Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-08-28
The Bulls and Bears.

Chicago has been playing game in the
wheat market, which places some of the
dealers in that cereal alongside of the
stock-gamblers of Wall street, Our dis
patches have alluded to the recent corner"
in that locality, which proved failure
and they were read with interest. We APP
pend the following fuller account of the af-
fair:
The crush of the wheat corner is the alb
sorbing topic of interest in commercial cir
.cles, and even among classes of citizens
who have little interest in the doing of the
bull and bears, the subject is canvassed ca
gerly. The fact that the break has carried
with it greater or less number of commits
sion men and operators in grain, and Grip
pied others that men who were yesterday
many thousands ahead of the deal are to-
day bankrupt, invests the matter with an
interest which extends also over the entire
Northwest, the more so that many of the
grain dealers III the country have invested
their money against the corner, selling
largely of wheat at the advanced prices it
reached, and are consequently, by the fail
ure of the bull clique, large losers. So far
rs the positive failures among merchants
here are concerned, it is still too soon to
state with certainty who are really broke.
That the firm of j. b. Lyon & Co., who
gers of the corner, have failed. there APP
pears to be no doubt. The names of some
twenty other individuals and firms are re-
ported unable to meet their obligations,
but many of these, it is asserted by parties
in a position to know, will'be able to meet
all their liabilities as soon as they can get
their matters in shape; hence an injustice
might be done to solvent porties by pub
fishing the list. That ut least twelve or
fifteen firms have refused or been unable
to put up margins, or so far as to settle diff
ferences, IL unquestionably true, but mat
tiers are still in such confusion that it is diff
ficut to ascertain positively who these par
ties are. A prominent operator, who has
been, during the greater part of the time
rince the corner was established, con-
slant seller of wheat, OH yesterday after
noon called for margins to the amount of
100000 from parties to whom he had sold.
The total amount put up on this call was
only $500. The losses of this operator
will aggregate not less than 100000, and
this, notwithstanding the fact that he was
on the other side of the corner, and but for
their failure to meet their obligations
would have been largely ahead.
There is an exceedingly bitter feeling
among many of the members of the Board
of Trade at the manner in which the ring
have conducted their business, as it is al
legged that they drew many unsuspecting
brokers to financial ruin by inducing them
to buy grain for them, representing, even
after prices had dropped twenty-five cents
per bushel, that they were still able and
determined to carry the corner through
the month, and that they had allowed pri-
ces to drop purposely. These brokers are
left in the gap, and some, at least, of them
will be crushed. A leading and thorough
ly reliable merchant asserts that one of the
leading members of the ring came to him
this morning even, and asserted to
him that they were not failed, nor likely
| to, and wanted him to buy one hundred
/ thousand bushels of wheat for them to-
day. He at first consented, but immedi-
ately reconsidered the matter and refused
thereby saving himself ten thousand dol
| lars.