THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTTiATTD. JANUARY 4, 1914.
3
NOW THE WOLF HOWLS DISMALLY
Things Are Not What They Used
,to Be in Stock Gamblers Mecca
IMPOSING WALLS
M mi h i mi urn ii n i j 1' '-''cCr v.V:,vv-4t. t''Jfh v t
iUGSl JLL
i J. ' - ' - - - ' -
THERE was a time when Wall
e treat was riotously -rich and
powerful. Day after day Its tem
ples, big- and little, were crowded, with
worshipers at the shrine of the Ticker.
Its high priests felt that they ruled
the Nation. Tribute was laid on their
altars In such streams that it seemed
the flow must be Inexhaustible and
never would cease. Devotees by the
thousands impoverished themselves In
their mad wooing Q.f the Money Gods,
but thousands of others rushed . in to
take their places.
And now it is all changed. Services
re held in Wall street Just the same
as they used to be. There Is the regu
lar ceremony In the big temple and the
little temples, the daily incantations
and the display of the idols, but there
are no worshipers. Slaves have turned
scoffers. No reverenoe Is shown even
to the high priests. Worst of all the
people who used to abase themselves
and speak only in whispers of the
mighty man of the temple no longer
come to the street of gold with their
tribute.
To many persons the term "Street of
Gold" has become a mockery. They
are the margin clerks, stenographers,
typists, bookkeepers, board boys, etc,
thrown out of work since the blight
struck Wall street. There are thou
sands of them. They have found it
difficult to obtain employment. Once
they spoke proudly of being In Wall
street. Now they discover It is well
to conceal the fact that they ever
worked there. Employers seem to look
with disfavor upon anyone who comes
out of the street. It is not that the
applicant may not be clever and able,
but the Wall street brand Is now a
taint and not a distinction.
There are 1100 members of the Stock
Exchange. The other day the com
missions on the total business trans
acted would amount to only J1.40 per
member If divided equally. It Is doubt
ful If there is a brokerage house in
the street that has made any money
In the last two years. Never has there
been another such period of stagna
tion. Dozens of houses have consoli
dated in order to reduce expenses. Doz
ens of other houses either have retired
from business voluntarily or failed.
One of the oldest firms, that of H. B.
Hollins & Co., went Into bankruptcy
in November. It was simply a case of
dry rot. Once upona time, Hollins &
Co. did the bulk of the buying and
selling for J. IMerpont Morgan & Co.
Its transactions then were enormous
and its prestige the highest. When
the receiver took charge he found lit
tie of value aside from the office fur
niture. Capital, customers ' and pres
tlge had gone under the withering
process which Wall street has endured
so long.
What is going to become" of Wall
street? It has had periods of dullness,
but this is not dullness from which It
is suffering now, but stagnation. It
has had attacks from enemies without,
and within In other times, but never
until now has it been unable to bring
the public back to the same after a
moderate period of penitence. It Is not
in stocks alone that the people have
ceased to speculate.
The situation is almost as bad with
bond brokers, grain men and In the
coffee and the cotton markets. Con
servative estimates place the number
of persons dismissed by brokerage
houses In order to retrench at from
3000 to 5000. To this total must be
added the employes let go by the bank
ers, lawyers, printers, supply people,
restaurants, and the various other con
cerns that fattened on the business of
the Stock Exchange. Even the boot
blacks are affected by the blight In
the financial district. Uptown it Is
the same. The lobster palaces, thea
ters, great hotels. Jewelers, caterers,
furnishers, all sorrow because Wall
street is having such a hard time.
There used to' be a score of broker
age houses that employed from 50 to
75 persons. Now there are. few that
have 25 names on the payroll. On
various occasions in times of plenty
one speculator, Daniel G. Reid, gave
more business to the street in a few
hours than has been transacted by the
whole Exchange In one recent day. Men
who once were big factors now are
rarely heard of. A. O. Brown is an
example.
Five or six years ago his establish
ment was the biggest In Wall street
the biggest In the history of the Stock
Exchange. He had thousands of cus
tomers and hundreds of employes. His
main office was packed with people
throughout the day. There were
branches In most of the big hotels.
