CHAPTER XI.

THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE.

HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR NINETY-FOUR YEARS.FROM A BUTTON-WOOD TREE TO A PALACE COSTING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.-ENORMOUS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS. HOW THE PRESENT STOCK EXCHANGE WAS FORMED BY THE CONSOLIDATION OF OTHER FINANCIAL BODIES. PATRIOTIC ACTION DURING THE WAR PERIOD. REMINISCENCES OF MEN AND EVENTS.

TH

HE New York Stock Exchange is not a building, as people generally suppose. It is an Association of brokers united, but not incorporated by law, for the purpose of buying and selling representatives of value called "stocks" and "bonds" Stocks, in the American sense of the term, are properties consisting of shares in joint stock companies or corporations, or in the obligations of a government for its funded debt. In England, government obligations only, are called "stocks," and the obligations of companies or corporations are called "shares."

The edifice in which the Stock Exchange meets, and which, in common parlance, is designated by the name of the association of members, occupies a large portion of the block bounded by Broad, Wall, and New streets, and Exchange Place. Its main entrance is on Broad street, and it has entrances also on Wall and New streets. It has a frontage of 65 feet on Broad and 158 on New, on which the back entrance is situated. The members of the Stock Exchange have no need of a charter from the Legislature. In fact, they have steadily resisted all attempts of the Solons of this State to legislate in their interest. Their action in this respect is more fully commented upon in my chapter on

"Corners." The Tweed Ring, in the height of its power made a bold attempt to force a charter upon the Stock Exchange, but it was indignantly rejected. The irrepressible "Boss" and his henchmen, by the presentation of false names, had a charter for the incorporation of the Stock Exchange passed in 1871, the year prior to Tweed's downfall, and it was signed by the Governor. For these gratuitous services the sum of $100,000 was impudently demanded; but the charter was refused, and the demand repudiated by the association. Since 1879 until recently the membership, which has been full, was limited to 1,100, but by a resolution lately passed the limit is now placed at 1,200. The seats for the past year have sold at from $25,000 to $30,000.

The Stock Exchange building is a fine, solid structure, devoid of anything showy, pretentious or decorative. It was designed by James Renwick, the architect of Grace Church and of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral, on Fifth avenue at Fiftieth street. The cost of the building was nearly $2,000,000. It costs nearly $200,000 a year to pay the salaries of the various officials and keep the building in proper repair. The apparatus for ventilating the building is one of the best. It cost $30,000, and supplies an abundance of pure air and perfumes at the same time. The heating and cooling arrangements are the best of their kind, and the lighting is admirable. There are three chandeliers containing 200 electric lamps, which throw a flood of beautiful soft light around the whole interior. The building is well supplied with rooms for members, lavatories, and closets. One great feature of the interior consists of the large vaults, which contain more than a thousand safes for the safe keeping of securities. About 400 of those safes are let to persons who are not members. The vaults and safes are considered the strongest in the country.

The growth of this institution appears marvelous when we go back to its humble beginning in 1792, when the originators formed the association under a button-wood tree in front of

THE ORIGINAL ORGANIZATION.

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what is now No. 60 Wall street. Following is the text of the simple agreement into which the original members entered: "We, the subscribers, brokers for the purchase and sale of public stocks, do hereby solemnly promise and pledge ourselves to each other that we will not buy or sell from this date, for any person whatsoever any kind of public stocks at a less rate than one quarter of one per cent. commission on the specie value, and that we will give a preference to each other in our negotiations. In testimony whereof, we have set our hands this 17th day of May, at New York, 1792. Lem Bleekez, Hugh Smith, Armstrong & Barnewell, Samuel Marsh, Bernard Hart, Sutton & Hardy, Benjamin Seixas, John Heary, John A. Hardenbrook, Amurt Beebee, Alexander Gunty, Andrew D. Barclay, Empn. Hart, Julian McIvers, G. N. Bleecker, Peter Inspach, Benjamin Winthrop, James Ferrers, Isaac M. Gomez, Augustine H. Lawrence, John Besley, Charles McIvers, Jr., Robinson & Hartshora, David Reedy."

This arrangement existed, and was the only one by which the members were bound, until 1820, when daily meetings and the regular call of stocks began. The Board met in various places, including the old Merchants' Exchange on the corner of Wall and William streets, but did not take root in permanent shape until the year 1842, when it became established in the new Merchants' Exchange, now the Custom House. An illustration of the old Merchants' Exchange is given on another page. The sight of it will doubtless awake a host of endearing reminiscences in the minds of some of the oldest merchants and speculators. It will be remembered by the few survivors of that period that about the year 1820 the meetings of the Board were held in the office of Samuel J. Beebee, at 47 Wall street. The Board also met in a room in the rear of Leonard Bleecker's; also in the office of the old Courier and Journal. Subsequently the meetings of the Board were held in an upper room of the old Merchants' Exchange. This building was destroyed

by the great fire of 1835, and afterwards the new Merchants' Exchange was built. The Board moved into this building in 1842, and remained there until 1853. Up to this time the Board was the very closest of corporations, its membership being governed by the most iron-clad rules. There was no field for financial news agencies in those days, for the Board kept its proceedings a profound mystery, and its members were bound to the strictest secresy on pain of expulsion. That wonderful development of our later civilization, the ubiquitous interviewer, was then unknown. The business of the Board excited the most intense curiosity, and so impatient did outsiders become to learn the mysteries of the interior, that the members of an open Board which was organized about the year 1837, after failing to force themselves into the regular association, engaged a building next to the Board-room, and dug the bricks out of the wall in order that they might see and hear what was going on.

The Board removed from the Merchants' Exchange building in 1853 to a room in the Commercial Exchange Bank building, at the corner of Beaver and William. About the year 1857, memorable as the period of the great panic, and my advent in Wall Street, the Board removed to "Dan Lord's building," which had entrances on William and Beaver streets. It was here, about the time of my advent, in Wall street, more fully described in another chapter, that some of the great speculators of that era figured. Among these were Daniel Drew, Jacob Little, and the lightning calculator, Morse, who made and lost a fortune of millions in little more than a year. In this building the rule of secresy was not relaxed, and the fact is on record that a hundred dollars a day were freely offered for the privilege of listening at the key-hole during the time of the calls. The Board continued to hold its meetings in this building during the war, and up to 1865, when it removed to the present edifice