The age-herald., 1898-05-06

buy wheat for September delivery. when the July deal was closed at the expiration of that option September wheat had adl yaneed from 641k cents on July to 74lz on July s1.
 Letter had bought heavily under roc, and protected the price all the way up. Eu- rope began to buy, and this helped him immensely. It was at this time he fers mally notified the trade that he was not g speculator.
 q buy wheat expecting to pay for It's said he. This was received as a huge joke.
 The December option advanced with Sep temper, and when delivery on September contracts came around Letter again had the shcrt sellers in a wise. He is said to have bought and held intact a line of 12O00,O01 bushels, which averaged him net profit Of 1o cents a bushel. September 30, the last day of delivery, wheat closed at SIS cents. December option was S9 and May 94. About 100000 bushels on September contracts were delivered by the shorts to Letter
 Armour was one of the heaviest shorts and he made the largest deliveries The rest of the line was settled.
 This 1200000O bushels Is reported to have averaged net profit of 6 cents bushci, or gain of $72000O. Letters purchases of December wheat began under 90 cents. but were made all the way up to s1, where he forced the market. The young plu1ger was almost wrecked in the campaign in this option. Armour resolved to teach him a lesson. He sold to Letter 6.00000J bush- eis os wheat through various brokers ar a price but a shade under s1.
 There was no wheat in Chicago to fill the contracts. The wonderful resources of the Armor brokers then developed. His agents secured the entire west, bought millions upon millions of bushels, rushed it by spe- cial trains to Chicago and dumped it on Letter. The profits of the previous deals were quickly taken up in protecting the m at md rit,or for tta delivered.
 Arrangements with banks were made for loans as high as $l0 900 with securities and the wheat as collateral. Armour did not believe that Letter could pay for f0.- 00,00 bushels of wheat here and 3,O09,000 bushels in the northwest. The money was forthcoming. however, and then the won- der was, What will he do with it?''
 He has since moved and sold S,O01.050 bushels abroad at a price which averaged about $1.05. The carrying charges, storage and insurance cost him S3,200 for 100 days. The apparent profit was 10s.cents 8 bushel, which on 12,000,000 bushels means $1,20O,00o. Out of this he not only paid $320000 for fixed charges, but fully $5O0,OO0 for freight charges and $50000 in brokers commits sions. total of sS70,000, leaving profit of S330000.
 Meanwhile, Letter was compelled to buy May wheat in the pit to protect his cash holdings Armour began to sell him May wheat. It looked for time as if Letter would be delivered millions of wheat in May in addition to the load of cash wheat he was carrying.
 @ When the deal looked the darkest, Levi 2. Letter, his father, came on from Washing ton, and a truce was patched up with Ar- mour. There was a settlement and the big packer retired. This left only the smaller fry, and Letter proved too much for them.
 The May deal will prove the most profit able of all He had 12,000, 900 bushels bought for May delivery.
 He began buying around 94 and has the stuff tightly cornered. He put the price up last week to $1.25 He sold half his holdngssback to the shorts above H10. His profit ini this 6.0OO,0OO bushels have averaged not less than 10 cents a bushel net. This amounts to $600, 900. He is supposed to have 6.000,OO0 still coming to him which can be delivered any day this month The profit is problematical. It may show 20 cents profit. It will show this if the shorts put the price up above SIPS.
 It is said that most of this wheat will be delivered to him. If it is, Liverpool is clamoring for it at s1.4O, which means less transportation cost. about $1.15 here. TherS is at least another $6OO,0O0 profit in sight. During the past month wheat has ad- vanced 30 cents bushel in Liverpool.