author of the "boy travellers" series.
the visitor to wall street in business hours will see many active, bright, pleasant-looking boys moving more or less rapidly in all directions, and evidently absorbed in work. some are in blue or gray uniforms, but the majority are in plain clothes, and almost invariably neatly dressed. the uniformed are employed by telegraph and messenger companies, the others by bankers, brokers, and other men of affairs.
their chances of rising are about as many as boys ever have—the really able, honest, and pushing boys go up as they grow older. as a dignified-looking gentleman passes along the sidewalk we are told: "that is the president of the —— bank. he knows wall street and all its ins and outs. been here all his life. began as an office-boy in a brokerage house; became partner; got elected a member of the stock exchange; now he is near the top of the heap. i could name several bank presidents who began as brokers' boys at two or three dollars a week."
our informant went on, "yes, and there are lots of cashiers of banks and other banking officials who began life in the same way. the partners in a great many banking and brokerage firms began as wall street boys."
boys have begun in wall street at one dollar a week. employers can generally tell in a week or two whether the boy is likely to "amount to anything." if the boy is faithful and energetic his wages are advanced so that he gets three dollars a week in two or three months from the start. boys usually get not far from one hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars for the first year, and from three hundred upwards the second year. a prominent banker of new york once told me:
"my father died when i was sixteen years old, and that threw my mother and myself on our own resources. we had so little money or property that it was necessary for me to leave school and go to work. as the late thurlow weed had been a warm friend of my father, i came to new york to ask for his influence in getting a clerkship in the custom-house, or something of the sort. i knew mr. weed as a boy of my age would know a man of his, and he greeted me cordially. when i had told him my story he said:
"'now, charley, find a cheap boarding-place and send your address to me. don't come to me again, but as soon as i have anything for you i will write to you. meantime look around and see what you can find for yourself.'
"i did as he told me, and a week went by without my hearing from him. one day i found a place in a broker's office where they would pay me two hundred dollars a year, and that very day i received a letter from mr. weed saying he had a place for me in the custom-house at seven hundred dollars a year. i went to him, thanked him for his kindness, and declined his offer, telling him i preferred the broker's office, although the salary was much smaller. he patted me on the shoulder and said,
"'charley, you have decided rightly, and you'll never regret it.'
"and i never have. i think it was pretty smart for a boy of sixteen."
many wall street boys lose their places by loitering on errands. employers know perfectly well how long it takes on the average to reach a certain point, transact the necessary business, and return. there are delays now and then, but if a boy returns late to the office several times in a day with excuses for delay his employers understand the situation perfectly, and he is soon "bounced."
a wall street boy is expected to be at the office at nine o'clock in the morning, and remain there as long as his services are needed, though he usually gets away about four o'clock. he has an allowance of half an hour at noon for luncheon, but the rest of the time belongs to his employer. he is expected to be neat in appearance, clean as to hands and face, well mannered, truthful at all times, prompt in obedience, and faithful in guarding the secrets of his employers.
the duties first assigned to him are to carry messages, deliver stocks at other brokerage offices, and obtain checks for them. after a while he is advanced to making comparisons of sales of stocks and taking the checks received from other brokers to be certified at the banks.
of late years the stock exchange clearing-house has done away with so much of the stock delivery by boys that the number of them on the street is not more than half what it used to be. formerly it was not uncommon to see from twenty-five to one hundred boys waiting in line at each of the prominent banks to get checks certified, and nearly every bank employed a private policeman to keep the boys in line and in order.
a story is told of a new boy on the street who once went to make a delivery of stock. when the bookkeeper made up the accounts at the close of the day he found himself eighty thousand dollars short, and an examination of the books showed that one of the boys had failed to bring back a check in return for some stock he had delivered.
he was perfectly innocent about the matter, and said that he had handed the papers in at the office where he was sent to make the delivery, and as they gave him nothing he supposed there was nothing for him to get. his employer treated him kindly, and told him to be careful not to make the same mistake again. he never did. that boy is now at the head of one of the largest brokerage houses on broad street.
as the wall street boy advances in proficiency he is put upon the purchase and sale books. then he takes charge of the comparison tickets, and then of the stock ledgers. then he becomes a bookkeeper or cashier, and if he shows himself valuable enough he receives a junior partnership, and later on rises to a higher one.
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wall street boys.
it is proper to say, however, that only a small proportion of the boys who begin life in wall street work their way upward to positions of consequence. fully fifty per cent. of them go wrong, or, at all events, leave the street, and are not heard of afterward. not less than half of the others remain in subordinate places. either they lack the intelligence, energy, and fidelity necessary to secure advancement, or they have vicious tendencies which lead them into trouble.
there is a class of speculating establishments in the neighborhood of wall street which are known among the brokers as "bucket-shops," where any one can go and risk one dollar, or as much more as he likes in speculation in stocks. suppose he has but one dollar; he places it upon a certain stock, and watches the indicator till it goes up or down. if it rises a point, he makes a dollar, but if it goes down he loses, and the dollar he risked is wiped out.
men with very limited capital are the chief patrons of these bucket-shops, but a good many of the boys slip around to them, and risk anywhere from one dollar to five dollars in speculation. sooner or later they come to grief. a knowledge of their conduct reaches the ears of their employers, they lose their situations, and have great difficulty in getting others.
boys are taken into brokerage offices only upon good recommendations, and it is almost invariably required that a boy shall live with his parents and not by himself. employers well know that a boy not living at home is far more likely to fall into evil ways than one who has a home and is under the eyes of father and mother.
in addition to their regular wages the boys in wall street offices receive presents in money at christmas-time, the amount depending partly upon the good conduct of the boy himself, and partly on the condition of business in the year just closing. if times have been hard, speculation light, and incomes small, the broker's gratuities to his employees are much smaller than if the reverse is the case. in the one instance, he feels poor and forced to economize; in the other, he feels prosperous and is liberal.
there are other kinds of boys on wall street than the ones just described. in the stock exchange about one hundred and fifty boys are employed as pages to run with messages for members in the board room, not outside. they receive from three to five dollars a week, with a gratuity at christmas.
there is no prospect of these pages rising to higher positions while in the employ of the exchange, and when they grow too large for employment there they drift away to other places. many are the applicants for these positions, and in order to secure one there a boy must be well recommended. the pages wear gray uniforms with brass buttons, and are generally bright little fellows who soon learn to know every member of the stock exchange by name.
perhaps two hundred members of the stock exchange have private telephones in the building, and there is a squad of some fifty or more boys in blue uniforms who look after these telephones. the stock exchange has its own messenger service, each boy wearing a gray uniform with a military cap. the duties of these messengers is to run from the exchange to the offices of the members.
all these boys are remembered at christmas-time. the members of the exchange subscribe from five to twenty-five dollars each to make up the gratuity fund, which is divided among the boys according to their time of service. those who have been there two or three years obtain quite a handsome little present during the holiday season.
then there are boys connected with the american district messenger service; there are western union telegraph boys; cable telegraph boys; boys in the offices of lawyers, corporations, and the like. but the principal and most important boy of all is the one who starts in an office at a small salary, determined to win his way to fame and fortune, and possessing the ability and intelligence to do so.
