stock-jobber

[George Thompson]

Here are items from my notes, 1821-1828:

        [a warning against "a certain knot of stock-jobbing speculators" who try to "suborn young men . . . to betray their trust"]
        New York American, January 5, 1825, p. 2, col. 3

        Stock jobbing. ["a species of fraud . . . which, if something short of forgery, comes certainly within what we all should call swindling"]
        New York Evening Post, August 2, 1825, p. 2, col. 3

        The Screws, No. 1. -- Col. George W. Brown, vice president and sole manager of the Fulton Bank, and his lobby agent, E. J. Roberts [have given their version of the dealings between Noah and Robert in yesterday's National Advocate; entirely false].  It will be asked what object have the owners of the old Advocate, in thus seeking every occasion to put the screws upon me?  I will answer that question.  They are all a desperate gang of political and stock-jobbing speculators [and I will not play along with them].
        New-York National Advocate, June 21, 1826, p. 2, cols. 3-4

        Daily papers. -- During the time of the script, there was a rage for stock-jobbing; and we have had some recent bubbles, which burnt our fingers -- but the present rage seems to be for new daily journals, or enlarging old ones, until the arms ache in holding them.  We have now the Gazette, Mercantile, Daily Advertiser, Journal of Commerce, Courier, National Advocate, and last, not least, the unobtrusive Enquirer.  Seven morning papers, and in a day or two we are to have the Telegraph, by Mr. John Mumford.  ***
        ***     N. B.  If any new papers are on the tapis, bring them out in the afternoon; we can stand one or two more.
        New-York Enquirer, January 23, 1828, p. 2, col. 3

The first two lack context; upon popular demand, when next in NYC I will fill them out.
In 1826, there were 2 rival newspapers called the National Advocate & the New-York National Advocate, the latter edited by Mordecai Noah, who had been forced out as editor of the original National Advocate.  Later that year, Noah changed the name of the N-Y National Advocate to the New-York Enquirer, so the last two items are from the same pen.
I do not kwno when "the time of the script" was.


GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 0:54 am
Subject: stock-jobber
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> While browsing the 1834 newspapers in connection with the US Bank
> scandal (think of it as the ACA of the period, complete with claims of
> unconstitutionality), I came across several references to "stock-jobber"
> and "stock-jobbing". This would be quite unremarkable, as OED has both
> with the range going in both directions by 50-200 years from that point.
> The trouble is, there is a bit of loose change here that needs to be
> accounted for. All the references, by the nature of the search, are to
> public transaction--essentially federal deposits to the Bank of the
> United States and their withdrawal on the orders of Andrew Jackson. 1828
> Webster's--only 6 years prior--has a dual definition for "stock-jobber":
>
> > One who speculates in the public funds for gain; one whose occupation
> > is to buy and sell stocks.
>
> The second part, complete with "contemptuous", is in the OED, but not
> the first. There is no reference to "public funds" anywhere in the OED
> definitions in either "stock-jobber" or "stock-jobbing".
>
> Please let me know if these references are worth pursuing and I will
> track them down again. Otherwise, I shall assume the issue to be too
> minor and unworthy of attention.
>
>      VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org