There is a silent resistance to Jews on the Stock Exchange also, in virtue of an unwritten law, just as there is in the banking world of Wall Street, and the story of the counter-resistance calls for an historian.
It is related by Sereno S. Pratt that in 1792 there was a little office at No. 22 Wall Street for the public sale of stocks. A number of men, engaged in the busi¬ ness of buying and selling, were accustomed to meet near a large buttonwood tree which stood near 68 Wall Street. In 1817, the New York Stock Exchange, about as present constituted, was organized.
The Stock Exchange is a private institution. It is practically a commission club in private hands. It is not incorporated.
Its membership is strictly limited to 1,100 men. There are only two ways by which an outsider can become owner of a seat on the Exchange—by obtain¬ ing it from the executor of a deceased member, or by purchasing from a retiring or bankrupt member.
These memberships or seats