The New York herald., 1922-06-04
Pop Mandel Recalled as
Man Who Sought to Keep
Brokers Straight.
UNDEsIRABLEs BARRED
Character Of Every stock Of
fered for Listing Gets Thor
..ough Investigation.

ton under roof. That lively organiza-
ton once so unlike any financial mar
ket on earth. so dramatically dissimi-
lar from any other market place
where men meet to buy and sell stocks
and money rights. an organization
which sets finance to jazz music, and
ghost dances around tho respectable
figure Of Credit, has been a year in
doors. in its own fne building in
Trinity place, and the experiment, so
dubiously regarded by some of the
ultra conservatives. seems to have
worked well.
The Curb has lost none Of its life
from forsak;ng the ozone Of outdoors
and the ample elbow room on Broad
street. It continues to trade in mil
lions and plague its cub members. 1t
still concentrates on laundering big
operation. perhaps to tear the control
of gold mine or a mill. from some
luckless speculator, only to turn to
auctioning Off a puppy dog or saluting
a visiting actress with a shower Of
roses-hastily bought for the occasion.
Even indoors its irrepressible vitality
which for years produced such antics
and such horseplay in the great money
canyon Of Broad street that visitors
from 5000 miles away came eagerly to
gawp, continue to snap and sparkle.
Charitable and Close.
The Curb still runs amuck over the
leaping or the fast sagging quotations
of lunatic stock. but will drop every
thing to haze the latest bridegroom on
the floor 1t still hates peace and by
the same token. loves q row. 1t dotes
on sensation. welcomes missionaries.
opens its pockets to every appealing
charity and pursues q bargain down 70
the squeezed eighth of a point with the
avidity Of shylock. 1t remains. in all
the worthwhile and picturesque essen
tials. the same old Curb.
True. 1t is something like man who.
improving his station in life. has
changed his garb. leaving off cutaway
and derby for morning coat and top
and certain responsibilities that did not
lay on It's frisky soul in the old sad.
bad, glad. mad days OF open street
trading In wind and weather. srow ard
Sunshine.
1t is. perhaps. shade more respect
able-or. rather dignified: but the dig
nifty Of the Curtis not usiiss the dig
ity Of a stick of dynamite. II It is
fooled with 1t it Is apt to 60 on re-
gardless, bang right in your face. The
reason for this is that the Curb Ia
youth. 1t is made up largely Of young
men, some Of them scarce out Of their
teens. The gray heads and oldtimers
among them are scarce indeed. Merely
moving flock OF skyiarLing kids from
the out of doors to the inside of q
building doesn't go great way toward
changing the temperament of the same.
"Bfgger and Better Than Ever"
Speaking by and large and straight
across the middle the Curb has not lost
Its interesting and attractive qualities
merely by getting In out OF the rain.
1t is bigger than ever. does more busi-
ness than ever and, to tell the truth. Is
in better odor than ever with the big
grim banks that hold the purse strings
and that release or retard the fiow OF
cash that makes business boom or back
UP.
In that sense the Curb has lost q
little Of the swagger Of the vagabond---
from the bankers standpoint--and has
taken on more Of the sober. straigh-
laced personality OF the responsible
citizen-Just by having roof over its
head.
or course, something is missing. the
whirling, roaring. madhouse something
that used TO draw visitors to Broad
street, Just south OF Wall, by the thou
sand. Let there be furry in stocks
In those days and you saw sights better
than any circus you ever laid eyes on.
The celebrated Messrs. Ringling couldn't
touch the Curb for color and action and
high excitement. II was weird. nothing
less; weird and wild.
There were mad scenes almost daily.
with brokers rushing about In the street
butting into and at each other, many Of
them wearing hats Of startling colors
and singular shapes and all making
frantically mysterious signs 10 equally
agitated human beings who leaned out
OF or were visible through the windows
that rose in tiers above the howling
street. There was sign language that
amazed the looker on, fingers swapping
almost too swiftly for the eye to follow,
every crook or gesture meaning some
thing definite and immediate in dollars
and cents. perhaps fortune for some-
body almost then and there.
And on stormy days 1t was something
of a spectacle to see this mob of specu.
Iators and brokers milling under a
streaming rain--or even in young
blizzard of snow and gale, for II took
almost a convulsion OF nature to inter-
rupt trading on the old Curb--as they
wore glistening rubber coats, rubber
hats and even rubber boots.
Receiver OF All Schemes.
That bunch of gymnasts was the in
snbator Of American finance, the hatch
~ for many OF the stock companies.
~ wss--and still IL. OF course--the
warming box to which flock our most
hopeful inventors. prospectors. promo
ters. developers and just plain money
hunters. carrying every imaginable sort
OF project or pipe dream and eggs, good,
bad or china; projects born in hardship
and toll and schemes drifting out of in
curabie optimism.
. Some OF the dervishes that formerly
whirled about this amazing money mill
IN Broad street could borrow a millios
on their moral credit Some Of them