The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-05-22
"Old Hutch In Off Hours.

\
CHICAGO, May When the mar
ket is active and the wheat pit on
the floor of the board of trade con-
tains buzzing, shouting, screaming
swarm of brokers. the eyes of those
most deeply interested are not SO
much on the dial where the fuctua-
tons in price are being constantly
registered as on a grim and terror
inspiring figure stalking about near
the grand staircase. This is "Old
Hutch" as he has been christened
by those who had fallen in the fray.
SO large a percentage of the popula-
ton bear the scars of wounds re-
ceived in the wheat pit that the fame
Of B. P. Hutchinson as fancier is
obscured by the notoriety of "Old
Hutch"
Probably no prominent character
in the west is more generally misun-
derstood than he. Even his enc
mics have to acknowledge that his
most disastrous forays on the mar
ket have invariably been preceded
by repeated warnings to the crowd
to "stand from UNDER" which, had
they been accepted, would have
meant safety. Unprecedented OBJ
servers can see plainly enough that
what some of his rivals accomplish
by means of trickery, luck and reck-
less "blufing," this much traduced
veteran owes to his extraordinary
physical vitality, his phenomenal
energy and a vigilance that never
relaxes for a moment.
A very few of Mr.. Hutchinson's
business associates know him as
something more than the terror OF
the wheat market, and they
thoroughly enjoy his society. When
change "opens they stand aloof, fol
the cold man" is carrying in his
mind the operations of dozen brok
ers, who are reporting constantly
how the battle wages in the pit.
When the bell taps at the close the
veteran stalks a little way up the
street to his bank, the Corn Elk
change. Here the loose ends OF
the days business are picked up and
some laconic general orders issued
for the morrow. Toward 4 .. m. a
few congenial spirits will be found
in the Century club drinking i'll the
wisdom that falls from the lips of
"Old Hutch" But if anyone ex-
poets to hear a word about how to
get money out of the wheat, or out
of anything else for that matter,
disappointment awaits him.
It is Thoreau, his favorite philos-
opher, Margaret Fuller, the uisper-
sion of the races, the theory of evo-
luton, the poetry of Brewing,
Tennyson, Dante, Shakespeare, evo-
luton, religion, art, music, medicine
the whole range of subjects which
appeal to the intelligence of enlight-
ened humanity supply texts for the
discourse of this wonderful man.
His grammar is often faulty, and his
pronunciation occasionally some
thing to smile at. He sees the
smile and affably explains how he
never went to school day in his
life. But he has a rugged elo
quence that never fails to impress
those who listen. They know that
this man, who is master of trade and
finance, have read more books than
the professors, and read them better
that he knows pictures and poetry
better than the painters and the
poets; that he mas looked deep into
the lives of the men and women OF
history and found in them more
than their biographers dreamed Of.
Often the old man holds forth on
these matters, over an occasional
glass of beer and cheese sandwich,
until within an hour of dawn. Then
his little audience crawls off to bed
But bed is not in the thoughts OF
"Old Hutch" He gives his big
form a shake, and, going to the
office of his favorite newspaper,
buys the first sheet wet from the
press, boards a horse car and is al
the stock yards by sunrise. Usually
a day thus begun makes history in
the wheat pit. c. D.
adde's have tried r.