Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1895-10-22
COTTON'S FEARFUL TUMBLE
100 =
It Has Dropped $685. Per Bale
in Four Days.
THE TROUBLE lSAB0UT OVER
Mr. Cleveands financial Policy Is Getting in Its
Work 100000 Bales Sold in New
York in One Day.

New York, Oct. 21.--Cotton prices on
the New York Cotton exchange this morn
ing opened over 80 points below Sat
urdays official closing figures. The de-
cline was accompanied by great excite
ment. January futures opeaed at S.54
against Saturdays close. On Wednes-
day last the same futures sold at s.44
or go points above today's opening. This
is equivalent to $3.50 per bale The i'm
mediate cause of the smash this MORN
ing was the opening decline in Liverpool
maket of 10 to 1l-64d. The decline. as a
whole. however has been occasioned by
the reported collapse of the bull cam
paign. which has been engineered from
New Orleans for several months past.
The New Orleans, bull clique was last
week reported to be liquidating its hold
ings of cotton, and this quickened the
decline in this market. Business was
very heavy this morning and fluctuations
very violent. Within thirty seconds the
market moved points. January which
had opened at 1854, rallied to 1858 and
then weakened again with quick rallies
to 8.65 and recovered during the first
hour. Sales on opening were on an enor-
nous scale. i-=tz#
In the early afternoon January cotton
touched 1927. This was a decline of III
points from Wednesday or equivalent to
$5.85 bale. In the early afternoon, how
ever, conservative traders were council
ing that there should be a reaction or
serious results might follow.
Some prominent operators are said to
have come in as buyers A New Or
leans dispatch reported the failure of EN-
met & Buech a cotton house there.
Up to l O'Clock the sales on the cottoil
exchange aggregated for the day 100000
bales, the largest on record. AT 1:45 JAM
uary prices were $40.
The tremendous break in cotton and
the wild, Unprecedented scenes on the
floor of the cotton exchange were the talk
of the street. Stock operators left their
favorite speculative commodities to dis
cuss cotton and it's downward career.
One of the best known cotton brokers
in the city, when asked to give an opin-
ion on the market, said hurriedly: 1.-The
break had to come and was looked for,
but it was not expected all at once. The
truth Is that the reaction In cotton is TAX
ing place in days instead of months. We
are doing the business of lquidating In
three days. The market in consequence
is in a condition little short of panic
and real values are not considered"
When prices reached what appeared to
be the bottom John Fl. 1nman. who sold
$4,000 bales of January at 9.37 last week,
became bull and bought back what he
had sold at cent less. His profits are re-
ported to be enormous on the transac-
ton. Mr.. Inman is said to have cleared
over 100000 on the drop in cotton In the
past four days. There was a report late
today that the governors of the cotton
exchange were Investigating reports that
several cotton brokers made sales on the
curb after the close of the exchange on
Saturday, and that they would be called
to account for violation of the rules. =
At o'clock the sales of cotton amount
ed to over 100000 bales and speculation
was still very heavy. z