The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-03
NO BIG FORTUNES IN COTTON.
sAVANNAHIANs PLAYED THE MAR
KET, nut NOT LAVIsHLY.

one Bay street Merchant Reported
10 Have Made SIS, 900 and Another
About Ss,OOO-severaI of the specu-
Iators Are From 81 900 to 5000 IH
POcket-They Have Been Cautious,
However, and Comparatively Few
Have RisISed Their Chances in Flu
lures.
There has been considerable talk on
Bay street recently Of parties who are
said to have made small fortunes by
specializing in cotton. An investigation
Of these reports. however. leads TO the
conclusion that it has been mostly vino,
though number of those who have
CHANGED the market have picked up small
amounts, while others who are trying 10
create the impression that they pick
ed up a good spec, perhaps for business
reasons, are known to have lost.
one party was reported to have made
$1,000 out Of the rise. This led several
others to inquire about how il was done,
and they found out that il was not done
at all. Cotton men who know what has
been done, however, report that one prom
inent Bay street merchant took in a clear
$4,000 on the turn of the market This
is the largest amount known TO have been
made by any Savannahian who went IN
on the lucky side. Larger amounts have
been reported to have been made by
others, but there seems to have been no
foundation for the reports, at least they
can not be confirmed.
There is another party around the Bay
who gives considerable time and atten-
ton TO the cotton market who is said to
have picked up somewhere between 5000
and $4,000, while there are several on the
list who have made anywhere from 81 900
TO 5000 Some of these are still holding
on to the market in the hopes of a stih
higher rise. though there seems to have
been slight decline yesterday.
The fact of the matter is, however,
that there have been very few Savannah
ians this year who had confidence enough
to try the market. The business here is
done through brokers and some of the
cotton men who represent northern and
foreign houses
1t is stated on the best authority that
the speculation this year has not been
one-tenth of what it was in 1892 when
there were such fluctuations in the market
that fortunes were made and then as
easily lost within a few months time
In 1892 the conditions were different from
then on account of the great strike in
England, as well as the panic in the money
part OF the season the market held up
pretty WELL and a good many Savannah
lans, cotton men and others, made quite
large sums out of it. Unfortunately how
ever, many of them held on in none of
a still greater RISE but the tumble came
IN the fall, and most of them lost nearly
all they bad made, and some of them
lost money which they had made in other
lines of business.
Some have gone into the market this
year with the idea of getting back in
a HrOpnpn a hn
time. There has been very little conf
dence, however, on the part of those who
lost in 1892, and the consequence is that
the spectators are not anywhere near 30
plentiful as they were then. A story is
told of representative of a large cotton
house here who sold ZOO bales lust before
Neilrs circular reducing the estimate 10
about 100000 bales was published He
was under the impression that the mar
ket was going down, and in the absence
or any specific advices he got on the
bear side of the market and just a day
before the rise came. As rule, however,
the savannah spectators are bulls and
keep pretty well on that side of the
market. That was where they lost In
1882, but 1t is where some of them regain
ed their losses this year.
Now that the market has begun to
huctuate there is less speculation than
there was week or two ago. The bulls
are becoming very cautious and the bears
are scarcely to be found. With a little
more confidence a short time ago there
are several Savannahians who might have
made almost Independent fortunes, but
they went very slow about It, so II is an
other case of might have been.
The majority of those here as well as
elsewhere in the south, who go into cot
ton speculations do it very cautiously. as
they generally go on the idea that the
New York crowd uses the outside country
TO aid them in turning the market which
ever way it wants it to go. This is UNI
doubtedly true in a great measure for
the New Workers are after all they can
get out of It, and it is a matter of indif-
Terence Them u hax
temporary decline in the market Is
looked for in October, especially after the
publication of the agricultural report on
oct. 10, and II is expected too that the
months receipts will be unusually large.
This may have a tendency to stop the
speculatlons Tor while anyway But as
for large fortunes having been made in
savannah on the turn in the market, that
Is all talk.