The New York Stock Exchange.—A voluntary unincorporated association founded in the year 1792, which, after various migrations downtown, settled in 1867 in its present magnificent home at 16 Broad Street.

There are entrances to the building on three streets, the main one on Broad Street, access to which is had by a flight of marble steps leading into a corridor, on either side of which are elevators running to the upper floors, where the bond room, library, executive offices, and the offices of the clerks of the exchange are situated. These elevators also lead to the Visitors' Gallery, which runs partly round the main hall. On Wall Street, there is an entrance used by brokers, but to a larger extent by sightseers, who go usually by this ingress to the gallery just mentioned. On New Street there are two entrances, one at the northern and the other at the southern end of the building, which are used exclusively by members, their clerks, and the employees of the exchange.

All entrances lead to the "floor" of the Exchange, which is on the level of Wall and New Street, but above that of Broad. This "floor" is a large room almost square, with a sort of a bay-window effect on the Broad Street side, produced by the irregular extension of the hall in that direction. Opposite this is a large board, divided into different colored blocks, which blocks are. further subdivided into smaller blocks, each of which, in a short time it will be discovered, discloses a number in the same fashion as an hotel annunciator. The number so disclosed is the number assigned to some broker or firm, and indicates to him that some one wishes to communicate with him. The board is in reality an annunciator, and without some such contrivance it would be quite impossible, owing to the noise and confusion, to secure the attention of a broker on the floor.

Looking down on the crowd of brokers beneath, the scene from the gallery is one which never fails to create

a strong impression on the mind, and especially so when the market is active, and there are hundreds of brokers buying and selling. There is audible but one continuous roar of voices, no one distinguishable from the rest, although every now and then you may distinguish “five hundred ths, two hundred 4th," etc.; the five hundred and the two hundred meaning the number of shares, and the ths or 4th representing the fraction of a cent at which the stock is offered, no one deeming it necessary, except in case of an unusual rise or fall in stocks, to state the whole number of cents, as that is presumed to be known by everybody on the floor. Nor is the name of the stock called, the seller or purchaser simply goes to that portion of the room where that stock is dealt in, which place is marked by an iron stand supporting a placard on which is printed its name. This, of course, applies merely to the principal active stocks. There are many stocks which are not active stocks, and which are not dealt in to such an amount as to have any separate place assigned to them, but are grouped with a number of other stocks, in which case the broker announces the name of the stock and the price at which he offers the same.

On busy days, from six to seven hundred brokers are often on the floor at the same moment, some offering and others bidding, waving their arms, gesticulating, and generally trying to attract the attention of some particular person, or rushing about from crowd to crowd, and from stand to stand, endeavoring to fill their orders.

The fee fixed by the Stock Exchange, which brokers are to charge to persons not members of the Exchange, is one-eighth of one per cent. of the face value of the stock for buying, and the same for selling, so that to buy and sell a stock it costs one-fourth of one per cent. The rate below which no broker is allowed to deal with his fellow-brokers is two dollars a hundred shares for selling, and two dollars a hundred shares for buying.

The 15th of September and Christmas Eve are days which are not religiously observed in the Exchange, but they are observed with equal regularity if less decorum. White hats are considered especially unorthodox on the 15th of September, by which time every well-informed broker is supposed to have accumulated sufficient worldly goods to purchase a Fall hat, but if he has not, he certainly will have to buy one on margin.

Only citizens of the United States over twenty-one years of age are eligible to membership, and are admitted. only after application to, and a thorough investigation by, the Admissions Committee, and the payment for a certificate of membership which may have been purchased from some other member of the Exchange, but no certificate is of any value so far as its use is concerned by the individual purchasing it, until his application has been approved of by the Admissions Committee, and such membership must be held free and clear of all debt and liability. The seat to which it entitles its holder is subject to sale by the Exchange in discharge of the obligations of its holder to other members; any surplus remaining over being paid to such holder or his legal representatives.

The owner of a seat may sell the same by nominating a successor acceptable to the above-named committee, This committee may, upon the death of a member, transfer his membership, and after the Exchange has paid all demands properly chargeable against the proceeds of such transfer, it turns the remainder over to his heirs. On the deccase of a member, his family receives from the Gratuity Fund ten thousand dollars,this being regarded purely as a gift by the Exchange, and subject to no claims whatever.

All stock purchased or sold must be delivered between 1.15 and 2.15 P.M. If not delivered by the last-named hour, the Exchange is notified, and demand is made for the stock. All stock purchased must be paid for on presentation, most houses requiring certified checks. It is here that over-certification is greatest, many banks find

ing it necessary to so accommodate their broker customers, who almost invariably make good such over-drafts before the close of the day, but certainly within a reasonable time. The banks generally regarding such a check as an implied notice of a deposit sufficient to more than meet it, the stock itself, for which such check is given often with more stock is deposited as collateral to make good such check, and as this stock is generally by commission houses bought for some one else, the check of which purchaser will be doubtlessly received and deposited the same day, the banks really do not take as much risk as is generally supposed when dealing with reputable houses.

There are about eleven hundred members, and as the seats are worth about $18,000 apiece at the present time, the cost of these memberships alone represents something over twenty million dollars. All the larger houses have on the Exchange one or more members, or clerks.

Most of the principal operators and firms doing the greatest volume of business are members more for the sake of getting the benefit of the rates which brokers are allowed to charge each other than for the purpose of actually dealing themselves on the floor, as their presence would often defeat the object they have in view. Nearly all of their larger purchases and sellings are done through other brokers: and it is a common thing for an operator desiring to keep his identity a secret, or to mislead others, to send some member, or some broker known to represent him to sell a small amount of stock, while some other broker, supposed to represent opposed interests buys a large amount of the same stock for his account. But if we should attempt to describe the various methods resorted to to deceive and frighten the unwary, we would have no room in this work for other equally important matters. It is sufficient to say that the Wall Street man is ingenious to a degree seldom paralleled in other businesses.

CHAPTER XI.

Corporations, Officers, Etc.

Corporations. Many enterprises, businesses, and industries require such a large amount of capital in their organization and operation, as well as the certainty that these operations will not suddenly be suspended by the death of one individual, nor interfered with by the settlement and division of assets rendered necessary by the retirement of a general or special partner, and the public interest in them is often so great, as to render their conduct by individuals not only inadvisable, but often impossible.

To meet these objections, corporations, or companies, associations of men for the prosecution of one or more objects, are formed under the laws of different countries. They are granted various privileges which neither are nor can be given individuals, the chief of which is legal perpetuity, or at any rate existence for a given time, if they fulfil the requirements imposed upon them by the power granting them their charter.

The object of their formation is not only to secure the perpetuity of an enterprise, but to secure and maintain sufficient capital to continue it when formed; and this can only be accomplished by making the shares of the various persons interested easily transferable; and definitely settling the proportion of their interests. Again, many persons who would be glad to buy a stated