The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-08-20
EXCITEMENT ON CHANGE,
The Wheat Market All Stirred and AL the
Brokers Nervous.


CHICAGO, ILL.,, Aug. 15.-Local deal
ers in cereals completely lost all con-
troll over the wheat; corn and rye
markets this morning, and many
times during the day clearly lost con-
troll over themselves. No such excited
scrambles have been seen in the chi
cago wheat pit since Hutchinson ran
his corner on that cereal in the fall OF
1888. Outside dealers were as much
at sea as the Chicago spectators.
Hundreds of messages were received
from commission men inquirlng,
"What do you think of the market"'
But blind could not lead blind, so
each one was allowed to grOpe for
himself.
Its stay at the latter point was
short. The same unanimity that was
here for q selling sideis now changed,
and it rose to 1O2, at which point
sellers withdrew, until apparently
noisy buyers had advanced the price
to 105. Some sales at the time were
made as high as los IA before it once
more began to reduce. The reaction
following the latter bulge stopped
when it had gotten to lob 81.
The market then acted exceedingly
firm, with upward tendency reaching
to lO4 IA and back again to lO4 a few
times, and then on the pre-
ceding bulge the entire pit,
full of perspiring, haggard
and excited brokers yelled their bids,
and as nothing but higher and still
higher prices could induce any one to
sell, bids of 81 .O5, $1.06, $1,Q7 and Sl.OS
were Numbered simultaneously from
husky threats with very little Sc
cured as the price shot up. There was
feeling that after such panicky adj
vance the worst was over for shorts,
for the day at least. A comparative
quiet succeeded and the price once
more began to sag, but the short sell
ers had received such a cruel expert
ence in the earlier stages
that the only parties who
offered stuff toward the close
were those who had it previously
bought. Many of the most excited
traders could not have given CO.
herent account of the cause of all the
turmoil, but the whirling Of dust OBJ
scured everything except the fact
that the market was in tremendous
state of nervous panic.
The situation seemed to be this:
The domestic and foreign markets
were all feverish, caused by the short
rye crop in Russia; excitement in the
German rye market over Russian eX-
ports; the report that the cereal crop
of Austria and Hungary was
heavily deficient; the shortage
in the wheat crops of France and In
dia, and pointed to a shortage in the
worlds breadstuffs. London was one
shilling on cargoes for prominent
shipment; Liverpool was one penny
to two pence higher and quoted strong
and advanced. A report was put
in circulation that Jas. r. Keene OF
New York, backed by large Eastern
syndicate, was running the bull cam
paign in wheat. The memory of his
last corner in 1977-7S, when the price
was held up in the neighborhood
Of 40 for long time, came to perspir-
ing shorts as frightful nightmare and
rather than take any chances they
ran to the nearest cover, regardless of
cost. During this process, December
declined to 105 1-2, but gradually re-
covered, and closed at 106 1-2. This
would have been an exciting day for
spectators in grain even ifwheat had
remained stationary. Corn was only
of secondary interest today, be-
cause as a rule the crowd
trading in it is smaller than
in wheat. Fluctuations were fire.
quent and of sufficient severity,
however, to be called sensa-
tional, and as in wheat, the trend of
prices was strongly upward. Septem-
Der, which at one period of the ses-
sion sold as low as SO 3-4c, only
reached it's pinnacle when it touched
s. Lee, where it stood at the close of
the session, or 3-4c above the point
where it stopped at yesterday.