Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-10-06
PANIC IN EXCHANGES.
COTTON PRICES WENT sKYwARD AS A
RESULT OF FAKE ADyICEs.
Business of New Orleans Cotton Exchange
Suspended for the First Time in Thirty
Years---Brokers in Houston, Galveston,

ever witnessed On the floor Of the New
Orleans cotton exchange occurred Fri
day shortly after business opened and
caused in the midst of intense excite
ment the complete suspension Of future
business, pending the investigation OF
what at the moment was assumed to
be gigantic conspiracy to swindle the
cotton exchanges of the country. The
panic was due to an apparent terrific
jump in the price Of cotton, based on
alleged Liverpool advices, and 1t was
estimated that, roughly s170 900 had
been lost on local transactions as re-
suit Later IN the day the exchange,
after receiving legal advice, declared
null and void all future transactions OF
the day This action, however, prom
ises to be bitterly contested and nest
Of litigation is likely to be the final
outcome. Future business was not re-
sumed until Monday
The market at Liverpool open
ed 3-64 lower on spots and 664
down Oh deliveries, as compared with
Thursdays values, and continued with
out material change for some time.
Then the wires became hot with tales
of rapidly advancing prices They
started up l64 at a time at first, and
then jumped l-64, !-64d, 2-64d and
81 -64d i'll quick order, until the next
advance up to 9:45, local time, showed
4i.64d. In the meantime New Orleans
had opened under the influence of the.
Liverpool advance q at "a points high
er than Thursday evenings closing,
and quickly climbed 80 points addition
al. Then the explosion came With
an unaccountahle advance of 81 points
facing thcm operators began to receive
wires from Liverpool asking the reason
for the heavy gain in prices in this
market, and stating that values in the
English market still stood about af the
opening figures. These cable advices,
in the face of 10000 to so, 900 bales
sold and purchased, threw the operators
into frenzy OF excitement, and they
surged, shouting, yelling and gesticu-
lating, about the ring as President
Parker rushed to his desk and sum-
moned without the usual formalities a
meeting of the exchange Amid tumul-
tuous scenes q motion to suspend busi-
ness was gasped out by the wildly ex-
cited broker, and with a tremendous
shout it was unanimously carried.
The news of the excitement on the
floor in the meantime had spread like
wild fire through the business dis
tricts and Corondelet street, in the
vicinity Of the exchanges, and the
Lucketshops were soon thronged with
excited men Upon the basis of the
opinion of the board 5 council, Mr.
Saunders, who stated that circumstances
rendered the contracts void the deals
were declared off The curbstone
brokers, or at least some of them. pro-
tested against the action OF the board
in declaring contrectJ void and claim
ed that thoy wre not governed by the
exchange. The brok Is were likewise
of the opinion that tho exchange mad
exceeded its authority, and threats
were freely made during the afternoon
of resort to litigation to determine
whether the contracts should stand or
fall
This is the first time in its history
of thirty years that the New Orleans
cotton exchange has been compelled
to suspend business. During the panic
of 1898 a similar attempt to suspend
was made, but failed The exchange
took the ground that suspension
would iniure it in the markets of the
world The directors feel that the
suspension was unavoidable and excus-
able.