The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-05-29

A MYSTERIOUS CAD"
Bow an Alleged Philanthropist
Spent 100000 to Tip the Public.

In the summer of 1897 the following adj
ssrtisement attracted the attention of
Wall street and the financial world in gen.
eral:
Buy cotton and hold it; it's the only
cheap thing left -.
This advertisement appeared one morn.
ing in every newspaper in New York and
in newspapers from New York to San
Francisco and from Maine to the gulf.
Bankers and brokers asked one another
what it meart and who had caused its
publication. The name Of tho person
never has been made public, but the story
Of the circum stances leading to the publ.
cation has just been told for the first time
by Andy Penn in The Wall Street Press,
Illustrated. Here is the narrative,
SIT was at the time when stocks had
doomed gloripusly apd wheat was up IS
cents or 80 bushel, just before the Letter
corner was planned. Cotton at the time
was selling at $751; There is little story
pbout that advertisement that has never
been told.
81 was sitting at my desk writing some
market letter or other when the telephone
bell rang, answered it, recognizing the
voice of the speaker, although I did not
indicate it. 1t was request that one Of
the most prominent advertising men of
the city come around on an important
matter. The upshot Of it was that an or
der was given to put tho advertisement
quoted above in every paper in tho United
States published in town of 10000 in
habitants or over the next morning. The
cost was not reckoned on. 1t was case
Of sending in the bills when they arrived,
for the hour was already after s. There
was hot time In that advertising Office
that night. There was hot tlmo, too, in
the telegraph office They began by CA
bling instructions to insert the I'D. in Mel
bourne, Australia. Next came the cables
to Calcutta and Bombay. 1t was next Ca
bled to London, where it was already II
o'clock at night. Then they began at
Halifax, N. s., and worked west. That
was to gain time, for Halifax is four hours
ahead of time ut San Francisco. All the
Boston papers had it. So did all the New
York, Philadelphia, Washington and so on.
The stack Of kilograms, if piled together,
would have been six feet high. They kept
it up, with the newspaper directory before
them, until 2 o'clock in the morning all
hands working, and San Francisco, San
Diego and Portland, Or, were supplied.
"There are two men in the world who
know who inserted that advertisement
and one other. We are both pledged to
secrecy as long as we 1.-Two and no one else
will ever know. He explained that his
own partners knew nothing of his sudden
freak. Moreover he was not cotton
merchant He did not own q bale of cotton
nor was he short Of any. What was his
motive? Woll, he said that no merely want
ed to give the boys free pointer. Every
thing was sky high except cotton, which
had not gone up at OIL But the funny
thing about it is that cotton commenced
to fall from that very day, never stopping
until it sold lower than it ever had before
since this country commenced raising cot
ton-lowcr, in fact, than ii had ever sold
before since Adam and Eve realized the
necessity Of wearing cotton goods 1t
banged right down to "a cents. 1t has
never got up to $751; and the trade de-
spairs of its ever getting so high again.
BUT those bills. 1t costs to insert an
advertisement &C in every,Paper in the United
States and moro too. He paid them cheer
luiiy, over SoVooV. Anu all lOr freak
idea. Queer, isn't it?'
1t may be added that those who placed
the advertisements have always suspected
that the ''ad. - was not such freak no.
ton" after all. They are inclined to be-
lieve that, if the man who paid tho bills
would admit It, 1t would DO found that,
whenever an order reached Wall street to
buy cotton during tho few days following
Its publication, he unloaded some Of the
stock he held.