Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-07
BUCKET SHOP MICROBE

dun and tweedledee. The Straight-out
bucket-shop boss takes the chance with his
bank-roll and buckets the play himself;
that Is to say, he deals the cards just about
the same as faro bank man does. and
kites along with the market. but always
with a holdout for himself The fellow
who runs the wire house lays of the play
with some big central bucket shop. with
| representatives in many cities and towns;
that is to say. he sends the sucker coin
along by telegraph to be bucketed by the
big shop. To the chap who plays the
market in bucket shop or wire house there 8
no difference worth mentioning. He's In
| bad either way. and the people he hands
his hard wrung money to have an ace in
the hole at each and every stage OF the
route.
There used to be more so-called wire
houses in Washington than bucket shops.
But lot Of the biggest OF the central
bucket shops have failed" within recent
years. 30 that the establishments In WASH
ington that advertised themselves to be
wire houses really had no wires at ALL
many Of them connecting them with cen
trail bucketing plants. but DID their own
bucketfng as the money came along. An NJ.
1t may be believed. that with no "lay-oF'
facilities. except legitimate stock-brokerage
plants. these bucket shops were out TO
keep every nickel that drifted toward their
tills. and that the people who went up
against the game were. to put 1t In racing
verbiage, trying to root home 10 to l shots
all the time.
The Washington bucket shops always got
a big play when there was bull market
and most of the bucket-shop people here
would have made big money had 1t not
been for their habit of frivolng with the
market on their own account. and thus at
tempting to whipsaw the game and beat it
both ends from the middle-the old story OF
the race-track bookmaker. who. with a
perfect. living cnch, isn't content with the
same. but gets to gambling on his own
picks till his big percentage as straight
bookmaker Is wiped out and he Is thrust
down among the busted ones.
For a considerable period the bucket
shops of Washington had habit OF going
broke and Of beginning business again with
more or less humorous regularity ana
fine insouciance on the part of their pro-
prietors. One man who ran bucket shop
here went broke five times in as many
years. carrying the coin Of his sucker
PLAYERS along with him each time. But
every time when he got a-going again they
all came right back to him and handed him
some more. It's hard to daunt the CHAP
who gets the bucket-shop microbe. lie
may be a pretty smart fellow In everything
else but when it comes to his pet weakness
he's just credulity with an upper-case T.
Some of them. however, 1t must be sald
did become sort of wise, so to speak, with
regard to this bucket-ShOp man who got SO
well into the failing habit. They got him
sort of doped out, SO that they experienced
a bunch as to when he was due to lali
again. and, when they got that hunch
they took their custom elsewhere, In order
to give the failer a chance to fail and start
up again before rfskng their piking bets
on the market. Then he'd fail, as per
schedule, and start UP again, and begin TO
do his little thousand shares or so Gay:
and they'd come back to him and stick till
they got the bunch that he was framing up
another failure.
Beginning about dozen years ago Mt
tie group of departmental clerks dia
mighty we'll, with a lucky break In buck
ing first the bucket shops and later the
straight exchange houses Of Washington.
1t is we'll known that one man did run SO
small shoestring as $40 note into an
absolute 81 ,OOOO 900 in the progress Of five
years Of extraordinary successful stock
market gambling.
But every penny OF his big wad was
taken away from this man during the
Northern Pacific squeeze few years ago.
The fact that he was caught mapping ana
cleaned on that occasion didn't alter the
fact, in the minds. of the scores Of WASH
1ngton market pikers who had been daz-
lied by his success. that he'd got hold Of
the million after a long initiation as
piker 1t would OF course, be impossible
to say just how many Washington men got
stories sto ." about the SO tos1. GO 600 mans
luck. but there must have been many scores
of them. Many Of these went on fighting
the old thing for years so that the adver-
tisement gained by the blackboard people
ing one. The very calamity which forced
this man to the wall led to another adver-
tisement Of the stOck-speculating game that
brought a large number Of Washington
women into the market. A Washington
boarding house mistress in very moderate
state of prosperity happened to have 200
shares Of Northern Pacific stock hidden
away at the bottom of an old trunk. The
had heen given TO her by aged
railroad lobbyist in return to her kindness
to him during severe spell OF sickness.
Looking upon the stock as being about on
a par with lot Of fake gold mining stock
that she had in the course Of her boarding
housekeeping career taken from insolventS
in lieu Of the price Of their board she had
put the N. P. stock away without much
thought But she got 5000 share for her
200 shares when the squeeze came off. and
when she began to ride around Washington
in a devil wagon about the size Of an
ocean-going tug good many other Wash
ington boarding house propretresses and
their women friends began to sit up and
take notice. And a large number OF them
broke into the market with clatter. What
happened to most Of them Is a sad story.
A lot Of foolishness is heard in other
cities about how soft 1t Is for fellows who
are able to get market tips at the Capitol
In Washington. A stenographer employed
in one of the committee rooms OF the Sem
ate was talking about this end OF 1t the
other day.
Zone time last session. he said, 81 took
market flyer on the strength Of q remark
made by the old man." referring to the
senator who heads the committee, ito one
of his callers. 1t was my first whack at
the market-and It'll probably be my last.
Zone Of his constituents was calling upon
the senator at the committee room They
famed over the political situation back
home. and when the caller, a well-to-do in
dividual was about to take his leave. he
said to the old man:
~. What's good on the list. senator?
''The senator tetered back and forth on
his toes. looking knowing, for a minute or
so. winked solemnly at his caller, and said
to him:
BETTER buy little Caviare and Cod
fish,. naming railroad stock that had been
pretty active for some time. That ought
to go up ten points within the next two
weeks or So
''Now, this sounded pretty good to me.
The old mans in the market bigger than
wolf all the time and makes no secret of it.
either, like some Of the upper house legis-
lators.
81 had 81. 900 saved up. During the lunch
hour that day I dropped downtown to a
washington stock exchange house and
bought Caviare and Goldfish with my saw
fngs, putting up what looked like a good
''Wen I'd Just slipped the money across
the counter and was lighting a cigar, pre-
liminary to watching the blackboard for