Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-02-24
Satirical but Soothing Sugges.
lions on q Sore Subject.
New Y~orkrime,.l

unit is one hundred bales, just as in
stocks it is one hundred shares.
You take a hundred, say, Of
September" 1t may be 11.83 or IL. S9,
or anywhere along there-that doesn't
matter-the main thing is 10 get it at
something. The margin" is 50 a
bale, ard your brokers' charges, say
$50. The ante" then, to borrow a
convenient term from another and
kindred diversion, is $225. At this
point the sport begins. You have
nothing to do now but to watch the
tape, the morning and evening papers
through all their additions and extras,
the bulletins and the report of the
Department Of Agriculture, the bulle-
tins from all the Cotton Exchanges in
the country, the shipping movements,
ocean freights, Surats, mill takings,
the weather, the cotton worm, and the
guano trade. Of course, you must be
already familiar with the condition of
each of these things for every day of
the past five seasons The game is
based almost wholly on comparisons,
and not to be a master of the data
implies incomplete preparation.
This technique is petty, of course,
but essential. Before going into cot.
ton one ought to be able to take the
worm and guano statistics, acreage,
condition, forward movement, port
receipts, and n good estimate of the
probable size Of the "city CROP" and
at a glance, in the twinkle of an
eye, unerringly tell the number of
bales in the years crop; and incident
ally it may be added that the ability
to fortell next years crop with equal
precision is a gift of not mean value.
Leave "hammering'' to the Cotton
Exchange folks and the professional
spectators. 1t is their business to
magnify or minimize the crop as their
interests dictate. A Spectator who
has sold half a dozen coming months
is certain that the top crop and late
pickings will show the seasons yield
to be not only abundant, but excess
sive, while the gentleman who buys is
secretly confident hat unprecedented
takings for Liverpool and the CONT
nent, coupled with an enormous de-
mand for the New England mills, will
practically exhaust a crop that Is at
the very least a million bales short.
But the indecent lust for gain is the
ruling passion here. Let the amateur
speculator be content to take the fruit
as it drops into his lap. What can
he, with his puny 100 bales, do
to affect the market? He would be
Quilted at every point, and in these
matters a sense Of inferiority would be
humiliating. Hundred bale men
should have some regard for their
moral natures, and contine themselves
to the innocent watching of the tape,
the bulletin, port receipts, etc.
The perfect ease with which the
profit or loss resulting from fuctua-
tons is computed is the supreme
charm of cotton speculation. The
changes are registered in cents and
hundredths of a cent per pound.
The hundredths are called points"
and on a hundred bale investment
each one Of these points represents
$3.50. For instance, some East Had
dam or Glastonbury gentleman, with
a little money and plenty of leisure,
reads this article and comes down to
take a hand in the pleasing diversion.
He buys not q hundred, but FIVE
hundred bales, and takes a seat by the
ticker" 1t happens to be the alter
noon on which the discovery is made
that the cotton crop has been bought
four or five times ever by spectators,
and about half-past 2 o'clock there
is q sudden tumble of, say, twenty
six points. The Connecticut anna
teur hastily does something of this
kind on the back of an envelopes:
$4.50x5 is $22.50x26 is 1886. Now,
as a matter of strict mathematics
this is ten dollars out Of the way,
but the nervous cipherer is never
quite respectful toward the multiple
cation table; besides, this particular
Connecticut gentleman is probably in
some worry lest he may miss the last
train for East Haddam. This purely
imaginary example illustrates the as
tonishing ease with which Losses on
cotton futures may be reokoned.
Another winning feature of this
fascinating recreation is the delightful
uncertainty about the cotton you are
buying, supposing, of course, that you
leave vulgar spots" to men who want
cotton to make bags or shirts of and
confne yourself to the idyllic "fu-
lures" 1t is easy to imagine that one
bale of the hundred may be on East
river wharf, another in the hold of a
coasting steamer, another in the pom
derous jaws Of a giant compress, an
other in an Alabama Clubhouse in the
seed, and others in the baskets efbent
old black men all the way from Cur
rituck to the Rio Grande. AS a mat
ter Of fact, the cotton is nowhere
except for the uDlucky last buyer who
is pinned for delivery. There are
more Southern than Northern amateur
spectators in futures" and it is said
that the South loses in this way the
sum Of 100000 900. A very good rule,
so cool headed operators say, is to
find out what the Southerners are
doing and then do just the other thing.
There is no law to prevent any East
Haddam gentleman from trying thS
experiment.
a., RIaino,s South AmorIcOr