The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-06-28
THE GAMBLERS AND THEIR
GAME

The result OF the late disrepuiable
is that there is a good deal OF uneasi-
ness fell as to the future in the Board of
Trade circles A telegram from Chica
go says that On the slightest propagation
spectators are called upon recklessly
for margins. Frequently calls are
made on commission houses where no
trade exists, and the request has in more
than one instance been promptly COM
piled with for fear of being "gazetted
as broken.'' Certainly it is strange
state of things when speculative firms
can send out to those with whom they
have had no dealings for further de-
post on the margin account" and
have their demand Immediately COM
piled with lest the firm on whom
the demand is made should be
IgazetIed as broken" A community in
which such things are possible one
would say must have nearly lost its
senses; and an evil. producing such
fruits ought soon to work its own cure.
The Pittsburg Commercial Gazette, al
luding to similar abuses in the petrole-
um market, says: "The most barefaced
lies are telegraphed from point to point
and duly bulletined for the express pur-
pose of sending prices up or down, as
may suit the designs of the swindlers.
Even the financial standing of the best
business firms has been most shamfully
assaulted, first by vague rumOr and then
openly by telegraph, and before the
falshood could be corrected the schem-
ers succeeded in gaming their posnt.'
1t adds that cheating hsss become an
essential part Of the game, with less of
honor and fair dealing on the part OF the
professional than might be expected in
9 well regulated gambling house"
The New York commercial AdVer-
tIser Indulges in some sharp criticisms
of the Chicago crowd OF gamblers, which
we print below:
McGeoch and his ArmourItes left his
brokers in the gap for 100000, it is
repOrtcd-thls noble crowd who stand
up to their contracts" when there is Il
PkOut An0 10y 0OHA way III bAClA
poor brokers when they have loss.
Wonder if those funerals Armour
thought a few years ago would help
trade more than anything else wouldn't
be good thing now? We have had
McGeOch No. /. Now, if we coulu
bury the balance of his gang, things
would get healthy again.
Before the new failures to-day the all
absorbing theme of conversation On the
exchanges is g. ill the collapse of the
lard ring. its probable effects on the fu-
ture OF IIade in that staple, which has
been tainted in the eyes OF the world by
the men who had il To sell. Nor is this
all. Its effects in unsettling confidence
in this and kindred markets is still mat
ter of grave apprehension, for no one
knows whom to trust since the biggest
men "lay down" when they get hurt
The personal turn all their discussions
take shows that the positions. of and re-
lutions toward each other of these big
operators has still more interest TO the
trade than the market, as the latter de-
ponds ON the former The drift of dis
cussiun shows that out of all this ruin
brought upon the lard trade by McGeoch
and his quadrangular clique of Scotch
men, Fowler, their mortal enemy, comes
not only unscathed but with more money
made out of them than they have made
or will make in two years.
He has been the Ursa Major that no
clique or corner could scare, and the
higher they put lard the more he has
given them for five months past, until
alone and unaided, but by the merits
of the position which he alone of the
great packers saw, and by the hogs
which were back in the country, he has
broken the hack of the most DOWertul
clique ever formed in this trade, and
equal to the kecne wheat clique. And
yet the toadying Chicago correspondents
fill their columns with bOsh about what
Phil Armour has made out of the
break, Instead OF what he has saved,
aud print his talk about loaning Nc
Geoch $750,O00 to start up again for
auld lang syne. II reminds
us OF what he told the
writer about 'loaning" Fowler 81 000-
600 two yeats ago, when he had la Pay
him that amount on the July lard deal
of that year We suppose he has
loaned him another million ur more
again now The beauty Of these loans
is, Fowler has never had tn pay them
back, although Armour has called"
them in vain, many times before, as he
has now. the late mushroom Lord of
Lard" or "What IS It." cuts rather
ridiculous figure beside this real Lord
of Lard'-Fuwler who, like Jay Gould,
has never been in corner he could
not get out of. McGeoch will have tn get
IL new title now. therefore we would sug-
gest. afIer the manner of the Indians
Sitting Bull-his counterpaTt-thath he
be called Laying Down Bull, since he
does ii so 'rGien.