Evening star., 1923-07-27
TX.
BY n. X. TREVOR.

Copyright, 1929. by New York Commercially
BY the spring Of 1921 the bucket
shops operating out from New York
had become so numerous that they
we're beginning to get in each others
way. Before the year was over, COM
petition between them for new busi-
ness was growing keen. and they be-
gan a profiigate line of expenditures
in the effort to increase their list of
! suckers"
The reader was told in the preced-
ing article of this series how boot
Ieggers, race track gamblers and con-
, fidence men fiocked from the gay
white way 10 the bucketing business
, and financed new houses that were
. operated by eX-employes of older
! bucket shops. These ex-employes
might have been trained as customers
! men, cashiers. bookkeepers. or just
plain bucket shop touts Many of
them had become identified with
bucket shops onI: few years before.
They had known those houses only
during periods of remarkable pros
pc rity for such institutions. only dur
ing times when money from the
in veritable golden stream. They
had seen everything coming in and
nothing going out"
Know Only Prosperity.
They had not known bucket shops
in the days OF big runs on those in
stitutions by frightened customers.
nor had they ever seen the guns or
the authorities trained on the bucket
shops-rather had they seen evil
dences of d mysterious political favor
shielding many of the bucketeers
from trouble. and the men who were
financing the eX-empioyes in the
starting of the new bucket shops ap-
tions themselves.
Many of these employees had learned
enough Of the detail Of the business.
and were sufficiently FELL able to get
other employees to jttn their FORCES.
an organization. They needed the
initial capital necessary to cover rent
for the new offices. office furnishings,
salary for employees for the first few
weeks. cost of sucker" literature.
and possibly reserve" to cover the
emergency should the first batch of
customers have the market go right
for them and decide to take down
their profits.
which appears to have worried manX
of the bucketeers but little. however.
so confident were they that an early
winner would leave his money with
the house and continue playing until
the market would eventually turn
against him. A guiding principle Of
bucket shop is to keep a customer
playing. should he win. If he feels
disposed to take down his winnings.
1t is up to the customers man to be-
guile him into further commitments
by imparting information on some
stock which is tipped" as sure
thing"
Getting Customers.
The new bucket shop operators. re-
cruited from the ranks OF employees
of older houses. did not find IT neces-
sary to seek far to get initial GUS
toners for the new establishments.
Generally, the new house had Gus
toners man. of one of the older
houses at it's head. or In its ranks,
and he very probably had established
sufficiently friendly relations with
some of the customers of the older
house that he was able to induce
them to switch their accounts to the
new establishment.
In fact, in many instances these
initial accounts were very apparently
used by the new houses as the capital
for starting themselves on their way.
The ex-employes, now turned propri-
etors did not find 1t necessary in such
instances therefore. to accept the as
sistance of the bootleggers. gamblers.
or others who were anxious to invest
in bucket shop enterprises.
The reckless manner in which many
of these new bucketeers, unknowing
Of the pitfalls which beset their oc-
cupation, went at their work, not only
surprised the heads of the bucket
shops with which they had formerly
been associated. but 1t fairly stag
gered the old-line bucket shop men
whose houses had been put out of
business in the reform wave ten years
before.
Day of Reckoning.
The newcomers proceeded in man
ner indicating that they had little
idea that there could be a day OF
of knowledge, or their utter disre-
gard of the finer points of the
bucketing business. which piled up
such enormous liabilities for them as
were revealed in the big series of
bankruptcies which engulfed them in
the spring of 1922.
A sort of mania developed for elab-
crate office settings to impress the
unwary. But the elaborate offices
were not sufficient One house after
another acquired its own building.
One of the stories af1oat was that
these new buildings were being taken
with the idea of writing down"
profits for income tax purposes, but
1t seemed much more plausible that
the object was to play the impression
ability of the customers.
Expenditures were made on circu-
lars of a size never before known In
bucket shop literature. This litera-
ture for the most part was in the
form OF market letters, generally is