Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-29


pie,o issued today says: The boom" In the
stock market has now had four weeks Of trial
The movement has steadily gained in strength
ard breadth; the bears have retired from OPP
position to it and many OF them have gone
over to the other side; it has commanded the
confidence OF London, which from being free
| seller has become an sctive buyer; II
has extended from the share market 10 the long
dormant bond market; the volume Of business
hos RISEN to three-fold what 1t had previously
been; the other speculative cities have caught
the infection from NETWORK; an ''outside" inter-
est has entered the market large enough to show
that there is no lack of either means or dispo-
sition among the public to speculate or to in
vest when they are satisfied with the situation;
and prices have considerably advanced, while
the advance has not been checked by realiz-
ings which have been made by large holders,
but still continues.
These facts are sufficient evidence that, Of
least, the "boom'' is backed by large measure
Of confidence: that it is more than squirt en-
gineered by few large and needy holders Of
stocks, az Mt first suspected and that there is q
large body Of influential opinion in Wall street
and out to the effect that the present situation
Of the country favors an era Of national pros
perity and consequently better prices for in
vestments. Judging from present symptoms,
there lie a reasonable probability Of the boom
being supported and OF an active and rising
market being maintained through the fall sea-
tendency OF speculative movements to rush
from one extreme to another and thereby
quickly exhaust themselves. The spectacle Of
such an extraordinary harvest as the present
ono is naturally calculated to arouse
a speculative enthusiasm which may
carry prices up 81 railroad pace to an
elevation far above what the occasion really
warrants. Such movements are neither healthy
nor in the long run really profitable. They
end in explosion and reaction and entail heavy
Losses upon the over-sanguine class 10 whom
the over doing is mainly due. The true course,
under the now existing conditions, is to follow
the improvements in the situation AZ they arise
rather than to take them for granted in antici-
patton. Much of the financial force behind the
present speculation centers in the hands of
some half dozen men Of great wealth. whose
policy it is to give encouragement and "taffy''
TO tho mass of smaller sanguine operators and
then sell out upon their dupes: A prudent
operator will regularly take his profits and not
use them as new margin for increased pur-
chases so as to find himself finally among mass
of weak holders who are unable to sustain the
market against strong men who want to break
prices.
At the present moment there seems to be in
certain potent quarters desire to force and
initiate the market and then get out of stocks.
There are long headed and influential operators
who perceive that prices have already sufii-
GENTLY advanced to satisfy all that 10 certain
and realized in the situation. They are willing
to pocket the advance that has come in SYM
patty with the harvested winter wheat; but
they think il prudent to let the immature
spring wheat, corn and cotton crops stand over
for a future speculation, the drift Of which can
be much better judged when the contingencies
of frost have passed. The sanguine holder Of
a few hundred shares, who takes every good
thing hoped for as sure to happen, is the kind
of ahment on which the more prudent and big
ger fish 'attens, and my word 10 these averaged
Al L