Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-30
THE STREET DESERTED.
NEITHER BULLS NOR BEARS IN
HUMOR TO ATTACK.
The Effect of Good Crops Must Soon be
Felt in a Marked Revival of Both In
ternal and External Commerce.

NEw You, July 25.-WaQ street con-
tinues wholly devoid of interest in both the
investment ana speculative branches OF
business. On the stock exchange opera
tions are confined to room traders, who are
satisfied with fractional changes, and follow
the transient variations of tone rather than
seek to give the market Il bias one way or
the otAer. The truth is there IS no imme-
diate mate rial for the formation of i violent
upward or d downward movement Neither
bulls nor bears have contracts out
standing important enough TO invite attack
from the oppos e side, nor is there anything
in outside influences of enough immediate
interest 70 invite large operations. Under
these circumstances every body easily yields
10 the temptations of the seasons recrea-
tons and the street is virtually partially
deserted.
This condition of things is natural enough
as seq nee of the "ld-Wide financial
arrangements of last fall. CautiCl every
where. the contraction of credit in every di-
rection. critical examination into the condi-
tion of the institutions through which
finance operates. Encouragement towards
speculative operations and undertakings,
and protracted process of liquidation
these ar annong the influences to which
financial interests have been subjected alike
in Eur pc and the United States for the last
nine or ter months. The condition hG- been
that Of collapse after CONFUSION: and the
question is. whether the collapse stage has
run its course. so that we may expect an
early return of general Wig or and activity.
1t is the difficulty OF answering this ques-
ton satisfactorily that now holds Wall
street in suspense And that difficulty can
not be fairly laid to anything in our domes-
tic situation; for we have nowhere any
really unsatisfactory conditions in our in
duStrieS, our commerce or our finance,
whilst we have the promise of the potent
stimulus that comes from extraordinary
crops and the clearing house returns show
tina the current volume of the nations bust
ness more than equals that of a year ago.
The one thing that prevents the revival OF
financial operations at this cen er appears
70 be the uncertainty that StlI. overhangS
European finance. What may be the outcome
of the unsettled condition and the new devei-
opments of European politics! Have all the
weak spots developed out of the South Amer
lean disasters been taken care of. What
may be the commercial and political effects
abroad Of unusually short crops. involving
in some places almost threatened famlnes
VIII the necessity of buying extraordinary
supplies of breadstuffs from this and other
countries involve an exhaustive drain OF
gold from the great national banks OF
Europe' And. # SO. what would be the
effect upon European finances at large!
Would that effect involve embarrassment
in the foreign trade relations with which
we stand committed, and would it lead TO a
return Of American securities of 4 class
which we have been accustomed to regard
as safe against disturbance under almost
any circumstances? These are the kind of
questions that the men of Wall street are
weighing in the formation OF their estimates
of the course of affairs for the next few
months. And it cannot be said that the
problems are chimerical, nor that it is need
less to consider them
But, on the other hand, we have on this
side a situation distinctly our own, and