Special wires connected him with his
out-of-town branches In all of the
principal cities. Uptown he had
night establishment where there were
private rooms for such customers from
distant points as wished to be his
guests while In the city. These visit
ors were as much at home as If In a
private club. Their host provided
everything, even to, a valet. Wine was
free as water. The finest of cigars
were theirs to take In any quantity
A $20,000 a year chef prepared their
meals.
By cable and special wire they could
get news at any hour of the night from
any quarter of the globe. While they
were In bed they could get reports as
to the opening of the London market.
The running expenses of all the A. O.
Brown establishments were far in ex
cess of $1000 a day. y
When the broker married a popular
actress, one of his gifts to his bride
was a ? 10,000 automobile.
Wall street has forgotten A. O.
Brown. Maybe he has not forgotten
Wall street. He earns much less now
than he paid to hia chef. 'Lately he
has been ticket seller in one of the
uptown theaters.
"
The whole city feels the stagnation
of Wall street. In Riverside Drive
nearly half the mansions have "To Let"
or "For Sale" on them. Office space
In the lower part of Manhattan is at
a discount. Rentals In desirable struc
tures In the financial district used to 1
be at the rate of from $1.50. to. $2.60
per square foot per year. Now it Is
obtainable at $1 or less. There are few
buildings that have 75 per cent of their
space occupied. , Some have not 50 per
cent. As if the situation were not bad
enough so far as real estate is con
cerned, one giant structure Just com
pleted Is searching for tenants, another
of monstrous size will soon be ready
for occupancy and still another which
will be the biggest In the world is un
der construction and advertising for
lessees. Five years ago the great of
fice buildings paid big dividends. To
day "there are few of them returning
as much as 3 per cent on the Invest
ment and a lot of then' barely pay ex
penses. Greatest of all the contrasts are In
the offices of the brokers. A man sat
in one of the principal houses of the
street for three-quarters of an hour
the other day facing the stock board.
His chair was the only one occupied.
During all that time not a visitor en
tered the room. Occasionally the ticker
sputtered and then ceased. The board
boy put up a quotation, and loitered
about for the machine to resume op
erations. The place was still but for
the occasional sound of the ticker. The
atmosphere was that of desolation.
Formerly that office was thronged.
To get a seat was a privilege. The
ticker kept up a. ceaseless chatter.
Nervous, well-dressed men hurried in,
glanced at the board, talked In low,
earnest tones with attaches, gave heir
orders, watched the quotations for 10 or
15 minutes and then raced away. Pros
perous, important-looking men would
go occasionally to a private room,
where there were drinks of all kinds
and cigars at their disposal. There
was a private dining-room, too, for the
most favored of customers. In days of
big doings on the exchange that office
was in a whirl for five hours. Clerks
rushed about, customers gave orders so
fast and so frequent that it was hard to
understand how all could b kept track
of, and there was an air of high pres
sure and prosperity to the whole es
tablishment. There are no private barrooms In the
brokerage offices now. They have been
cut out along with a lot of employes.
There are no private dining-rooms. The
broker can afferd no such luxury. Sal
aries have been reduced and economies
inaugurated to an extent that Wall
street never knew before. Ten thou
sand-dollar men now get $1500 or $3000
and are fortunate to get that; $2500
men are glad to get $25 a week.
Broad street used to be lined with
taxicabs. A little after 3 o'clock would
begin the hegira uptown. No one of
any account would, waste his precious
time in any vehicle slower than an au
tomobile. There are few taxis in Broad
street these days. Men who used to
talk and think In millions now ride in
the subway.
From Cohoes, Xenia, Painted Post,
Butte, Junction City, and a thousand
other places men used to come to New
York once or twice a year to buy goods,
look at the town or Just for a vacation.
Maybe they were bankers, manufactur
ers, merchants or contractors. At home
no one suspected they had stock-market
interests. Some of them brought
their -wives. In various hotels most of
the brokers had branch offices. Down
town and uptown the brokers had
scouts bright men who saw that old
customers who came to town did not
stray eff and who were alert to roping
In new ones. If the visitor's wife took
advantage of the trip East to replenish
her wardrobe, what more natural than
that the scout should get the husband
to play the market to pay for the out
fit and the trip combined? If the ven
ture happened to succeed, the visitor
would want to press his luck. If he
lost, he was likely to try to recover his
losses by more play. Any way the
game went the scout and the broker
won.
