Fifty years in Wall Street
How, this was an example of a man who did make money simply by taking
the advice that was freely tendered him.
There are others who lose, in spite of all that the most honest judgment
can do to prevent them.
Some men, when they have money, are so fearfully perverse that all
attempts to get them to do the right thing only have the opposite
effect, and they prefer to follow every wild rumor.
One day, for instance, a man gave me an order to buy a thousand shares
of Erie without limit. The order was executed at 94. I had no sooner
bought it than the stock went down.
My customer returned in a short time and ordered the stock to be sold.
It was then 92½.
In half an hour afterwards he returned again and ordered it bought back
again, without any limit as before. It was bought back at 95.
After consulting with other friends for some time he ordered it sold
again. The market by that time was 90.
He then came back the fifth time, and said: “I first saw one man who
told me to buy, and then another who told me to sell. I understand one
is called a ‘bull’ and the other a ‘bear.’ About these names I don’t
know much, but I do know now that I am a — jackass.”
This affords a good illustration of the way the average speculator is
managed and perplexed in Wall Street. There is a means of avoiding such
a peck of trouble, however, if he would only take a little wholesome
advice, wait patiently for a proper opportunity, and not rush headlong
to purchase on the “tips” of the delusive rumor mongers. He would then
begin to learn how to make money in Wall Street.
As I have pointed out in another chapter, speculation is a business that
must be studied as a specialty, and though it is popularly believed that
any man who has money can speculate, yet the ordinary man, without
special training in the business, is liable to make as great a mistake
in this attempt, as the man who thinks he can act as his own lawyer, and
who is said “to have a fool for a client.”
The common delusion, that expert knowledge is not required in
speculation, has wrecked many fortunes and reputations in Wall Street,
and is still very influential in its pernicious and illusory
achievements.
When a man wants correct advice in law he goes to a professional lawyer
in good standing, one who has made a reputation in the courts, and who
has afforded other evidence to the public that he is thoroughly
reliable. No man of average common sense would trust a case in law to a
bar room “bummer” who would assert that he was well acquainted with
Aaron J. Vanderpoel, Roscoe Conkling, and Wm. M. Evarts, and had got all
the inside “tips” from these legal lights on the law relating to the
case in question. The fellow would be laughed at, and, in all
probability, if he persisted in this kind of talk, would be handed over
to the city physician to be examined in relation to his sanity, but in
Wall Street affairs men can every day make similar pretensions and pass
for embodiments of speculative wisdom.
If speculators are caught and fleeced by following such counsel, the
professional brokers who are members of the Stock Exchange, are no more
to blame than the eminent lawyers to whom I have referred would be for
the upshot of a case that had been taken into court on the advice which
some irresponsible person had pretended to receive from these
celebrities of the New York Bar.
Professional advice in Wall Street, as in legal affairs, is worth paying
for, and costs far less in the end than the cheap “points” that are
distributed profusely around the Street, thick as autumn leaves in
Vallombrosa, and which only allure the innocent speculator to put his
money where he is almost certain to lose it.
My advice to speculators who wish to make money in Wall Street,
therefore, is to ignore the counsel of the barroom “tippers” and
“tipplers,” turn their backs on “bucket shops,” and when they want
“points” to purchase, let them go to those who have established a
reputation for giving sound advice in such matters, and who have ample
resources for furnishing correct information on financial topics, as
well as a personal interest in making all the money they can for their
clients.
There is no difficulty in finding out such reliable men and firms in the
vicinity of Wall Street, if speculators will only read the newspapers,
or make inquiry of the first messenger boy they may happen to meet.
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CHAPTER IV.
IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS TRAINING.
SONS OF INDEPENDENT GENTLEMEN MAKE VERY BAD CLERKS.—THEY BECOME
UNPOPULAR WITH THE OTHER BOYS, AND MUST EVENTUALLY GO.—NIGHT DANCING
AND LATE SUPPERS DON’T CONTRIBUTE TO BUSINESS SUCCESS.—GIVE MERIT
ITS TRUE REWARD.—KEEPING WORTHLESS PRETENSE IN ITS TRUE
POSITION.—RUNNING PUBLIC OFFICES ON BUSINESS PRINCIPLES.—A PIECE OF
GRATUITOUS ADVICE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION.—A COLLEGE COURSE NOT IN
GENERAL CALCULATED TO MAKE A GOOD BUSINESS MAN.—THE QUESTION OF
ADAPTABILITY IMPORTANT.—CHILDREN SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED IN THE
OCCUPATION FOR WHICH THEY SHOW A PREFERENCE.—THOUGHTS ON THE ARMY
AND NAVY.
I have usually found that the sons of independent gentlemen, who have
great expectations, make very poor clerks and don’t develope into Good
Wall Street men.
Their expectations seem to dwarf the ability that might develope under
the more favorable auspices of being obliged to paddle their own canoe.
