The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-11-10
GRAIN GAMBLING.
A CHICAGO JUDGE DENOUN.
CES IT.
WHAT IS MEANT BY "OP'
TIQNS, FUTURES" "COR-
NERS," &c.
GRAIN GAMBLING.

To such an alarming and demorsl-
izing extent his the passion grown
for gambling in grain, pork and
other commodities, that even small
villages now have their rooms for
such transactions, facetiously called
"bucket-sbops," But Chicago prob
sIIy takes the lssd in this kind of
gambling, and it has recently be
com. 50 bold and shameless in that
city thst Judge Jameson, In his
ch rye to the grand jury on the 18th
# October, called special attention
to that portion of the Revised
Statutes Of Illinois imposing fines
and penalties upon Whoever Goptrs3ts
to hAye or give to himself or snothsr
the "Optiou" to sell or buy at a fu
ture time any grain or other com
modify, stock Of any railroad 8r
other Company, orgold, or fOrestalls
the market by spreading false rumors
t. influence the price accommodates
therein, or CORNERS" the market, or
attempts to do so, in relation to any
of such eommoditiss.
In exBIauStion Of the same His
Honor said that the statute denounced
three separate misdemBsnors-the
sale of Options" forestalliug the
market, and cornering the market.
All these, either in name or in spirit,
have been always interdicted by
common law, and that of "iorestall-
ing" was at q very early day made
punishable in England by the stat
utss. The first oftsnse is the illegal
sale Of options for future delivery Of
grain and other commodities. The
fact that property is sold to be de-
livered ut a future day does not
make = contract illegal; or that It is
not ct the tims possessed or owned
by the seller; or that the time Of its
delivery is left within fixed limits)
optional with buyer or seller, though
in ono sense any such sale IS a sale
of an option apparently within the
statute. What makes it = gambling
contract is the intent of parties ths t
there shall not be a delivery of the
commodity sold, but q payment Of
differences by the party losing up
on the rise or fall Of the market. OF
this intent the jury are to be judges,
and it may be inferred directly from
the terms Of the contract, or indirect.
ly frqm the course Of dealing of par
ties.
The ofense Of "forestalling" has
been narrowed down by the statute
so that it covers only forestalling the
market by spreading false rqmors"
to influence the price OfeommOditiel
therein. The obvious purpose Ofthe
Legislature in making this provision
was to protect the people and con-
sumers, as we'll AS innocent traders,
from the damage resulting from un-
natural and fictitious fluctuations Of
prices brought nbout by the false
suggestions Of interested persons.
A Corner" the Judge described as
a process Of driving unsuspeoting
dealers in grains, stocks and the like
into corral " and relieving them
of their purses. The essence of the
offense consists in the party secur-
ing a contract for future delivery oi
some commodity at his option, and
then by sngressing the stock of such
commodity in the market, making il
impossible for the other party tc
complete bis contract but by pur.
chasing of his adversary at his Owr
price, and paying in cash the differ.