Wall street stories

ancy in the office of Tracy & Middleton, Bankers and Brokers. His name was Willis N. Hayward, and he was

tocks for customers-and transmitting the same messages to the "Board member" of the firm, Mr. Middleton; also telephoning Mr. Middleton's reports to the office. He spoke with a soft, refined v

nity as they jotted down the price at which they had sold or bought stocks. It was not surprising that he should fail to understand just how they did business; but what most impressed him was the fact, vouched for by his colleagues, that these same clamoring, gesticulating brokers were actually supposed to make a

ntrated and almost visible hope of making much money in the twinkling of an eye. Nobody talked of anything else on the Exchange. Bosom friends met at the opening of business and did not say "Good-morning," but plunged without preamble into the only subject on earth-speculation. And if one of them arrived late he inevitably inquired forthwith, "How's the market?"-asked it eagerly, anxiously, as if fearful that the market had taken advanta

t the roulette-wheel. The innumerable tricks of the trade, the uses of inside misinformation, the rationale of stock-market manipulation, were a sealed book to him. He heard only that his eighteen-year-old neighbor made $60 buying twenty shares of Blue Belt Line on Thursday and selling them on Saturday, 3? points higher; or that Micky Welch, Stuart & Stern's telephone-boy, had a "tip" from one of the big room traders which he bravely "played"-as you "play" horse or "play" the red or the black-and cleared $125 in less than a week; or that Watson, a "two-dollar" broker, made a "nice turn" selling Southern Shore. Or else he heard

so, whenever there was a "good thing," he "chipped in" one dollar to a telephone-boys' "pool" that later operated in a New Street bucket shop to the extent of ten shares. His means were small, his salary being only $8 a week; and very often he

"Is it wrong to speculate?" but rather, "What shall I do to raise money for margin purposes?" It took nearly four months for him to 182arrive at

one over their private line to the Stock Exchange to their Board member to "sell 500 shares of International Pipe at the market." The telephone-boy receives the message and "puts up" Mr. Middleton's number, which means that on the multicolored, checkered strip on the frieze of the New Street wall, Mr. Middleton's number, 611, appears by means of an electrical device. The moment 183Mr. Middleton sees that his number is "up," he hastens to the telephone-booth to ascertain what is wanted. Now, if Mr. Middleton delays in answering his number the telephone-boy knows he is absent, and gives the order to a "two-dollar" broker, like Mr. Browning or Mr. Watson, who always hover about the booths looking

brokers, for Tracy & Middleton did a 184very good commission business indeed. He was a nice-looking and nice-acting little chap, was Hayward-clean-faced, polite, and amiable. The brokers liked him, and

id I was to give the order to w

u take the trouble to find me; and I'll do something nice for you. Look here," in a whisper, "if you give me plenty of

he had not expected something dishonorable in return. Before the market closed, however, he spoke to Willie Simpson, MacDuff & Wi

you, used to get $20 a week from old man Grant and $50 a month from Wolff. You've got a cinch, if you only know how to work it. Why, they are supposed to give you fifty cen

e, contented himself with merely withholding all orders from that oleaginous personage, until Mr. Jacobs was moved to remonstrate. And Sally

deal of business for Tracy & Middleton. I want you to see that I get

86also tell Mr. Middleton that you offered me

harges an outsider or another member less than exactly the prescribed amount for buying or selling stocks, is liable to severe penalties. Th

s at once. "I'll make it $8

he received $25 a week from Mr. Grant, with an extra $10 thrown in from time to time,

depended on it. The rapid development of his character was due exclu

es a week from Tracy & Middleton, and usually 187less. Say, you ought to be on the floor. Y

ng been duly coached by Mr. William Simpson, "the last week yo

onal week. I'll make

whispered Sally

rathfully. "I'll give you $15 a week, but you mu

o the best I can f

he most fifty cents per hundred shares. In the course of a month or two Sa

I

ng clerk could save in five years, greater than many an industrious mechanic saves in his entire life. From the bucket-shops he went to the Consolidated Exchange. Then he asked Jacobs and the other two-dollar brokers to let him deal in a small way with them, which they did out of personal liking for him, until he had three sepa

for his brightness and quickness. From $15 a week they raised his salary to $25, which they considered quite generous, especially in view of his youth, and that he had started

legacy, and asked him to let him open an account in the office. Tracy congratulated his young cler

nd seeing them dwindle later to $6,000. But in addition to becoming an inveterate speculator, he gained much valuable experience. And when he had learned the tricks of the trade he was taken from the ledgers and turned loose in the customers' room, to take the latter's orders and keep them in good humor and tell them the current stories, and give them impressively whispered "tips," and "put them into" various "deals" of 190the f

grew to like him exceedingly well, and to think with respect of his judgment, market-wise. One day W. Basil Thornton, one of the wealthiest an

Hayward. Just think, Colonel, we would have your trade, and you could bring some friends, and I could bring mine, and I think many of these"-

m the office. It was a violation of confidence and of business ethics, but Thornton was very grateful when, two months later, Tracy & Middleton failed, under circumstances which were far from creditable, and which were discussed at great length by the Street. He showed his gra

