The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-01-21
SELLING BY SIGNAL.
HOW CATTLE ARE DEALT IN AT TIE
CHICAGO sTockYARos.

The Chicago stockyards are unique
among the great marts of the world. In
no other place, lay those who are most
familiar with its daily routine, is so
large an aggregate of business transact
ed in the language Of gestures and with.
out the scratch of pen" as in the
noisy pens of the stoclzyards. A whip
Is held high in air, across a sea of clat-
tering horns the signal is answered by
the momentary uplifting of hand, and
a bunch" of cattle worth thousands of
dollars is sold.
There is something splendidly pic
turesque and even spectacular in these
wordless transactions. They ignore the
artificialities of the complex system up
Oh which modern business relationships
are almost universally maintained
Trade in the cattle pens gets boldly
back to primitive simplicity. 1t is done
on honor, not on paper. And the undis-
puted transfer of millions of dollars
worth of the property here dealt in
proves that bargain sealed with the
wave of the whip and an asserting ges-
ture of the hand is quite as safe and sa-
cred as il the whole transaction were
recorded Sin black and white
The trader in the wheat pit is armed
with his tally card, upon which he
pauses to note the names Of those with
whom he deals and the amount, nature
and price of the commodities bought
and sold. The broker upon the floor Of
the Stock Exchange places equal reli-
ance upon the quickly penciled memo
randa made at the moment when the
details of each transaction were upon
the lips of those concerned in it's fulfill
ment; but the buyer and seller of the
yards carry whips, not pencils, and
their deals are recorded In memory in
stead Of written upon trading cards. AS
we'll try to picture the old knights max
ing laborious written memoranda Of
their challenges as to think of the rough
and ready traders of the cattle yards
pausing in their saddles to jot down
upon paper their purchases and sales
Such procedure would bid defiance to
the very nature of things and do vio-
lence to the magnificent unconvention-
atty Of every environment.
SIS there never any trouble in this
kind of dealingY' leading commission
man was asked.
"If you mean do the men go back on
their bargains made by whip and hand,
can answer, never" was the traders
answer as he brought his trim black
horse to halt in the cattle alley and
leaned forward in his saddle. "There
isn't another place in America, or the
| whole world, for that matter, where so
| much business is done on the basis Of
personal integrity, without written
word to show for the transactions, as
right here" he continued, land the
method beats all the bonds on earth.
The days business in these pens will
run about Sl,500,00 And how is 1T
done? Little talk, considerable wav-
| ing of whips and hands and no exchange
| of written documents between buyers
and sellers
Here is bunch of cattle that will
figure up about SO, 900. Over there i'll
! the other alley is q buyer who this
morning offered me price of SO. 10 for
them. | thought that could do better,
but the market has been little off, and
have decided to let the bunch go at
his offer. Up to the present moment
we have exchanged about dozen words
OH this subject. Now, if he is willing to
pay the price which he named in the
morning I'll show you how $40, 600
bunch Of fat steers is sold without
word of mouth or scratch of writing
at the time the bargain is really made. "
The commission man then straighten-
ed up in the saddle and waited for the
distant buyer to look in his direction.
A moment later this representative OF
a big packing house wheeled his horse
about and faced in the direction of the
seller Instantly the commission man
lifted high his rawhide riding whip
and held it aloft His attitude was as
striking as that of cavalry colonel up
lifting his saber to concentrate the at
tention Of his regiment before making
a desperate charge. The pose, however,
was full of natural grace and freedom
and showed that the man was more al
ease in the saddle than he could have
been out OF it.
Only q moment elapsed before the
alert eye of the buyer caught sight OF
the appraised whip. The next instant he
raised his hand little above his head
held it motionless moment and ther
dropped it with a forward movement
Quickly the seller repeated the motion
of assent with his whip, and then, turn
ing to his caller, said:
"That's all there is to it. To stran
ger this kind Of a performance looks
like long range sign talk between dea
mutes, but we understand each othel
perfectly. We both know how many
cattle there are in the bunch and thu
price at which they have been sold
Had we been within speaking distance
of each other the transaction would
probably have been verbal one, JUS
for the sake of sociability, but not be
cause it would have mae the bargain
better understood or any more binding.
l-Chicago Post.