The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-15

peared in the doorway tall youth
with a hugh bunch of violets in his
coat.
Good evening: / think Yale will
win was his greeting: Il think so
about ten to eight"
"That'll cost you a hundred with
me-" remarked a heavy-set man at a
table near the door.
"All right" replied the new conner,
handing his card to the other.
Fifty of that here" "A hundred
here, If you please" kindly put me
down for nifty" Whats your limit?"
DO you want a hundred more?"
The air seemed to be full of it, AS
fast as the offers were made the Yale
supported jotted them down on his
cards and effected rapid exchanges.
When he signified that he had enough
Of those odds a pink and beardless
youngster who had already made one
bet with him rose and from his corner,
strolled over to him and announced to
the room in general.
Il will bet thousand on Harvard
at evens."
There was a rush for him from all
sides of the room; everybody wanted
to get at the good thing" Coolly he
Jottec down the amounts as they were
offered, and when the clamor had died
away said in the same easy tones:
I've got five hundred at one to three
that Yale don't score"
why, that kid amt old enough to
have cigarette money" remarked an
out of town visitor. ITS all a gag"
HE gets a nice little allowance of
twenty thousand a year from his
father" said one of the habitues as
the beardless better strolled back to
his seat with his hands full of cards
and ordered a mug of ale.
Then an epidemic of small betting
broke out. Men wagered tens and
twenties and fifties on the numerical
scores of the game. They put up mon
ey on the name Of the man who should
make the first touchdown. They bet
on the number of the oysters in the
stew they had just ordered, and on the
color of the hair of the next woman
who should come into the place. The
final sporting proposition that I heard
was outside at five am, when one un-
steady youth was saying to another:
Say, Eddy, bet y twenty mex cab
comes along's got an odd number. No?
All ri. Bet y it's an even number.
No? All ri. Bet y faint either"
Thomas w. Lawson thinks that the
slump in the stock market is all on his
account. They are cunning for me-
he says, and he seems really to believe
that not only the decline in copper
shares, but the general fall in prices
on the stock market as well is con-
spiracy against him. 1t is much more
common for the petty traders COM
monty called tape worms" to take this
highly personal and subjective view of
a big stock movement than for a man
of the good medium size of Mr.. Law
son. One would think that the con-
Hftfnr IF rkaf with a N
enormous surplus hanging over 1t
would account sufficiently for the drop
in copper. Yet Mr.. Lawson may be
right Vanity was the first cause of
the Northern PACIFIC Union Pacific
row. Nevertheless a very reasonable
bear view of the stock market is taken
by almost everybody now in Wall
street The money situation is bad;
the menace of defensive tariffs in
European countries is real; prices are
high and the public won't buy.
The point to be determined this week
is the exact reverse of the point kept
before the dealers of this column dur
ing the last four or five weeks. While
the pools formed in special stocks and
allied groups of railroads were adj
vancing their favorites in an effort to
get general bull movement started,
! said every Monday that the one
lIilHS 10 WdlCn LOT was the entrance
into the market of the outside buyer.
If he should come in and show a dis
position to take stocks at, advancing
prices the boom could go on. But he
didn't, and every attempt to maintain
prices failed; and the story of the
market each week was of labored rises
with drops sudden and sharp when the
pools undertook to collect their profits.
Now that the bull campaign is started
the one thing to watch is again the
attitude Of the public. The outsiders
who wouldn't buy have been just as
unwilling to SELL On Friday when a
decline was started with such vigor
that standard stocks lost all the way
from one to three points, 1t looked as
if there might be a long fast fall The
market opened weak this morning
Will the public be forced to sell and
take losses? Duane.