Gentlemen from Cohoes, Xenia,
if " -
if. , oJ -
? r - '
Painted Post. Butte, Junction City and
the thousand other places still come t
New York, but few of them are led to
Wall street. Somehow the whole coun
try seems to be possessed of the notion
that Wall street is rotten. Maybe It Is
the cumulative effect of a hundred
muck-raking articles printed In maga
zines. Maybe the multitude of scandals
connected with railroad and industrial
corporations have sunk home. Maybe
the adage of one of a certain specela
being born every minute Is not so true
now as it used to be.
Do not think for a moment that the
out-of-town business men made up the
list of Wall street's principal votaries.
There was better picking among the
supposedly well-informed, supposedly
conservative merchants of New York
than the out-ef-town territory afford
ed. Thousands of business men of New
York who rarely went to Wall street
were the steadiest of players. Men who
had enterprises that yielded handsome
profits to them yearly kept the tele
phone busy every day getting messages
from or sending messages to brokerage
offices. Hundreds of business men
who were Blow in paying their regular
bills always found- a way to meet calls
for margins. A fair proportion of the
failures In New York was due more te
stock-market losses of the men at the
head of the firms than to general trade
conditions or legitimate causes.
Wall street pooh-poohs the Idea that
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SAYI did you ever make up your
mind not to do any more tipping?
And have you noticed how quick
ly you're forced to take the make-up
off?
In a big town nowadays tipping is
as necessary as a traf f io cop. Only by
the aid of one or both can you make
any progress or get anywhere.
And the battle cry In each case is
"hands up?"
It's so In this country today that
before a thoughtful man cushion
caroms through the merry-go-round
doors of a swell hotel he has to leave
his pocketbook on the sidewalk If he
doesn't want to lose it.
On the other side, across the big
pona, ii a notei employe does you a
little favor and you slip him tuppence
ha'penny or a pfenning he will smile
back at you and be much obliged for
five minutes.
But in this country if you tip any
body with a couple of pennies the
chances aro you'll wake up in the
nearest hospital and find a kind-hearted
but not very pictorial nurse lean
ing over you and whispering, "keep
callum, now, keep cool and calluml
xne aoctor says you will recover
everything except your watch If he
can find- a small piece of the medulla
oblongata which was removed from
the northeastern part of your bean
when the bellboy soaked you with the
Ice pitcher!"
It takes a brave man to save his
money these days.
Hep Hardy is one of those reckless
tlptossers. He thinks that all silver
money should have a smooth surface,
thereby making It easier to slip a coin
to a waiter.
He is what the laurajeans would call
a pepper box of prodigality.
Hep hands out backsheesh like an
absent-minded farmer sowing grain.
Hep's trail through a big town looks
as though the cashier of a five and ten
cent store was walking to the bank
and had a hole in the canvas bag.
When Hep starts out to pound a pub
lic road wtlh his rowdy-cart all the
waiters in every hash foundry within
sound of his siren fall flat on their races
and yell, "Hallelujah! pay day Is here
again."
Peaches and I dined with Hep at the
Saint Astorvllt Hotel night before last.
Hep likes to dine there because the
waiters are French and when he tries
to aay "Good evening!" In their native
tongue he insults them so bitterly he
has to sprinkle the room with tip
money In order to square himself.
Hep loves to squeeze into a French
cafe, grab a French merfu card, and in
a confidential tone give an order like
this to the French waiter: "Avec le
bcaucoup pomme de terre. Donnez moi
de l'eau chaude; Je vais me raser. Avec
get a move on you!"
Xn a French hour and a half the
.French waiter hurries back with
eorqe VHobdrt.
X i Wa 7WMw P T Z 4c r - "" - vc ; k i 1
culinary melodrama wherein each
swallow is a thrill and every new
course a climax, and Hep, believing It
is all due - to his knowledge of the
French language, swells up with pride'
and begins to toss money Into the air.
Hep doesn't know it, but while he's
spilling that Schenectady French all
over the tablecloth the waiter is get
ting a stone bruise on his palate from
holding back his Parisian laughter.'
Hep would wrinkle his map with
anger if he heard me, but I've been
present when he has blurted out some
of his French Idioms with the ossified
accent, and It's a scream, I notify you.
On one memorable occasion he or
dered lamb chops and a baked potato
In French. The waiter bowed, said.
"Qui, M'sieu!" and brought him a bowl
soup and the morning
of vegetable
paper.
