The evening times., 1899-05-13

The earthquake In the stoch iHdihee
caused by the death of Mr. Flower cannot
be locked upon as an unmitgated mis-
fortune There is disposition, indeed. to
be most hopeful as TO its final results. The
Flower stocks broke tremendously and the
standard railroad issues were driven down
several points. This was inevitable, but
il was also nearly inevitable that those
who were forced to sell out their stock
at the opening were the worse hurt. The
outlook for the future is uncertain, but the
elements Of the situation mostly point to
a favorable readjustment Of values and
steady advance from the low prices which
we're reached today. Bulls and bears alike
realize this fact. The most unpleasant
feature OF the market during the past
month has been what the bears argued
were too high prices. The people who b.
lieved that the level of prices was too high
have done everything they could to force
1t down. 1t is now matter Of history Shat
the past month has been one of falling
prices everywhere and that the level yes
terday was many points below the high
point of the boom. The sudden and pain
full death of Mr.. Flower at this time has
forced prices many points lower. The lev
ell at the opening this morning was from
8 to 40 and so points below the high. The
bears have now nothing to work on. In
the one day, or rather over one night, and
fictitious value that stocks were believed
to have had has been destroyed. At the
new level there is every sane argument
to buy stocks with good margins.
The Street talked today of who will be
the leader of the market to succeed the
most wonderful leader 1t has ever had.
Mr.. Flowers firm is not hurt, 1t is said.
and even Mr.. Flowers estate very little
hurt. His recent purchases of stock have
all been for investment and will be held
until they recover from the shock to the
market. Flower & Co. will undoubtedly
be leaders of the market, but it was a
fancy expressed by some that a new man
will appear to take his place with all his
vigor and shrewdness and optimism.
AS to the Immediate future Of the mar
ket, 1t is not to be supposed that steady
advance In prices can be made. The wreck
of accounts in all the commission houses
will cause heavy selling at every good ad-
vance for few days. despite all the sup
port that the leaders can. give with the
help of all the financial interests. and de-
spite the utmost latitude that can be given
by the brokers. The breaks were SO sud
den that the brokers of course refrained
from selling stocks in many cases because
margins would not cover them. These
hoId-over stocks must be sold later as the
level Of prices advances. The belief ex-
pressed by the most conservative, how
ever, is that on every recession stocks
may be bought carefully on good margins.
Elsewhere the full story Of the day on
the exchange is given. 1t is worthy of
careful notice, however, that the closing
prices of the day in the standard railway
stocks and in many others were only frac-
tionally lower than those of yesterday. The
opening prices in these stocks were in
every case the lowest Of the day, and from
that time there was an almost unbroken
advance. The grangers declined three or
four points and then recovered one or two
points, closing point or more below the
close Of yesterday. The coalers, the Van
derbilts, the Goulds. and the Southern Sc
curities took much the same course.
Sugar. curiously enough, was one Of the
stocks which held up best in the drive. The
stock had phenomenal advance yesterday
from 146 to 156, and in the first sales Of
the day this gain was nearly lost. After
that the stock was bought heavily and be-
fore the close was at q higher figure than