The Washington times., 1911-04-09

off the prevailing apathy which oppress-
es Wall Street than Sinbad the Sailor
could divest himself of the dreadful Old
| Man Of the Sea. One or two efforts
were made by courageous professionals
to inject a little life into the trading,
but these attempts fizzled like damag-
ed firecrackers, leaving brokers and
brokers' clerks. restaurant walters, bar
bers, and bootblacks employed in the
financial district more depressed than
before. ',
1t will be noted that customers are not
included in the above agglomeration.
The omission has been made sdvisedly,
for one cannot speak with any degree
of certainty of the genus. Men turn up
in Wall Street on rare occasions who.
to outward appearance, bear striking
resemblance to customers who, IT Is
said, thronged the financial district In
the closing days of the last century.
The present generation has seen so few
real customers in its experience that
brokers hesitate about expressing an
opinion upon the specimens appearing In
the district until they consult venerable
authorities and inspect old Wall Street
pictures to familiarize themselves with
the class.
An Extinct Species.
After listening for awhile to a discus
sion Of business Conditions by the aver
age stock commission broker, you are
impressed with an idea that customers
have become almost an extinct species
Wall Street does not regard them as
having disappeared as hopelessly as the
ichthyosaurus. but they appear to be
held as somewhat rarer than the sur
viving examples of the American bison
outside captivity. Perhaps the status of
the great aux is the best comparison.
None have been seen alive since 1874,
but their eggs have been discovered at
a much later date. and perhaps a soli-
tary pair may be ranging the Arctic
seas. They are assuredly near no habit
able shores, and in that respect resem-
BILE customers, who studiously avoid
Wall Street.
referred to, the individuals who look
like customers of former days, made
one of their rare visits to the financial
district on Monday last. and Wall Street
had the appearance of being reinhabi-
tated again, but things went no further
than appearances. The strangers moved
about, to be sure, as though familiar
with Wall Street and its ways. They
peered through the glass domes of the
tickers and fused over the news print
ing machines, and scanned the advices
from Washington eagerly, particularly
when the Supreme Court was announc-
ing its decisions on patent medicine
prices and the like, but they bought no
stock and they sold no stock. and they
left no impress on the market when
they departed at o'clock.
Wall Street Economizing.
It is typical of prevailing conditions
in Wall Street to hear that Larry"
who dispenses milk shakes, zoolak, but
termilk, and a variety of other soft
drinks at the stand in the main corri-
dor of 20 Broad street, adjoining the
Stock Exchange, did the largest busi-
ness in his experience on Monday, the
day upon which the Supreme Court decis-
ions in the industrial trust cases were eX-
pected. Some of this was due, no doubt,
to the unwillingness of brokers to leave
the floor Of the Exchange for longer than
a minute or two at the luncheon hour,
when the decisions were momentarily
expected, but a great deal more was
clearly a manifestation of economy en-
the part of former Wall Street habhues,
who were drawn into the district by
curiosity over the court cases, and
whose long absence Is doubtless clearly
explained by a luncheon consisting OF
a glass of milk and a few Uneeda bis
cults.
Perhaps Tuesdays squirt in National
Biscuit stock was a result of the many
economical. lunches served at "Larry's'
stand-that is as satisfactory an expla-
nation as many that 1 have heard ad-
vanced to account for a Wall Street
movement-but, all Joking or sorry ef-
feet at humor aside, the evidences of
poverty. or its reflection, economy, are
increasingly apparent in Wall Street.
and one does hear complaints from pre-
cisely such persons as were enumerated
in the first paragraph of this article.
namely, walters and BARRIERS and boot
blacks. and others engaged in humble
callings whose fees are cut or whose
services are dispensed with when the
financial district economies.
To Chronicle Small Beer.
The story of Wall Streets business
week is a chronicle of small beer. Specu-
lation did establish two records, to be
sure, but they are records of a char
acter which brokers would prefer to ex-
punge. The total dealings Of Thursday
were the smallest of the present dull
interval to that day, but this meager
total gave way to a still smaller total
on Friday. Prices see-sawed throughout
the interval, advancing and declining
alternately, and reminding one of the
story of the New England farmers boy
who fed the hogs one day and starved
them the-next, and when called on for
an explanation after an application of
the buckle end of a strap. said 1t made
the pork grow fat and lean in layers.
and that was the way he liked it with
his baked beans.
If all this seems beneath the dignity
of a financial article. then beg that
someone will supply new material for
discussion or suggest a new angle from
which one may view a situation which
has been controlled by one infiuence,for
months and which continues under that
dominating influence. Good news and
had alike. of such character as has
been forthcomming. seems utterly pow
erless to influence securities, and prac-
tically there is no market at all. The
machinery is there ready and waiting;