Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-04-05

few minutes moved up to SOC, with
no indication of the panic which
followed. The Signal Service
Agent put the touches on the
weather map. The chart showed
milder weather only in certain local
tiles, while the Northwest, Iowa,
Kansas, and other great States of the
wheat belt had freezing weather. This
was not all. The prediction was for q
more severe freeze than on Monday
over the whole wheat belt. This was
alarming. At the same hour every
house on the floor with country con-
nections had dispatches telling Of
wheat already killed by the cold wave
of Sunday and Monday. Tuesday the
trade was bearish on the theory that
wheat was not injured. Cairo and st.
Louis parties after sending out agents
reported half the crop in Southern
Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky killed
beyond doubt, as it was jointed by the
previous warm weather. All this came
on the trade, which was heavily short.
1t was not the shortage of one big
house, nor a dozen big houses. The
scalpers were short The tailers after
the bear plungers were short. Every
big commission house had from 10 to
large lines. They all wanted wheat.
In the face of the weather map
and the alarming crop dispatches,
there was no one to sell 1t
to them. There was nothing left but
to bid for 1t. This started the panic
among shorts. Then came another ele-
ment of danger, the stop-loss orders.
Customers with ten, twenty or fifty
thousand wheat short around 58}c or
oslo had protecting orders around 59!c
or 60c. When stop orders were
reached commission men were wild.
Once the market got by the stop-order
point the loss was on the house. Big
houses had all their brokers buying
like fury. 1t was wild scene and q
great, bounding. bull market, with
losses for shorts, big and little, right
and left. The May price started
58sc, went to SOC gradually, went
to 60c with shorts climbing over
each other to get wheat sold &C lower,
went from 60c to Gle with commission
houses buying on tremendous scale
to save their customers and themselves,
and the panic which was on carried
the price to 61ic, or &c over the close
on Tuesday. July sold 60ic and up to
$40. Partridge brokers sold wheat on
the big advance, and the May price
went back to 601c. On second furry
before midday the May sold 61ic and
was stopped by enormous selling by
Baldwin -Farnum and others. The
market became steady at colo, 24c over
Tuesday night. The light cars, 1876
Minneapolis and Duluth, against 800 Q
year ago, added to the force OF the
buying.
Millions of Bushels Handled.
Hundreds of brokers and spectators
we're wildly clawing the air and
screaming for wheat, says the dispatch.
They bid the market up on themse Ives
furiously, and in less than five minutes
the price was Git, and July was g.
From 59f to 81 hardly q trade
was made. Everybody wanted to buy
wheat, and nobody had any for sale.
The fountains Of supply were suddenly
exhausted. The bears were thrown
into hopeless panic by their inability
to get wheat Nothing 80 frightens O
speculator as to discover that he can
neither buy nor sell, and when thor
oughly panic-strickeu nobody can skip
fractions In his bids like trapped
short seller. Atsuch periods he wants
the property and price cuts no figure.