ZK translation: the pit of finance

[ish mailian]

Lower Broadway, the financial district,  where the ticker-tapes are held,
is known as the canyon, or canyon of heroes.

The narrow streets about Wall Street have been called the Pit or the Pits,
the latter carries a negative connotation, the former is, as Paul says,
simply how one feels walking and working down there.

The Pit or Pits should not be confused with the trading pit or pits where,
for example, on the Knife or NYFE (NY Futures Exchange), traders lose their
voices crying lots.

Melville knew these places and in Bartleby the Scrivener : A Story of Wall
Street, the lawyer/narrator describes his chambers thus:


My chambers were up stairs at No. – Wall-street. At one end they looked
upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious sky-light shaft,
penetrating the building from top to bottom. This view might have been
considered rather tame than otherwise, deficient in what landscape painters
call “life.” But if so, the view from the other end of my chambers offered,
at least, a contrast, if nothing more. In that direction my windows
commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall, black by age and
everlasting shade; which wall required no spy-glass to bring out its
lurking beauties, but for the benefit of all near-sighted spectators, was
pushed up to within ten feet of my window panes. Owing to the great height
of the surrounding buildings, and my chambers being on the second floor,
the interval between this wall and mine not a little resembled a huge
square cistern.



On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 12:49 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:

> when you're going down streets surrounded by high buildings, it seems like
> you're in a deep hole or pit
>
> On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 12:38 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "NP" seems such a quaint concept these days...
>>
>>
>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free.
>> www.avg.com
>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
>> <#m_-8140110802193452446_m_5635938027159945639_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 10:55 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> P178.7-13   The taxi stopped on a near empty street just below the pit
>>> of finance and Stak angled his body out the door and jiggled a hand behind
>>> him in an ironic farewell. We watched him enter a loft building where he
>>> would spend the next two hours in a room choked with dust and stink,
>>> learning the principles of jujitsu, a method of artful self-defense
>>> predating the current practice of judo.
>>>
>>> It obviously refers to the financial district on Wall Street. In what
>>> sense is the word "pit" used here?
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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