Show unfortunates who bet in city form of gambling that Is carried on under the guise ol 01 trade feverishly watch the Black blackboards boar which tell of their investments ilar venerable tion the bucke bucket shop ranges from the luxury ous suites whose main cenance consumes thou sands ot tit dollars yearly and its scalo scale up or uon don from the fur clad gambler whose patronage is rejected reject ui cd by 11 dionest nest brokers to the shivering white lipped messenger boy who ho takes a fr 50 60 cents sas a writer in the new I 1 ork sun stin the customer customers room of 0 a big bucket shop at the noon hour on a busl bust ness day affords an opportunity tor for the study of men and matlea impossible to find elsewhere it Is usually a large apartment attractively fitted the walla walls and ceiling are decor 13 busted abed and eliminating the buzzing tickers and the immerse blackboard which take takes up all ot of one oue elde side of the broom room it might be mistaken by the novice for the lounging room of a city club the blackboard la Is the important part of the machinery aa as it Is also the jarring element in the rooms repose across its wide surface run row upon row ot of grooves these are divided into sections by vertical wooden strips running from top to bottom of 0 the board close to each strip are painted the names ot of all the active stocks dealt in on the stock exchange the names running in alphabetical or der from the top to the bottom ot of each 1 1 action sufficient space Is left after each name to permit the insertion of little wooden blocks bearing numbers from one to ten witti with fr actins by means of which bith the quotations can be instantly changed the first number la Is usually the clos ting ng price of the previous day the othora show the present day a s tion tho the blocks are changed from time to time as a telegraph operator alls calls off the variations the customers face this board and follow the swift changes carefully A closer scrutiny shows the papers and magazines in their hands bands to be only such as record the news neis affecting rail road and industrial corporations As ach each block is slipped into place acx loue lous eyes peer at it for it means an advance or decline in the stock and in the fortune of the holder thereof and under the calm exterior of the watchers there Is a tempest of anxiety the tempest bursts out at times A mans face fare goes ashen he rises weak ly from his place with a faltering word good god I 1 and stumbles to the door unseeing A moment later and the little block that ruined him la is swiftly changed to one which N id have saved him if his margin bad had held it Is a different scene in the smaller bucket shops the paraphernalia is similar but on a less 1 elaborate seal and the frequenters present in their own parlance a less elaborate front they are essentially bikers and their fever is not at all interi intermittent t ent here vere come a swarm ot of clerks small tradesmen and the host best of waifs who have been submerged in the vortex of wall street and cast up again for a A tipster ter moment on this hospitable shore short there Is little but confusion here no i one cares res to read the news of stocks qi to determine their values the great go god tip rip holds eay alone un A friend of a friend of blank the oty sugar man wan told a friend of mine thit that ner sugar ws was a buy and the sugar it Is 1 bought on the margin that makes x the gro grocers cirs prices extortionate the customers are rampantly fever ish they trade on margins which are wiped out by point moves and the insertion of fractional bloats Is fol lowed by long drawn if cc aha that re pregnant with ith meaning it la Is gambl itil in its nak edest form all know that the shop hag has no exchange connection that their orders are real ly bi that Is merely recorded on the sheet th lint thit it Is the holy of hollee in the bud bucl cut but it costs baem little to take tio chanie chance and all are confident that they can draw their elu profits lefore I 1 fore the shop shuts up for good they form in little groups around tho the older or the loudest mouthed of the and listen to his golden words little knowing even little caring that he Is secretly on the payroll of the shop the tip tips a the thing and his may be as good as an others other a they pay deference to the manager of the shop and when on the rare occasions that the reputed proprietor descends among them they al at most kowtow for he owns a palace uptown has the fastest horses on the speedway and opens butts of wine in the big broadway Dro adway cafes the waifs are the pitiable ones in the changing crowd some of them are able to borrow enough from wealthy friends of former days to buy a little anil and they hang over the ticker and scan the board with staring eyes and drawn faces like things plague stricken they are wiped out and stumble front from the place to the street where they cruch whole nights long over the gratings of the skyscrapers hoin which exhausted steam issues only to crawl back with day to take their place among those who eat the bread of bitterness and are suffered in the place because of former times it Is a little step from this to the dens the waifs come here at last and mingle with the ram messengers and laborers one man Is proprietor manager and office help lie ile writes the sheets and sweeps the shop by turns the customers band together contributing a quarto quarte each usually and bet with the management that a certain stol will go up ur down here too t e tip Is all A messen ger rushes in and whispers to a chosen few he ile hag has just delivered a message to space the big operator and tarried 1 I 1 one type 9 of the Cu long enough to see space rush to the phone ani and hear bear him order 1000 M X 0 OP P the chosen few search through ragged pockets one who has his lost bis his silver piece through a neglected alicle curses the malign fate that robs him of this chance of herlth and wattles 1 in sullenness the more fortunate baad over to the manager their pool I 1 money pacific railroad stock goes up or down you know not which nor care but the countless thousands who pour out from the bucket shops know as they stumble sometimes ti he tiie ie through the darkness and fc a acutely |