees a counten-
ance OF capacity, master financier, a
horn chancellor of exchequer; but
among Cne younger men, very few.
They quote prices, and know all the
Iintolerable fractions of the stock ex-
change; but there is a lack of grasp,
an absence of imagination about them.
But how swiftly the boredom flies,
and the drawl yields to an excited
stammer, when rumor buzzes through
the restaurant of some happening in
the affairs Of the world. How changed
d scene it is when the czar of Russia
has done something, the German EN-
peror said something, or the king of
England paid a diplomatic call. Nay, a
| shower of rain in the Argentine, a
railway accident in the western states
of America, is enough to bring either
fortune or disaster to these dealers
in snares-enough to send them run
ming excitedly from the tables into the
streets above The hand of an Amer
lean. signalman or the pick of a South
African miner is lever enough to move
them like an ants nest stirred by the
| foot.
The great scenes of ancient days,
however, do not occur. There are no
real surprises now. The newspaper,
the telegraph, the ocean cable and
the telephone keep every man equally
informed of the worlds movement
The wise man and the fool enjoy
equality of opportunity. No man can
get more than few minutes start of
his rivals. In this way much of the
romance has gone out of speculation.
Newspapers know everything.
Nowadays the only great scene is
wnen one of the walters in the ex-
change strikes his desk with the ham
mer, and brings the din to a sudden
and terrible hush. The hammer
comes down again. Who is it? runs
III a whisper round the room. The ham
mer comes down again. And then the
name is read out of a man who is
ruined. who will never be seen on the
exchange any more. Perhaps he sat
opposite to you at luncheon, and you
were envying his fortune. Where
is he now? Alone with his wife,
breaking the news to her Of his broken
fortunes, and his broken heart. Poor
devil! Not bad chap. What are you
doing with Goldfelds, by the way?