Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-22
III EMPlIlN APPEAL
NfDNE ,mAI, FEBRUARY %, 1889
THE CorIoN.rUrURE CRAZE.

Wheat, rs an object of speculation, is les
dol iIl-t IA an l. .s.-- --e-th- or
two ago, and at present cotton futures art
the prime favorites Of the speculative-or
rather the gambling-world. That cotton IL
10 go up, probably to thirteen and a half
cents, is confidently asserted, and to have 8
finger in the coming advance is the object Of
the gambling crowd that jcstle, and push,
and hurry, and hustle, and shout, and ges
ticulate at the New York Cotton Exchange
Let wheat, corn, pork and lard go; cotton if
king Of the hour; "there is nothing like cot
ton" to make a man rich, and rich without
touching baie of it. Pay your margins,
own your hundreds of baIes-not the coarse
things at the presses and warehouses, whose
contents stick unpleasantly to a gentleman'p
broadcloth coat, but cotton futures-cotton
J5AsePer-that is the article worthy of a
gentleman's attention. There is little
drudgery, however, connected with cotton on
paper. Having invested, the operator must
now watch the fast coming kilograms, know
what is doing in every Southern cotton CEN
ter, at the various cotton exchanges, in Liv-
erpool and in Manchester as we'll as at Lowell
NAN AHS OthcA SOttbh CtbtSio dc we'll do EDOulil-
ern cotton mills; whether or not all the
spindeS at work; what stocks are
held by consumers and what by hold
ers, and what demand present or
prospective, may be counted upon. But
before all this is done the memory, in order
that correct judgment may be formed,
must have stored up facts about ocean |
1reights, railroad charges, shipping move
ments. surats from India and long staple |
from Egypt, guano and other fertilizers, cot
ton-worm ravsges, the weather changes, the
state OF the Southern rivers, the amount of
acreage, and deliveries and exports For !
comparison tn, re must be an init ate |
knowledge of many of these things for at |
least five years back. Many so into the fu-
ture business without this knowledge of de- |
tails, and they fare az the man fares who |
plays at cards without understanding the |
game, and recklessly trusts to luck" They
watch the points licked off on the tele-
graph; they know that each point is hun
dredth, and each hundredth about $3.50 on
s hundred bales, and knowing these things
they shut their mouth, open their eyes aud
observe What luck is sending them The
Southern cotton districts, whose operators
sure they know all about it be-
cause they see the cotton plant growing
in the fields, stand among the very
foremost of the future" spectators, and in
this way contribute thirty millions year,
which New York principally gathers up, and
gathers SO gratefully that the cool-headed
spectators lay it down as a rule-fad out
what the Southern future operators are
doing and then do just the opposite. All of
which goes, among other things, to prove that
the smart men, the practical csmmon-sense
business people, are the most easily imposed
upon, credulous, mistaken victims of notions
and Hypothetical conc usions of any class of
movers on the stage of life of any in the
world, and their own futures less reliable
than even cotton futures