St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-12-23
MONDAYS MARKETS.
a Somewhat Better Feeling
in Cereals and Provi-
sionsin Chicago.
The Bulls in the Wheat Pit
Take q Hand in the
Smiling.
The Year Option in Corn a Little Easier
and the More Deferred
Fraction Higher.
Provisions Advance Several Cents ALI Around
The Board to Adjourn for
Single Day.
Wall Street Generally DemOraIized the
COalers Icing the Center of
the Bears Attack.
Provisions Advance Several Cents All Around
The Board to Adjourn for
Single Day.
Wall Street Generally DemOralized, the
COalers Icing the Center of
the Bears Attack.
CHICAGO.
Ispecial Telegram % the Globe. l


CHICAGO, Dec. 22.-Traiing on 'change
to-day was fairly active and there was general
advance in prices, oats being the most prom
inent exception. The main strength in the
wheat market came afternoon, and was due
chiefly to better foreign and eastern advices.
The close was 14c higher on January and sc
on the more deferred options. Corn was
quiet and ruled firm. The deferred deliver
les closing the same as on Saturday while
year was somewhat easier as compared with
the range of Saturday, but higher as com
pared with Saturdays close, the last Fl cures
being re above. Oats ruled steady all day
at a decline of &c from Saturdays close, and
provisions were stronger in sympathy with
the improved tone in grains and higher
prices at the stock yards. Pork closed 15Q
171zc higher, lard 21lc higher and ribs Toe
higher. The close on the afternoon board
was at 7255c for January wheat, 361<c for
year corn and 354c for January, 244fc for
December oats, 2SH for May, S1197L for
February pork, 1915 Tor February lard and
$5.72H for February ribs The board will
adjourn Wednesday afternoon for Christmas
day only.
The wheat bulls are inclined to celebrate
because wheat has crept up 21Ec within the
past week, out it is barely possible that they
are getting enthusiastic a little too early.
While it is reasonable to believe in higher
prices eventually, there has not been any
such change in the condition of affairs as
would warrant the belief that the present ad-
vance is a sign that wheat has
started up for good any more than
on dozen similar occasions lately. The
trader who is neither long nor short, but who
goes at the problem to reach true answer
TO it, will decide in the outset that a little ad-
vance in a week from roe to 721Sc amounts
to very little indeed, aud so far as it goes at
all is an argument for selling rather than
for buying, but hell look over the pit and
decide, if he can, who are doing the trading,
If the buyers are good men, clever, rich,
plucky, wall Informed. Are they stayersl
He will look over the speculative pit before
he looks into the natural situation, the sup
ply and demand, the acreage, the movement
OF grain, the temper and the con-
dition Of the farmers, because
be knows that the spectators are
close enough in one way and another to the
farmers to really and truly reflect all these
natural conditions and even to leap at them
a little before the farmers know enough
about them to write or tell of them Who
then are the bulls now! Well, little St.
Louis combination, yclept, Fraley g. Carter,
an alias, for little Nose Fraley is the princi-
pal one. FrqleY has been buying wheat on
pretty large scale at st. Louis for some
time, and has advanced the price there few
cents bushel. In single day it went
ahead couple of cents a bushel
under its manipulation, but st. Louis
is Fraley's native town. It's about his size
1t has always always been the opinion OF the
best class of operators here that whenever he
transfers his operations to Chicago or New
York he loses all the vantage of comparative
big trading. His experience here furnishes
ground for this opinion. He is not a great
operator. He is anything but great stayer.
He never was clever on the bull side Did
anybody ever know him to buy wheat, for
instance, and when delivery day came around
accept it and pay for it and buy more? Is he
not man who delights in taking immense
lines on thin marginsl Is he not the trader
who buys Tor sells) with one
commission house? Draws down what
ever profit there may be
fast as it occurs, takes another line with
with another commission house aud draws
down profit there? Isn't he the st. Louisian
who boosted that he could do more trading
on less margin than any other man in the
trade? Isn't he the ST. Louisiau who went
broke few months ago while bucking little
bull turn that Armour was engineering? If
this is the same little Nose Fraey, and if his
methods are the same, then, is he very
secure bull leader, Ell? There has been some
talk and at times some indication that Ar
mour was doing something in wheat All
this great trader is interested in, however,
is apparently to fill his own elevator with
grain to earn storage and to carry
and earn carrying charges upon as much
wheat as he has idle money to buy. That he
has good share of the cash wheat is gener-
ally known, and that he had a great block
sold for January ought also to be generally
known. His name has been cutting some
figures in the wheat market of late probably
for the sole reason that brokers have been
transferring his January sales into May, the
giving up of his name on the purchases help
ing vastly in profitable transfer. There are
no signs that Armour is bulling wheat It is
fact, an he says so himself, that Mr.. Ar
mour has so much money, and
has taken part in so many fierce
speculative fights that he has lost the inclin-
alton to enter any more. 'tI'm going to
take life easier now" be said to the writer.
The Armours have all reached 5Oc.n With no
better leader than Fraley in bull speculation,
are natural condition changing so to promise
any advance. The thermometer in the north
west has been from 10 to 80 degrees below
zero, and if farmers had wheat to ship and
wanted to ship it they could not have done
it. A broker has been stamping about the
officers during the recent cold snap envel-
oped in a fur-lined great coat emphasizing
the size of the visible supply by declaring
that If the figures decreased 1000, 900
bushels a week it would take forty-six weeks
to get it out of sight. The brokers' way of
calling attention to the virtues of the visible
supply is a good one. although a little extrav-
agant. 1t is true the figures may never get
below $1,000, 900 bushels, but even then 1t
would take thirty-one weeks to get them
down to that point if the decrease was at the
rate of 100000 bushels week. There
has been gossip on the subject of decreased
acreage in wheat and more gossip concern.