The age-herald., 1900-09-13
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

The recent phenomenal rise in the price | Of cotton is apt to be a source of nisfor-
 tune to the speculators. The market shows
 signs of being very dangerous one. Spec
 ulation in cotton is always dangerous, for | in cotton fluctuations more than anything | else, it is the unexpected that always hap | pens, as for example, this recent rise. A | great deal of money was made by the bulls l last season. Cotton went up and up. It | seemed there was no stopping It. | The bulls were singing up in balloon, i boys," and the bears kept smiling a sickly | smile. Everybody speculated A certain | young man owed another $500 He went | into the latters office one day last Sep | tember with $400 to pay on the debt, but
 asked that he might keep the money, as
 he wanted to buy some cotton. The holder l of the note, being we'll secured, agreed. The | young man took the money, bought cotton futures and by the pyramid process had in
 few weeks profit of $25. 900. and held con , tracts for about 10000 bales. second time
 he saw his creditor, who begged him to sell | out and take in his profit. but the youth l said, nay nay. He had ideas of being a | Jay Gould or an Inman. He had not i learned that simple little axiom that what goes up must sometimes come down. One | day there came a turn in the market and | the young mans contracts were sold out and he had left but s2.50o out of his s25.Oo | This he subsequently lost in an effort to regain his luck.
 The same season another young man was seized with desire to buy cotton. Like many others. he felt in his bones that cot hat oho at hand to make money. He intended. however, to go in small-say, a hundred bales. He consulted friend, an old cot ton man, who advised him to wait a while and buy on reaction, which was bound to come sooner or later The young man waited. The reaction never came Cotton went up and up. Finally he decided to wait no longer. He had already lost money by not buying when he first thought of it. and as cotton could not go up so very much higher, he decided to buy thousand bales l as it would take this much to make the amount of profit which a hundred bales would have made if he had bought at first. He bought thousand bales at 10 o'clock and put up 5000 margin. At 12 o'clock he was called on for more margin and up went another thousand. The reaction had come For two months he never could have sold
 out except at a loss. varying from thous- and to two thousand. He could not do anything all this time but watch the mar ket. Tis heart was with his money, he was utterly demoralized and unfit for busi- ness. One day the market went LID and ne sold out at small loss. Since then he has been sadder, but wiser man. If man or woman will speculate in cot nt fhnrx h.,
 made money on futures that they did not subsequently, lose. There may possibly be an exception, but if so, it is only to prove the rule. Many have made money in spots" When you buy cotton and pay for 1t, it is yours. No turn In the market can take it from you, and if you buv q thing cheap, you some day sell 1t at profit.
 Cotton bids fair this season to hold it's own It is no longer king but it prom ises 10 be a parsonage of importance to say the least. The strong point in the out LOOK Is the very small supply on hand The mills are bound to run, to run they must nave cotton, to get cotton they must buy It from the Southern farmer The sunnIv in England is so small that already thirty Lancashire cotton mills have closed Many more mills are expected to close this week some of the leading spinners hardly expect to begin operations until November. In
 
 to live as best they can. This is the un- fortunate feature of the situation. If seems to be peculiarly true in all cotton dealings that one mans loss is another mans gam or vice versa.
 One of the causes which have recently put up the price of cotton is the severe storm at Galveston. This cyclones hath stretched over hundred miles, Much cot ton Is supposed to be damaged and in con ha y1riaa cotton is dependent on the very simple law or supply and demand. The trouble has been to determine the supply-the demand could always be estimated. Mr. NeiIl of New orleans made a great name for him self in estimating the crops of several suc cessive years, but missed 1t so badly on the last crop that he is longer classed as an authority. Secretary Hester In recent in- terView in the Age Herald, when asked his opinion as to the size of the coming cron and the prices it would bring, wisely de- clined to estimate. q deal in facts onlv., said MT. Hester. T have noticed that A
 times out of twenty, but should
 ne miss It once, there are none
 so poor as to do him reverence
 This Is the fate of MT. Neill, and the
 secretary probably had him in mind when
 he spoke. Neill at one time was the prae-
 tical dictator of the price of cotton His
 word was law, but he missed it once and
 today his opinion is of more value than
 yours or mine.
 Texas is the great barometer of prices
 The crop in the other Southern States does
 not vary greatly from year to year. but in
 Texas it varies from one to three millions
 If the Texas crop therefore is short, prices
 go up, and if 1t is large they go down. So
 the cotton market is anxiously awaiting
 news as to the extent of the damage
 caused by the recent storm.
 Thinking of this frightful calamity at NralVeSfnn drives tny1 Ottt af ,i,,I
 city, foolishly built as 1t seems on an ex-
 posed end of land, with it's highest point
 few feet above the sea level, has been almost wrecked. The misery and suffering
 which must exist there is appalling.
 stranger to the place can read in the morn- ing paper while he takes his breakfast of
 two or three thousand people being
 drowned and not lose his appetite But