That's how good that lad's French
is poor nut.
. As a matter of fact Hep knows ex
actly nine ordinary Frrfnch words. In
cluding n'eat-ce pas and aveo plaJelr
but he has memorized the name of j
So when Hep exhausts his nine or
dinary words he begins to use up the
streets. He rushes, regardless of Epeed
limits, all over the city of Paris. Out
to Vaugirard, over to the Batignolles,
to Cllchy, by Rues and side streets to
th'e eastern Boulevard Beaumarchals
and St. Denis, then across lots to the
western Boulevard des Italiens, then
Into the high and off through j the
Place de la Concorde, around corners
one one wheel into the Champs-Elysees
and on and on with the muffler off
lt'a Immense I
-- However, as I was saying some time
ago, Peaches and I dined with Hep and
he handed us a few lessons in the
gentle pastime of tipping, he surely
did.
From the very moment we entered
the aristocratic beanery he began the
giving of alms.
The attendant at the revolving doors
Imprisoned a nice old lady in cell No.
3, and keep her there, cut off from
communication with the world, while
he waited for Hep to dig In his Jeans
for the customary quarter.
A hall-boy paging a missing hus
band, stopped short as he saw our party
approaching, arranged his face in imi
tation of a Spanish mackerel, saluted
Has and received 10 cents for his trou
ble. '
Battling Bill, the house detective,
loomed bulklly in our pathway, and
without warning suddenly stooped
down to pick up a pin. Hep did a
hoodah over the tame Cop's feet, and
when they both came smilingly to the
surface Battling Bill clutched a 50
cent piece In his Westphalia, and the
procession moved on.
Then from some dark resess or niche
in the wall something In brass buttons
and with a whisk broom in its hand
darted out like a pickerel and pointed
the whisk broom, at Hep. The latter
pointed a quarter at the something in
brass buttons, whereupon the brass
buttons and the whisk broom and the
quarter darted away again, thereby
bringing to a conclusion the incident
of the pickerel. '
As we approached the coatroom the
girl in charge was seen to close her
eyes In prayer. She didn't open them
again until after Hep had explained to
her that if she spent the money he gave
her for a new hat sne wouldn't have
to give It to the income-tax gatherers.
Whereupon she was glad and showed
her gum-chewing instruments. Then
she glanced at the inside of my hat to
see if it was expensive and sighed
deeply as we passed on.
At the door of the souproom we were
met by Effendl Bey, the head waiter.
Hep whispered something to Effendl,
but the Bey wasn't listening He was
looking at Hep's hand, which he knew
must contain money. It always did.
Hep gave Effendl a flash at a treasury
note. With the swiftness of thought
the money changed hands, whereupon
Effendl Bey began to hum, "In my
harem my dinkly little harem!" and
turned us over to Murad Pasha, one of
his lieutenants.
Murad Pasha led us to a table and
stood there counting the spoons until
Hep could find another pocket contain
ing money.
Then Murad Pasha, clutching his
share of the plunder, with many bows
and obeisances, faded out of our lives,
and Giovanni Handsandf esti, the omni
bus, began to splash water Into our
glasses. '
Hep got rid of Giovanni by staking
him to enough money to enable his lit.
tie brother Angelo to get through col
lege, and thereafter for a period ot
10 or 15 minutes Hep was permitted to
breathe quietly through his nose, and
his pocketbook enjoyed a much-needed
rest.
Soon, however, another coughing fit
came on and bis struggles for breath
were pitiful.
One of, Effendl Bey's lieutenants,
made up to look like. Ivan the Terrible,
rode up to our table to inquire if
waiter had taken our order. Hep told
him no, but Ivan couldn't believe it
Ivan was firm in his disbelief until Hep
gave him money, then he saw the light
and went Joyously away from there.
Presently a waiter arrived who in
some other incarnation must have been
a pirate on the Spanish Main.
He had a chin which was divided
against Itself, and a forehead which
was retreating hurriedly on the fourth
speed.
One look at Captain Kldd and I knew
that Hep's desire to die poor but popu
lar would be realized.
All the time the Captain was taking
our order he was sizing us up and hop
ing In Portuguese that Hep's eyesight
wasn't good so he could short-change
him.
Finally the deadly Rover of the Seas
decided to give us our food first and
(Concluded on Page 8.)