Year: 1870

The reports from all the various departments
of trade are most favorable to an active busi-
ness this fall. The wharves and the railway
depots and the streets and sidewalks in the
business sectious of the city are crowded with
boxes and bales en- route for East, North,
South and West. The hotels are filed with
merchants from the interior, whose purchases
will continue to swell the tide of outward
bound merchandise for months to come. It is
very natural therefore, that with this legiti-
mate activity all around them, the traders in
the commodities which are the merchandise Of
Wall street should bestir themselves to take
advantage Of the general activity in business.


Hence we find the current of dealings at
the Stock Exchange undergoing very sens-
BILE agitation. The ''bulls" and "bears" have
past summer. Hundreds of brokers failed to
make enough to pay office rent and expenses.
Such stagnant period has seldom been known
in the street. The record of sales at the Stock
Exchange since last spring comprises only a
beggarly showing of business, despite the fact
that the present Board is the consolidation of
three former organizations, viz.:-the 'tregu-
lar, "open" and government boards. Hap
PLY, however, for the brokers the general
revival of business promises to bring them
return OF the pristine days of the stock market
The enormous expansion of the Industries of
the country, the more frequent interchange of
visits between the different cities and
different sections of the Union by persons
interested in various undertakings, the elias
ticity and prosperity Of the people and the
gradual enhancement Of our national credit
are combining influences whose effect are be-
ginning to be visible in the buoy yancy they i'm
part to railway and other corporate works
which are the vehicles in the great circle Of
wealth producing and wealth-exchanging en-
terprises. Values in Wall street have their
rise and fall like the ebb and flow of the ocean.
There was a heavy ebb after the terrible panic
of last year, when the gold conspirators, in
fighting against the relentless march of the
country to resumption, were overwhelmed by
the current, which had gathered all the more





movement. There has been an ebb and flow
of minor dimensions since the stream reversed
its direction, but only Of transient existence.
The war in Europe paralyzed the boldest of
the capitalists who make Wall street the
field of their enterprise. But now that
the war is supposed to have lost its
power to injure investments this side
of the Atlantic, and that English capital
is slowly drifting hither for more profitable
market than is offered elsewhere, we find the
tide rising again in Wall street and the markets
there undergoing that preliminary agitation
which is the forerunner Of activity and excite
ment. The speculative combinations are
quick to see what is coming, and the enormous
dealings Of the past few days are the result of
their efforts to be beforehand of the public.
Where buyer consummates purchase there
is of necessity seller. So we find a diversity
of views which is likely to render the financial
movements Of the ensuing season unusually
interesting. The ''buils" have taken the field
under the banner of easy and abundant money
and increased prosperity on the part of the
corporations whose shares they are buying.
The ''bears," on the other hand, are
entrenched behind the position of watered
stocks and inflated values, which they hope to
explode under the feet of their advancing
enemies. The clash of the two armies this fall
will be an imposing tableau.