The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-08-16
PANIC IN THE WHEAT PIT.
EFFECT OF THE WORLDWIDE AGI-
TATIoN ABOUT BREADsTUFFS.
Hundreds of Believing Bulls and Roar
ing Bears Excitedly Pressing Their
Offers, while the Price of Cereals
Shot Up-An Eventful Day.

CHICAGO, Aug 15.-The local dealers in
cereals lost all control over the wheat, corn,
and rye markets this morning. No such ex-
cited scrambles have been seen in the Chicago
wheat pit since B. p. Hutchinson ran his
corner in that cereal in the fall of 1888. Out
side dealers were as much at sea as the Chicago
spectators The story is only barely indi-
Gated by the closing quotations which show
6s advance in wheat, SC. in rye and p in corn.
The excitement which characterized the
trading yesterday was quaorupled at the
opening to-day December, which was being
traded at 995 at 1:15 o'clock yesterday after
noon, was wanted by hundreds of believing
bulls and roaring bears at from 101s to 1039
the moment the bell tapped for the opening of
trade at $50 this morning. Business for
about one minute was done on an enormous
scale at from 103 to 1929, and then for
matter of FIVE minutes the crowd made
unanimous rush to sell and the
price tumbled to 1919. Its stay at
the latter point was short, the same unanim-
ity which had for few minutes been in favor
of the selling side now changed, and it rose to
102, at which point sellers entirely withdrew
until excited buyers had advanced their
bids to 105 Some sales at that time were
made as high as 1854 before it once more be-
gan to recede. The reaction following the
later bulge stopped when it had gone to 1034.
The market acted exceedingly firm, with an
upward trend reaching to 1049 and then back
again to 104 few times, and then, as on the
preceding bulge, the entire pitful of haggard
and excited brokers yelled their bids, and as
nothing but higher and still higher prices
could induce any one to sell, bids of 105, JOG,
107, and finally 10S were thundered stimuli
taBeously from 500 husky throats with very
little secured as the price shot up. There was
a feeling that after such a panicky advance
the worst was over for the shorts, for this
eventful day at least. Comparative quiet
succeeded, and the price once more began to
sag, but short sellers had received such cruel
experience in the early stages that the only
parties who offered stuff toward the close
were those who had it previously bought and
thought well of the profit offered them. Many
of the excited traders could not have given
coherent account Of the cause of all the tur-
moil.
In corn the fluctuations were frequent and of
sufficient severity to be called sensational,
and, as in wheat, the trend of prices as
strongly upward
The excitement to-day in wheat cannot be
ascribed to any one thing. 1t is a symptom
of the worldwide agitation on the question of
breadstuffs Including rye and wheat, Russia,
France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and
India have short crops. All foreign markets
are excitedly higher, and America, as the
only country which has full crops, counts on
profiting by the European and Asiatic scare city.
This, in brief, seems to be the sentiment
prevalent on the Board here. Careful traders,
however, are inclined to take their profits as
they accrue, owing to the extreme nervous
ness of the market and their realizing sales
from time to time have been the leadin g
causes for the depressions following each
bulge. AS the short session drew toward the
close, the market closing at noon on Saturday,
this tendency was made more manifest. sc
dealers were desirous of evening-uI
their trades pending the adjournment till
Monday The consequence was that from
the extreme high point (108 to 1907 the market
broke off to 1861 at 11:30 a. m.
Among the rumors on the Board was ont
to the effect that James w. Keene, Of New
York, was engineering bull deal in Decem
Der wheat. This tended to add to the nerv
business in the pit. 1t was remembered tina
in 1877 and 1873, Keene ran deal here keep
ing the price of wheat up to 130(0142 TO
months, though in the end he got the worst
of it.
Cutler sold lot of wheat above 102 and a
he has been Pardridge's chief broker, and Pard
ridge is still known to be bear, it was con
jectured that the sales were for the account O
that speculator. Then there was a rumor tina
the aged and eccentric speculator, b. P. Hutch
inson, who retired from the Board sometim
ago, and who is now in the East, has been yer
right on both wheat and corn of late, maxim
lot of money, and it was conjectured that
he had given some of the Eastern fellows bul
pointers, on which they have been acting +
the detriment Of Partridge and the othe
Chicago bears.