M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1859-01-13
MistrIIanrous @rtitIcs.
From the Chicago Journal.
Grain SPecuIatOr ;eiis His Ex-
perienCe.

From the Chicago Journal.
A Grain SPecuIatOT tells His Ex-
perienCe.
Generally speaking, wheat is q very
good grain. 1t shows well in the field
and in the statistical reports; it looks
well in stacks and in the granaries (;
and when well ground metbOdically
kneaded, judioiously baked, and
Eroperly Drowned and buttered into
toast, there is no one who will speak
more respectfully, nptiig sgy vl{Stiisi.
astically, Of The vegetable Than twill.
For | am, in the MAMA man too well
bred to do otherwise. But, rs an ar.
ticle of commerce, a medium for
speculation, am emphaticaIly down
on the whole institution--both win.
ter" and Spring" the one has prov
ed "the winter Of my discomfort" "
while the other has "sprung" a trap
on me like that projected over unwa.
ry birds which nlbble at tho same
bait. These remarks may seem Sc.
we're, but they drop as naturally from
ne as the kernels would from a head
Of wheat that has been well thrashed.
AS everybody knows, | am "the
son Of poor but respectable parents" !"
! started in life with this taIismanic
maxim for money making: Buy when
every one is selling; sell when every
one is buying. Well, some few weeks
since, wheat, which had been very
Duoyant, suddenly fell. Every one
was selling. had u little money,
and. confdlng in my golden rule,
pitched in, and bought at "eighty-
five" Very soon the staple commod.
ity dropped to siXty.eight, Now,
thought |, is the time to get "mar-
gin;" 80, mortgaging the first lot, |
bought more. And I'll venture to
say that my old mother never prayed
50 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 obyi.
ous) until, as it still KEPT dropping, |
thought il my duty to 20 into Chics-
90 aud PIT stop to it. The first
greeting that met me as ! stepped in.
to the fremont, was telegram on the
1miletln board--"Wheat is fiat. -
Wheat probably was fiat enough, hut
this announcement struck me as being
rather a sharp truth. AT halt.past
eleven O'Clock | went down on
Change 1t is perhaps needless
to say that | found things materially
changed since had bought. Buy
era" were offering "fiity.hve;" every
body appeared to be buying; there
fore, following out my sphorism, |
sold. The result may be summed up
thus:
Two months since | had money and
no wheat; subsequently, had wheat
and no money. NO,O, by the mass, |
have neitherI The second lot was a
poor lot--as poor, in fact, as the sec.
ond edition of Pharaoh's kline, since
it swallowed the first. But | bought
to make a margin, and made i'll
! think that most operators will con-
cur with me in the following conclu-
sion:
That to buy at "eighty.fve" and
sell at "fity-fve" will not pay, unless
a man does a very large business
That wheat, when it begins to fall, is
a long while in reaching the bottom.
That when it once begins TO heat, it
very soon becomes too hot to hold
That, after all, the surest way to
make money in wheat is to plant it in
good soil. And lastly, that a man
going into the wheat market with ev-
en- very small capital, if he is indus
trious and perseveres, may very soon
succeed in owing more than it is prob
able he will ever be worth.
SANDY.