The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-10-28
WALL ST. MILLIONS
CARRIED BY BOYS
soO Commission Houses Now
Entrust $50. 600, 900 to
Youthful Messengers.
NOT 4 CENT EVER LOST

,.,rys and dodeins through the
.,.,.,s Of the financial district in these
a,.. NJ tremendous dealings In wal
,.,c,s scurrics u small army OF mes
,-,r hoys wro curry strapped to their
,,,,.s email fortunes in negotiable Sc
.,rl,,os and cert acd checks. They are
s,,rr,Iy noticed In the crush OF specula-
,o,s and clerks. but they carry bits or
,..r worth IN the aggregate S15o,0o0,-
e0o q dar.
Small. INSIGNIFICANT youngsters they
,-s with i'd. battered leather wallets
o,ainad 10 them. but they are the visible
..,issst,tion Of the fortunes that are
,c,ae those days in the street. II is not
v,,sugl FOR a boy to he sardirg open
routh,i near "a suffrage orator with
1900. 600 tackled onto him which he has
forgotten IN the spell or the womans
a,a,o-y They are lust hits of paper to
him h'ts Of paper with fuhny markiiles'
STAGE the rush OF popular speculation
81, W,u street the commission houses
sa,a bc.u hiring new boys every day.
-be,e are about 500 OF these houses IN
Tho money district, and they employ an
oycrac. of five boys each, who carry
cocks 10 the banks TO cover loansa 10
.ho transfer offices. and checks TO he
certified. They are picked without much
I.crimirati by the brokerage houses
am m. messenger offices. but so far
there has not been a single tneft OF the
valuable papers they carry.
Cheek on All Securities.
IT, 10 not remarkable. because Of the
sy.,4m by which a check is kept upon all
securities sent TO the banks. If one OF
the bows should get into the hands OF "a
crook who appropriated the securities
and checks the thief would And II "A
mighty hard job 10 dispose OF them. A
few hours after they were missed. which
would be soon after the time they should
have reached their destination. every
cashier in the country would have before
MIN the numbers OF the stocks and
checks on which transfer and payment
had been stopped.
A broker to whose attention the mat
ter was called yesterday figured that
on a market Of 100000 shares, which
an average In these war times, the
Ayerage stock transactions would amount
20 SIS A share. or $4,000 o In addi-
Ton 20 this $4,000, 600 in certified checks
would change hands to cover the days
business. and nj, this Is handled by the
messenger boys.
II had never thought OF II in that
way said the broker after he had done
the figuring which rave him the results
mentioned, but II is amazing when one
thinks Of these fortunes fitting about
the streets ~uneuarded. And yet the
risk Is reduced to the minimum by OUT
system of checking so that we are really
In no danger of losing by II. our firm
had one unusual case recently though
Which shows what might happen TO "A
nrm that was caught short.
w sent a boy TO "A bank to have a
check for $500 900 certified. and also
10 carry a large amount OF securities
TO cover q loan. II was one Of these
recen, wild speculative days. The boy
went TO one bank all right and had the
check certified. but he did not reach the
bank where he was to leave the securi-
tie. We were confronted by the spectre
OF this boy wandering around the towr
Will s5o0,"00 in his pockets which IL los,
woulG almost bankrupt our firm. We
not ned the police and told the bank &c
wait and see what happened.
hoy Lands in Jail.
1T was not until 5 o'clock that night
whom We had reached the verge of ner'
vous prostratlon. hat We heard from
the boz. lie had been arrested FOL
some minor offence for which the police
wanted him In Brooklyn and locked NJ
at Headquarters. The police had no
seen ut to notify US. and it was no
unit. the boy realized that it might he
a good thing to lot us know what hat
become OF the check and securities tina
We were notified Of his whereabouts. TIT
securities and check we're finally oh
tanned and deposited, but II was a la,
evening for us
This boy happened to he an old en-
ployec Of the firm. but most OF the boy
are recruited from he companies whicl
supply messengers, The companies ar
told every morning how many boys eac
Arm will want. The Wall Street distric
Is hnoded with detectives and spccia
pollcenen these DAYS