Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-08-12
SPECULATION.

The Patriotic C1nctHnGttU7as Who ATe MGk-
ing Good Prices For the Farmers
[Chicago Times, August Ill
The speculative atmosphere of gamblers
alley" was unchanged with gossip on yester
day. It was not phenomenally lively day,
but great many operators felt in their bones
that something was going to happen, and this
sense of unseen danger made them nervous,
excited and loquacious to an unusual degree.
Among the iumors was one to the effect that
the members of the wheat clique were having
trouble among themselves, and gossip con-
nected the names of j. w. Houston and
"Billy'' McHenry with the disturbance. 1t
the local operators supposed to have
been admitted into the close corpora
ton, had become dissatisfied with the manner
in which the deal was being run, and was
kicking to get out. "Billy has got his back
up," observed one of the cunning fellows,
and has informed the clique that they must
take the wheat or he would dump it on them.
It is not known what terms were made, but it
is believed that he will be suffered to shoulder
his stuff on.the gang at mis- own figures.
It has been asCertained almost to certainty
who are in the movement now, and as the
Times said three weeks ago, P. D. Armour
mad nothing more to do with it than to deliver
a lot uf grain he had sold the Cincinnati ope-
rators. The parties who are
DOING THE PUTTING UP
are Truman B. Handy, George Wiltshire, Will
liam II. Woods, John Steamer, Charles W.
West, and Briggs Swift, of Cincinnati, and
Job Nash of Lafayette, Ind. 1t is not certain
that Nash is in the deal, but as he and Mr..
West are close business friends and seldom
mix in big operations, except as team, the
suspicion that they are working together on
this occasion seems to be well founded. The
story about Rockafellow, of Cleveland, having
a finger in the pie turns out to have been un-
founded. All of the men whose
names are mentioned are heavy weights,
financially, Handy, the ostensible
manager of the scheme, being probably the
three days the shorts have been settling their
deals, and as the clique is more than willing
to take settlements, the impression is grow
ing that it is anxious to close up as early in
the month as possible, SO as to get rid of car
rying the burden through September and Oc-
tober, as was originally intended. The mar
ket has been bolstered up shrewdly by means
of double sets Of brokers, in the employ of the
cornerer, one selling and the other buying.
The statement is made on creditable authority
that the clique has been doing rattling busi-
ness unloading lately, and the alleged knowl-
euge they have of the fact has tended to evoke
decidedly "bearish" feeling among local
dealers. On the other hand, the orders that
come in from the country run pretty much
one way, and the current indicates that the
rural speculators are feeling exceedingly
ssbulhsh." !"
PROVINCIAL SPECULALORS,
generally, manage to ''clinch on' at about top
prices, and this nay be the case now; there is
no telling.
The dangerous and unstable condition OF
the market was illustrated by an incideut
which occurred on change about noon yes
terday. The discovery was made and quickly
communicated to the boys that the clique had
been selling big blocks of wheat in = left.
handed manner, whereupon everybody go,
panic stricken, and the prices went down
from $1.ISx to $1.17X in less than five min
utes, and Handy's brokers were forced in self.
defense to buy back all they had sold and take
on good deal more to stiffen up the market.
This served to arrest the downward progress
of the market, and prices closed firmer.