Like the light under a bushel, referred to in the Good Book, their
brilliant qualities are obscured and circumscribed by the paternal
protection in prospect. They have not a sufficient incentive to work,
because they know that all they require for their natural wants will
fall easily into their laps. The motives, therefore, which usually
develope the greatest mental qualities are absent and the qualities
themselves lie dormant, and frequently decay like poppy seeds in their
seed vessels, without being productive of the fruits which are the
result of industrial habits and the desire for acquisition. Such young
men, instead of being a help to an office into which they happen to be
thrust, often through friendship and favoritism, are a great hindrance
and a stumbling block in the path to promotion of other young men.
After many ineffectual attempts to reform and remodel them, they have
generally to be discarded, as the drone bees are ejected from the rest
of the industrious hive. And they usually become as unpopular with the
other boys as the drone does with his comrades who make the honey and
will not suffer the idle fellow to feast on the fruits of their labor.
Young men who have nothing but their own resources to depend upon will
be found far more meritorious than this higher class. There are some
eminent exceptions, but it takes a large amount of good sense to
counteract the conceit instilled by the idea of financial independence
by birth.
The latter are more liable to youthful and enervating excesses, as they
have the means to indulge in nocturnal amusements that are not conducive
either to clear brains or active habits during the day.
Night dancing and late suppers, with some of their social concomitants,
when habitually indulged, don’t contribute to business success. I know
how this is myself, and therefore speak feelingly; but I don’t lay
myself open to the charge of egotism when I say that I have never
permitted the habit to get the better of me.
I am not setting myself up as a censor of other men’s habits, nor
attempting to utter mere moral or religious cant. I am simply discussing
the question from a scientific and physical standpoint, and I say that
these habits don’t contribute to business success, but, on the contrary,
form one of the greatest hindrances to it. They make any man, no matter
how strong he may be, physically unfit for ordinary business. These
“recreations” up town, however attractive and delightful they may be,
don’t fit a young man for business down town. The line must be drawn
somewhere. Let us draw it, say, at Fourteenth street.
There has been much said and written about Civil Service Reform by
various authorities from President Cleveland down to Dorman B. Eaton and
the Custom House officials. The great rule to follow is to give merit
its true reward This draws out the best efforts of the recipient, where
real merit is found, and keeps the drones beyond the pale of
competition. It develops the qualities that are worthy of being
encouraged, and keeps worthless pretense in its true position. This is
the role I have adhered to in my office, and it works like a charm. My
office, though not quite so large as the Custom House or Post Office of
New York city, I think affords a fair test of what could be done on the
largest possible scale.
If public office is a public trust, and we have the high authority of
President Cleveland and of the New York _Tribune_ for saying so, I think
it can be administered on the same business principles that have
contributed to the success of some of the largest and most successful
firms in the world; and among these, I think I can say without egotism,
as the matter is capable of demonstration, that the house of which I
have the honor to be the head, stands second to none in the attributes
to which I have referred.
The reader may say, “This is a puff for his own house.” Well, even so.
If it is, it is true, and will bear the strictest investigation. So I
don’t see why I should feign any false modesty about the assertion. It
would be sheer affectation to do so.
Collegiate education is a great question for debate among literary men,
journalists and business men, as to its utility in forming the character
of youth for business life. As the college curriculum and training stand
at present, the ordinary course is not in general calculated to make a
good business man. It is erroneously regarded by some people as a kind
of substitute for business training in the earlier years of a young
man’s life. There could be no greater mistake in the beginning of a
business career. It is in many instances not only a hindrance, but
absolutely fatal to success. To put a young man in an office fresh from
college, on a level with one of the same age who has been training in
business methods since he left the common school, is demoralizing to
both.
I wish to have it distinctly understood that in the foregoing remarks I
have not made any attempt to cast the slightest reflection on the
personal attributes and abilities of any young man in any line of life
or status of society, and I make this statement perfectly independent of
the mere social incident as to whether the young man in question may
part his hair in the middle or assume other dudish airs. That is his
business, and I have no right to trench on the sacred precincts of his
individuality, nor do I mean to do so. As a rule I stick to my own
business. I simply intend to imply that when a dude happens to come into
my office, where I think he will find the most æsthetic appointments in
the way of furniture and the business arrangements, if he should, upon
thus entering into my employment, come to the sudden conclusion that
this æstheticism of office furnishing implied any plea for idleness or
assumption of airs on his part, he would very soon experience a rude
awakening from his charmed lethargy of conceit, and if he were not
prepared to undertake in a calm and appreciative tone of mind the first
lessons of business industry, I would politely bid him an affectionate
adieu, and on parting tell him very kindly that though his great natural
gifts might be thoroughly adapted to shine in another sphere of life, he
was both by nature and education totally unfitted to play the most