Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-02-24

A Humorous View of Cotton Speeu-
IatIons-What the South Annually
Loses on Futures.


The following article, which We clip from
a Northern exchange, although written
in humorous vein, contains many
drops Of wisdom, and is Of sufficient
local interest to warrant its reprodue-
ton in these columns, and will be
especially appreciated by amateur specu-
lators," Of whom there are not a few in
Savannah:
"When the heart is full and the brain teens
with rooted sorrows there is nothing so
soothing as cotton. Its chief recommends
ton is that It is as clear as MONDAY. There
is no painful figuring about it. Railroad
stocks, mortgages, income bonds, construc-
ton company shares. wheat, pork, lard, and
other real and transferable things are too
complicated for pleasure and too uncertain
for business. unless one gives his whole
mind to them. They are like chess-not a
recreation but wearying labor. The dolce
FAR uieRte OF speculation is to be found In
cotton. Nothing could be simpler. Two
minutes with your broker does it. The unit
is one hundred bales, Just as in stocks 1t Is
one hundred shares. You take a hundred,
s'y, of September 1t may be IL So or
IL SO, or anywhere along there-that doesn't
q
thing. The margin is 81 a bale, and
your brokers' charges, say, $25. The
ante then, to borrow a convenient term
from another and a kindred diversion, is
sos. 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 editions, and extras, the
bulletins and reports Of the Department of
Agriculture, the bulletins from all the Cot
70 In "a he chi
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
i've 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 cotton one
ought to be able to take the worm and
guano statistics, acreage, condition, for
ward movement, port receipts and any good
estimate OF the probable size of the "city
crop" and at glance, In the twinkling of
an eye, unerringlY foretell the number of
bales In the years crop; and incidentally it
may be added that the ability to fore.ell
next years crop with equal precision is a
gift OF no mean value. Leave "hammeringn
W tbC SOltOI 44eSudbkO AOlho anu the pTU-
fes5ional spectators. It is their business
to magnify or minimize the crop as their
interests dictate. A Spectator who has
sold half dozen coming months is Ger
tain that the top crop and late
pickings will show the seasons yield
to be not only abundant but excessive,
while the gentleman who BUYS is secretly
confident that unprecedented takings for
Liverpool and the continent, coupled with
\ e.. 7 \
mills, will practically exhaust g crop that is
at the very least million bales short But
the indecent lust for gain is the ruling pas
sion here. Let the amateur speculator be
content to take the fruit as It drops into his
Jap. What can he, with his puny one hun
dred bales, DO to affect the market? He
would be Quilted at every point, ard In
these matters a sense of inferiority is hu-
initiating. Hundred-bale men should have
some regard for their moral natures, and
cODfne themselves to the innocent watch
ing Of the tape, the bulletins, port receipts,
etc.
"The perfect ease with which the profit or
loss resulting from the market fluctuations
is computed is the supreme charm of cotton
speculation. The changes are registered In
cents and hundredths OF cent per pound
The hundredths are called "points,u and
on hundred bale investment each one of
tLCGC JULIUS piESCAAS ~ Vi lusIauCG.
some East Haddam or glastonbury gentle
man, with little money and plenty Of
leisure, reads this article and comes down
to take hand in the pleasing diversion.
He buys. not one hundred, but five hundred
bales, and takes a seat BY the ticker II
happens to be the afternoon on which the
discovery is made that the cotton crop has
been bought for four or five times over by
the spectators, and about $50 O'Clock
fhara &c 4 ta4rra ~ Of
The Connecticut amateur hastily does some
thing of this kind on the back OF an envel-
opei 81 50x5 is S22 50x25 is 1895. 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 multiplication table; besides, this.par-
ticular Connecticut gentleman is probably
in some worry lest he may miss the last train
for East Haddsm. This purely imaginary
example illustrates the astonishing ease
with which losses on cotton futures may be
reckoned.
Another winning feature Of this fascinat-
ing recreation is the delightful uncertainty
about the cotton you are buying, supposing,
OF course, that you leave vulger spots to
men who want cotton to make bags or
shirts of, and cOnfne yourself to the idyllic
futures 1t IS easy to imagine that one
bale of the hundred may be on an East river
wharf, another in the hold OF a coasting
steamer, another in the ponderous jaws OF a
giant compress, another in an Alabama gin
mouse in the seed, aud others in the baskets
of bent old black men all the way
from Currituck to the Rio Grande. AS q
matter Of fact, the cotton is nowhere-ex-
cept for the unlucky last buyer who is pin
ned for delivery. There are more Southern
than Northern amateur spectators in 'fu-
tures,' and it is said that the South loses in
this way the annual sum of thirty million
dollars. A very good rule, so cool headed
operators say is to find out what the South
erners are doing, and then do just the other
thing. There is no law to prevent any East
Haddam gentleman from trying the expert
ment.n