The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-06-01

Extraordinary Scene In the Chicago Board
of Trade.


of Trade.
CHICAGO, May 31.-The elimination OF
the corner In May corn resulted In an OK
traordinary scene on the Board OF Trade.
A dollar bushel was the price demand
ed by the clique that had secured control
Of nearly the entire supply available In
this market. The crowd of traders in the
corn pit occupied every inch OF room and
far exceeding the wheat crowd In dimen-
sions to say nothing of lung power.
Samuel Adams and other clique brok-
ers were necessarily bidding ", while
Baxter and another set howled offers at
$2. No such amount OF trading at q
bushel for corn is remembered in the
history of the trade in Chicago. In 1854
on the last day Of September dollar
was bid for corn, but that was at the last
Instant of the session. Today Norton
Worthington sold 5000 bushels at II
and there were any number OF 5000 bush
ell lots. The people who were selling VI
corn to the clique brokers demanded the
names OF the purchasers and III every In
stance "Coster d Martin" was the re-
ply. ..o
situation suddenly changed. Within a
few minutes the price dropped 90 cents a
bushel. The fall was from the 81 price
fixed by the clique and at which they had
given the tip they would settle with any
and every body. The amount that was
crowded upon the clique at that price
had proved too much for their resources,
however, and they were beaten at their
own game. The collapse came shortly
before noon. A check in payment for
the corn was offered on the Weare Com
mission Co. A demand that 1t be certi-
fed was not acceded to pormptly. In
stantly the market was deluged with
offers of corn and the clique was downed.
The refusal to certify to the checks OF
Coster Il Martin at one OF tho banks
was quickly followed by the announce
ment OF their failure, and all Arms having
contracts with them made haste to close
out the trades in the open pit. A bedlam
OF excitement ensued. The shorts who
ten minutes before had been trembling at
the unprecedented settling figure raised
by the clique, now practically made their
own prices. The combined, however,
raised the quotation five cents, to 30.
Rumors of other failures besides that OF
Coster & Martin were heard, but none
were posted.
All sorts Of wild estimates are made as
to the losses sustained by Coster Mar
tin. 1t was definitely know n that in ad-
dition to the capital required to carry
through their deal up today they needed
this morning half a million dollars or up
wards to stand up under TIE unexpect-
edly large amount OF corn that was
hurried into the city in one way or an
other almost at the last minute. They
did not have the ready cash to do 1t and
down they went ruined in two minutes.
The formal announcement OF Coster n
Martins suspension was made this after
noon. Messrs Coster Il Martin are both
young men. They came here from New
York about three years ago and have been
very successful till now.
The crowd on the floor at the close was
the largest that has been seen in a long
time, and the excitement was intense
though no further disasters were de-
veloped. The final price for May corn
was 30 cents bushel, just half dollar
from the top price Of the day before the
corner broke.
Gossip was current that assuming
Coster and Martin to be totally unable to
make good their contracts the loss to the
trade would be exceedingly heavy-the
lowest estimate on todays trades alone
being a quarter of q million dollars. One
estimate was that nearly one million
bushels Of May corn was sold to Coster q
Martin at 81.
Interest In the other markets was
dwarfed by the May corn deal and for a
considerable time after the immense
slump, knots of traders could be seen
standing about the corn pit wiping the
perspiration from their faces and getting
their wits together for they scarcely
knew what might come next. July corn
opened 5-8 c up at AZ "a, on the rains
in the West, and under the influence o,
the squeeze in May, advanced 7-S more
to 4S 5-S, and then broke to 40 3-S.