The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-04-03
WESTERN UNION INTERESTS.
Probability that Jay Gould VIII Have
Hard work to Protect Them-Stock-
holders Reported Alarmed.
Surprising PROGRESS of the Postal Tele
graph Company A Cheap Postal
stamp system Promised.


the South, will have plenty Of hard work to
protect his Western Union interests. The
surprising progress made by the Postal Tele
graph company is seriously alarming many Of
the holders Of the Western Union stock The
lines Of thi' company now extend as far as
Chicago with New York. The company owns
two patents known as the Lego automatic
and Grey harmonic systems by means Of which
and compound wire it is possible to send
rate 1000 words per minute. The wire
promises to make a revolution in telegraphy.
7 he iron wire is too liable to be influenced by
storms and other atmosphere causes, and
copper, such as is used for electric light pur-
poses, is too apt to sag and thus endanger
buildings and interrupt the current The new
compound wire consists Of a core OF steel
wire able TO resist great tensile strain and
covered with copper, which next to silver is
the best known conductor.
This wire is one-thrd cheaper than iron
wire Of equal conductivity, and its low resist
ance admits Of the use Of batteries OF only
few cells. Among other advantages the COM
n1N1 DIbnllSCS W BhDHC 10 Wy
which private commercial and financial firms
may communicate with their correspondents
without the knowledge or intervention of the
employees Of the company.
They also promise postal stamp system,
such as is used in England, and cheap and
uniform rates Leading spirits OF the COM
pany are Messrs. George ID. Roberts, Henry
Cummings and Professor Elisha Grey. The
first OF these plucky and epterprising men put
over half million in the company, and lib
eral support on the part OF several Boston
capitalists assured the success OF the venture.
Some two years ago ]. X. Keene had con-
troll OF these patents and project but he
allowed certain hostile electricians TO talk
him out OF it, and Mr.. Roberts took the
thing up.
The reports of drought in California
have thrown a good deal of gloom over the
business prospects of the Pacific coast There
has been some rain in the south of the State,
but the central and northern counties are as
dry as a bone, and the wheat crop is practi-
caly ruined. OF course, grapes and fruit will
rather gain than lose by this weather and Mr..
c. j. Huntington AYERS even should the
wheat crop be poor there is plenty OF grain on
hand from last year to be handled by his road,
but crop prospects have already uniavorably
affected the price OF the Central Pacific stock.
There are shrewd men who maintain the
drought has nothing to do with the price OF
this stock. which has been Systematically sold
by the directors for considerable time past.
] One of the keenest observers of Wall street
manipulation said the other day, when Cen
trail Pacific began to tumble:
- That stock does not cost the Huntington
Stanford Syndicate anything at all. They
have been quietly selling out their holdings
for the last two years and putting the money
into the Southern Pacific concern. Now they
are giving the new route all the business they
car. When they have sold all they have OF
old stock and gone heavily short they will lei
the United States Government take the road
FIR its debt of no one knows how many mil
lions lent upon a one track road running
/ through wilderness from Ogden to Sacra-
mento. This settlement will settle the Union
I Pacific business"
OF course it would be utterly absurd Ia
speculate at this time of year upon anything
connected with crops, but the prognostica-
tons that can be obtained are not favorable
Apart from the above Californian re,
ports, which have been authenticated
an Indianapolis dispatch in yester'
days Times says: "The reports of the grow
ing wheat crop from $50 Representative local
tiles of Indiana and Illinois are very discour
aging. The alternate freezing and thawinl
weather of the past two weeks has been yer,
bad for wheat, especially on the thinne
ground. An experienced grower writes
''Gn old clay fields it looks worse then Nv,
seen it for ten years. I've examined wheat il
Carroll, Cass, Cintod. Tippecanoe, Pulaski
and Boone counties, and base my opinions OF
these observations. In this neighborhoot
many fields are reported entirely dead, and i
the present weather continues several field
will be ploughed under. On the line Of river
the report is on the low lands that the croJ
is doing fairly well, but on uplands it is badl,
injured. In Illinois and as far west as St
Louis, reports are of about the same charac
ter. The wheat is badly frcsen out, aud tn
beat farmers and operators now expect is al
average of SO TO IS per cent. of last years crol
on the same acreage"
Yet tight money, large receipts in Chicago
better crop prospects in Europe, and conse
quent decrease in the demand for exports hav
knocked down the prices of both wheat ant
corn to an extent very alarming to those whit
were on the bull side. Wall street Spectator
were almost all long of grain, as well of pro
visions, and have suffered severe losses in tn
last fortnight. The New York representa-
tives of the firm of joint. Lester & Co. arr
said to have saved something like half mil
lion dollars to their customers by obtaining
early information of the coming break AM
selling them out without warning. Notice
were at once sent out of sales, stating that /
the customers did not approve of it the sail
would be considered cancelled. Very few
seemed to have kicked and those who did no
saved from a to cents a bushel. Judg,