. The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people . ducers. They are doing somethingon commission ; trading in stocks or cotton or pig-ironor petroleum, buying and selling for a percentage of theaccount. Even if they are selling tickets on steamers andrailways, or writing life insurance policies, or practicinglaw up a sky-scraper, they are still men working for feesand salaries — middlemen who adjust and make possible,but do not produce. So it is that the down-town crowd, as it winds hitherand yon along the thoroughfares, is a peculiar the surface it has little of the stro
. The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people . ducers. They are doing somethingon commission ; trading in stocks or cotton or pig-ironor petroleum, buying and selling for a percentage of theaccount. Even if they are selling tickets on steamers andrailways, or writing life insurance policies, or practicinglaw up a sky-scraper, they are still men working for feesand salaries — middlemen who adjust and make possible,but do not produce. So it is that the down-town crowd, as it winds hitherand yon along the thoroughfares, is a peculiar the surface it has little of the stronger if rougherelement in it, — no mechanics in their shirt-sleeves,no stevedores, no miners, no mill-hands, no laborers. Theimmense foreign population of New York is not here inevidence, the negro is seen only occasionally, and suchnative types as the Yankee, the Southerner, the Missour-ian, the Californian, are not recognizable. In fact, it is aselect, gentlemanly-looking, somewhat whey-faced multi-tude that one meets with in the Wall Street region. Its. Pl. 16. — Exchange Place THE STREETS IN THE MORNING 75 hands are white, its body is fragile but active, its head islarge and somewhat feverish. It works chiefly with itshead. It thus wears out its nerves and is threatenedcontinually with hysteria; but its tenacity and enduranceare remarkable. It holds on, worries through, and in theend gains its point. As these people pass you on the street, dressed fashion-ably, moving alertly, saluting each other half flippantly,you wonder if they can be the business men of New Yorkwho pile up such wonderful statistics in banking, trade,and commerce. Yes; some of them. Of course, thegreat majority of them hold subordinate positions. Theyare book-keepers, managing clerks, salesmen, little brokers,hangers-on. The heads of corporations and large institu-tions— the so-called captains of industry — get totheir offices by different ways than the sidewalks, andspend little time wandering
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