I

ng orders, and, 192moreover, new customers were coming in. Had he been satisfied with this start, and with letting time do the rest, he would have fared very well. But he began to speculate for himself, and all reputa

amply. He noticed the development of his young partner's gambling proc

wed he w

twice, and his unsuccessful operations in Alabama Coal

nton came to

lemnity born of sincere f

he joined the New York Stock Exchange. After all, if speculating 193were a crime and convictions could be secured in fifty out of a hundred flagrant instances, one half th

e mottled. His eyes were not clear and ingenuous; they were shifty and a bit watery. He had been in Wall Street eight or ten years, and he overworked his nerves every day from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. on the S

d's plunging. To be sure, Sally had become a shrewd "trader," and he had made $75,000 during the big bull boom;

for Any Old Thing! The most prosperous period in the industrial and commercial history of the United States begot an epidemic of speculative madness such as was never before known, and pr

V

the firm's customers, after a few bad "slumps" in prices, were admonished to turn bears in order to recoup their losses. Bears believe prices are too high and should go lower; b

vere decline," but which meant the loss of millions of dollars by speculators. A panic had been narrowly averted by a timely combination of "powerful interests," after which the market became professional. In the absence of complaisant lambs, the financial cannibals known as "room traders" and "pikers" tried to "scalp e

lows, that the lowest prices had not been reached. As a result he was heavily "short," and

ak, who liked to buy stocks making generous disbursements of profits to their holders. Mr. Dorr's plan was kept a secret. The first step consisted of sending in large buying orders, handled by prominent brokers, and synchronously the publication, in the daily press, of various items, all reciting the wonderful prosperity of the Consolidated Steel Rod Company and its phenomenal earnings;

insiders, who were "short" of the stock "up to their necks"-a typical bit of stock-jobbing whereat other and more artistic stock-jobbers had expressed the greatest indignation. Instead of putting the stock on a dividend-paying basis, t

ust decline. Only a month previously it had sold at 35 and nobody wanted any of it. He was all the more decided in his opinion that the "top" had been reached by prices, because Mr. Dorr, in a Chicago paper, had stated that the stockholders would probably receive an entire ye

fore Wall Street could recover from the shock the price of the stock was up 5 points, which meant that Hayward was out $25,000 on that deal alone. But, in addition, the general list was carried upward sympathetically. The semi-paralyzed bulls regained confidence as they saw the successful outcome of the Chicago gambler's man?uvres in Consolidated Steel Rod. Money rates and bear hopes fell; stock values and bull courage rose! Hayward b

uined if he didn't cover, and he was ruined if he did. His "seat" on the Stock Exchange was worth possibly $40,000, not a cent more; and as he personally owed his out-of-town correspondents nearly $38,000, he could not a

h the question that every gambler dreads: "If I stood to lose all, how desperate a risk would I take in order to get it 200back?" The answer is usually so appallingly thief-like that the numerous Haywards of the St

he would not let himself answer it until he had stopped at "Fred's," the official barroom

customers and by fifteen of his fellow-brokers who were "lending" stocks to him. But if he made one last desperate effort, he might pull out o

can Sugar Company 201stock. Now if that short interest could be stampeded it might mean an eight or ten-point advance. If he bought 10,000 or 15,000 shares and sold them at an average profit of four or five points,

lf, aggrievedly: "I might as well be hung

ew Street to the Stock Exchange. He paused at the entrance. There was no

muttered to himself, and

rd nodded absently, caught himself repeating, "Pike's P

tage of the hesitation, bid 117? and 117? for 5,000 Sugar, at which price "Billy" Thatcher, a two-dollar broker, sold it to him. It made 10,500 shares Hayward had bought, and the stock had risen only 1? points. The shorts were not frightened a wee bit. But Sally was. He rushed out of the crowd to his telephone and made a pretence of "reporting" the transactions to his office, as he would have done had they been bona fide purchases. He was followed

le. And anon there flashed upon him, as if in candent letters, the words Pike's Peak or bust! But Pike's Peak glowed dully, feebly, while the alt

5,000 Sugar to his fr

urself, Sally?"

st men in the Street, Newt. It

was 118. The seller would hold Hartley responsible for t

. Any attempt to sell out the 15,000 shares he had bought would result only in depr

. He tried another, but the order was not accepted. They mistrusted 204him; but he could not even bluster, for they excused

uy 5,00

?" said Thomps

"Old man, I've got a very big order from one of the biggest

the unconvinced broker. His incredulity was obviously in the nature

ou. But I can advise you, as a friend, to buy Sugar for all you are wor

making a mistake?" He wanted the commission of

a lot more to buy. It's

hares in lots of 500. Brokers now accepted his orders, for they were not so large as to be dangerous. And the stock rose to 122?. A few shorts were frightened. He might win out after all; he might make Pike's Peak. He began to bid up the stock. He even bought "cash"

cumulated 38,000 shares. To pay for the stock necessitated about six and one-half millions! B

ses, and Wechsler now being certain of the true state of affairs, returned to the Board and began to sell Sugar short for his own account. If a crash came he would make instead of losing it. Hayward was sure to be ruined, and Wechsler told himself sophistically that he was only profiting by the inevitable. In the meantime Sally had sold the 10,000 shares through anothe

the little slips of paper on which brokers jot down memoranda of their transactions he scribbled a message in lead pencil. It was his last o

d the usual facilities to them, Hayward & Co

paper to one of the Exchange messenger

rman pounded with his gavel until the usual crowd gathered about the rostrum, and listened to the announcem

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