Des Arc citizen., 1858-12-18
A GRAIN SPECULATION.

The Chicago, (Illinois) Journal relates the experience of a novice in speculations in grain. Perhaps some cotton specula- tors will appreciate the sketch: 'o n.-
 Generally speaking, wheat is a very good grain. It shows we'll in the field, and in statistical reports; it looks well in stacks, and especially well in the grana- ries; and when well ground, methodicaIly kneeded, judiciously buked, and properly Drowned and buttered into toast, there is no one who will speak more respectfully, not to Say enthusiastically, of the yegeta- ble than will. For am, in the main, a man too well bred to do otherwise. But as an article of commerce, medium for speculation, I am emphaticaly down on the whole institution, both "winter" and "spring;" the one has proven ''the winter of my discontent," while the other has sprung" a trap on me like that projected over unwary birds which nbbIe at the same bait. These remarks may seem severe, but they drop as naturally from me as the kernels would from head of wheat that has been well threshed.
 As everybody knows, am 'the son of poor but respectable parents started in life with this talismanic maxim for money making: Buy when every one is selling; sell when every one is buying. We'll, some few weeks since wheat, which has been very buoyant, suddenly fell. Every one was selling. had a little money, and confding in my golden rule, "pitched in," and bought at eighty-fve. Very soon the staple commodity dropped to sixty-eight. Now, thought I, is the time to get a 'mar- gin;" 80 mortgaging the first lot, bought more. And I'll venture to say that my old mother never prayed so devoutly for her bread to rise as did my wheat. But still it dropped! The fault, they said, was in the East-excuse the pun, if the pun is obvious-until, as it still kept dropping, I thought it my duty to go into Chicago and put stop to it. The first greeting that met me as stepped into the Fremont was telegram on the bulletin board, .'Wheat is fiat" Wheat probably was flat enough, but this announcement struck me as being rather sharp truth. At ll3 l went down on "Change." Itis perhaps needless to say that I found things materially changed since Ihad bought. Buyers were offering fifty five; everybody appeardto be buying; therefore, following out my aphorism, l sold. The result may be summed up thus: Two months since, 1 had money and nc wheat. Subsequently. l had wheat and no money. Now. by the mass, have neither! The second lot was poor lot as poor, in fact, as the second edition o Pharaoh's kline, since it swallowed the first. But 1 bought to make margin,ane 1 made 1t.
 For the past few days my friends have noticed remarkable echo in my vicinity
 Whenever we chance to meet, some chaE will say, "A-hem, whal?' and the rever
 beration comes back, deep and distant "Damn wheat!' The echo may be pro
 franc, but it is the expression of a yer! general sentiment. For think that mos operators will concur with me in the follow
 ing conclusion: -0f io
 That to buy at t"eighty-five4 and sell a
 "fifty-fve" will not pay, unless mal
 does very large business. That wheat when it begins to fall, is devilish lon!
 while in reaching the bottom. That whe it once begins to heat, it very soon become too hot to hold. That, after all, the sures way to make money in wheat is to plan
 it in good soil. And, lastly, that a ma
 going into the wheat market, with even
 very small capital, if he is industrious an perseveres, may very soon succeed in ow , ing more than it is probable he will eve
 be worth. g1 sH W 9 pla