San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-03-23
COTTON AND WHEAT GAMBLING.

COTTON AND WHEAT GAMBLING.
Advice to Those About TO Speculate In Cotton and
Grain--Don't.
Hartford Times.
Some days ago, having occasion TO
call upon several brokers in cotton and
grain in search of some explanation OF
the recent uneasy fiuctuatiOn OF the
market and the reports OF the total
ruin of no end of small spectators
known in the exchange as "lambs," !
was not little surprised at being IN
formed of two universally acknow-
lodged facts: First that about one
fiftieth of the business of the cotton
exchange and the same proportion OF
business of the produce exchange, was
legitimate buying and selling, the rest
being speculation of the widest kind;
secondly, that such speculation was
comparatively unknown ten years ago.
The conservative members OF the ex-
change deplore this state of affairs, and
do not hesitate to characterize the bust
ness as vast gamble, worse in its effect
than gambling in stocks, because stocks
affect only well-todo people, whereas
the price of cotton and wheat affect the
coat on a mans back and his bread and
butter. 1t will surprise good many
persons to know that not i'll the day OF
the widest war speculation did the
operations upon New York's exchange
approach the present figures. When
cotton was selling at 81 80 pound IN
1862, and fortunes were to be made In
ripping up old cotton mattresses, when
army contracts for -four and pork were
flying around as thick as leaves, bust
ness ut our exchange was sluggish COM
pared to what it is now. Judging by
the estimates of the most careful brok-
ers whom have been able to talk to
about $50 out of these $4,000 brokers
are really engaged in buying and sell
ing actual grain, cotton or stocks for
persons who wish to export, or weave,
or grind, or invest permanently. The
1860 other well-dressed gentlemen
who pass their lives with their feet up
on desks watching the stock-tlcker
through the smoke of half-dollar cigars,
gamble on their own or some one else's
account.
"Do you see that handsome man buy
ing strawberries at S. quartz" said a
friend of mine as we were walking past
a fashionable importer If Southern
and hot-house fruits yesterday. DO
you know how he makes living?
Well he has done nothing for the last
five years but buying and selling a ticti-
tious lot of 100 bales of cotton. He
passes his life at it. He buys it and
sells it half dozen times day, when
he fluctuations are heavy. He does not
know one grade Of cotton from anoth-
er; he probably never saw cotton
field or the inside of cotton mill, and
it is doubtful whether he ever sees any
cotton even in bales; but his calcula'
tions in life, his interests, his very be-
ing, are wrapped up in that lot of cot
ton which exists only on paper. He is
nothing but an inveterate gambler, en-
gagged in fleeing foolish people. In
reality he is not a particle better than
the faro player, upon whom the police
might pounce but do not. The social
difference, however, is immense; one
is pillar of the church, highly re-
spected member of society, who cannot
find words too severe for the faro
PLAYER, while the latter is social
OutcaSt.
Some days, in the chance which
comes to all men once or twice, that
man will be carried out of his depth
by some run of luck, and will be tempt
ed to extend his operations beyond the
100 bales of fictitious cotton. He may
make fortune in week. The chan
ces against his keeping it are SO to l..
Once gambler always gambler. He
knows no other pleasure. Since he
was all office-boy he has known and
heard of nothing but buying and sell
ing his 100 bales of cotton; he knows
nothing about books, art or music, and
of the theatre he knows only the worst
side. His intellectual vision is limited
to the gyrations of that 100 bales OF
cotton. He is elated or depressed ac-
cording to it's behavior. When it makes
$40 or $50 in day for him, he rides
home in cab and buys some straw
berries It ST a quart"
This is not pretty picture, but it is
a true enc. One has only to listen to
the talk of the young men who haunt
the neighborhood of our exchange to
find thousands of just such men.
They are intelligent young fellows in
appearance, sprucey dressed, quick in
talk, and always have their red-leather-
covered note book in hand. If they
have got to the supreme happiness of
actually buying and selling stocks, then
they sell certificates among themselves.
A gives to B a paper which says in sub
stance: Good for bale of cotton at
II 80 to-day, February PA value of
$50 20, the standard bale of cotton be-
;n,, s,,n,,oSad IN rai0h 45O nnunds At