When the new member settles down to serious work he will find open to him several different methods of doing a brokerage business, and in this respect the New York Exchange differs widely from those abroad. In London, for example, there are but two classes, jobbers and brokers, to only one of which a member may belong. Until very recently the distinctions between the two classes were but vaguely defined, and even now frequent undercurrents of resentment are aroused between them because of the alleged encroachments of one class upon the domain of the other. In Paris, where the seventy _Agents de Change_ enjoy an absolute monopoly by government authority, there is very decided opposition by the less fortunate members of the fraternity, and there are many who predict that the friction and dissatisfaction which monopolies arouse in this day and age will sooner or later bring about a reformation of the French system. Here there are no such distinctions, and no friction. A member may be any one of several different kinds of brokers, or he may be all of them at once, if his arms and legs will stand the strain, and if his financial resources will enable him to meet the losses arising from mistakes. These mistakes are a sorry part of the business, and they are bound to occur every now and then, no matter how careful a man may be, but I have observed that they come about most frequently in the case of men who try to do too much. A man may, if he chooses, become a partner in a commission house, and confine his time to the execution of orders for his firm’s customers. For these services his firm receives and is compelled to collect, by the rules, a commission of one eighth of 1 per cent.--that is to say, $12.50 per hundred shares. Or he may be a “specialist,” and establish his headquarters at some one spot in the room, and do nothing but execute orders entrusted to him by his fellow-members in the one stock or group of stocks situated at that particular spot. For his services in these transactions he receives a commission of two dollars per hundred shares, to which is added $1.13 if he is required to “clear” the trade--that is, to receive or deliver the stock. The latter is called “three-and-a-shilling business,” or “clearance business.”