The New York herald., 1922-02-22

the mahogany and glass and frills al
business. The idea of pretending to-
execute an order never occurred to a
bucketeer of those time, because then
the brilliant idea Of law requiring
him to execute an order had not been
advanced by legislators as sure
cure for bucketing.
Bucketing Then Aboveboard.
The bucket shop of those days was
just plain, open and aboveboard
bucket shop, and was referred to as
such without any more opprobium
than that attached to calling a sa-
loon saloon.
For instance, one finds in West
ern newspaper Of that time the fol-
lowing entirely complimentary an
nouncement:,
"The Coe Commission Company of
Minneapolis, the largest bucket shop
house in the world. is about to invade
Wisconsin cities. 1t is contemplated
to establish offices at Eau Claire.
Menasha, Appleton, Manitowoc, Osh-
kosh, Fond du Lac. Waukesha, as
well as at Racine and Kenosha and
other points between Milwaukee and
Chicago. The Coe Commission Com
pany has been in existence for over
four years and has a capital of $780,
O00."
Those were the transforming days
when a bucket shop crew did" the
small towns all over the country,
going with its creeping quotations
wire from one place to another as
rapidly as the last place was cleaned
of cash. There was no -quick-or-
be-sorry- the-rest of your : life stuff
then. The bucket shop was simply
opened in a small town, occupying a
dingy little room-not greatly unlike
some back street poolroom of to-day
with a table, a telegraph wire and a
blackboard.
There any and all might go to gam
BILE, usually at a sc 2-3 per cent. dis
advantage. but If the customer sp-
peared to have chance to win some
thing on his ten dollar bill the bucket
shop operator was not averse to hold
ing back quotations until something
mere advantageous to the house came
| through.
Whole Town Stripped OF Cash.
How thorough this simple and ex-
pensive bucket shop cleaned up a small
| country town is vividly illustrated by
| the following paragraph from "Gold
Bricks of Speculation" John Hill, Jr.'s,
story of the early days Of bucketing,
now out of print. This is what hap
pened to an Iowa village early in 1897
after bucket shop-a branch of a
Chicago concern-had been in opera
ton for few months:
ut developed that the bankers and
storekeepers had for some time felt
decrease in their business. The de-
posits IN the bank fell off; the cash
trade over the store counters shrunk
to insignificance. The scarcity of money
| in the town attracted attention and
was discussed on the street corners.
Finally, some person suggested that
for half year the local branch office
of the bucket shop had daily been
sending money in large sums to head
quarters in Chicago. The matter was
investigated. 1t developed that this
little side street office, with furniture
consisting of a table, few chairs and
blackboard, had absorbed S35, 1000
practically all the circulating cur
rency Of the town, and had created a
local panic"
Only n Gambling House Then.
The bucket shop of that period was
frankly nothing but a gambling house.
1t was a place where q man walked
in and bet ten dollars that wheat
would go up. The bucketeer bet that
1t wouldn't. There was no thought of
transaction in wheat or any other
commodity or security being traded
in on the Chicago Board of Trade or
the New York Stock Exchange.
Then some twelve or fifteen years
ago laws were enacted forbidding that
sort of gambling on commodities and
securities and requiring that where a
purchase is made on margin the order
actually must be executed. With that
law began the general change in the
complexion of the bucket shop. 1t had
to take on the appearance OF a real
brokerage office and had to invent a
means of appearing to execute the
orders of it's customers.
Thus we find to-day the bucket
shops so nearly like honest stock
brokerage houses that they are able
at times to rob their own employees.
We find these bucket shops actually
delivering to their customers official
combinations of the executions Of
their orders on the floors of legiti-
mate exchanges.
But as THE NEW YORK HERALD al
ready has shown, the procedure Of
sending q customers order through a
member of legitimate stock exchange
to-day is merely ruse to produce the
semblance of complying with the law,
which requires that the stock actually
be bought. That trick forms the basis
for the almost universal form Of buck
citing as 1t exists now. BY buying the
stock through stock exchange mem
ber the bucket shop obtains a con-
| arrat,on of the execution Of its cus-