The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-12-11
The COTTON QUEEN
or new YORK MARKE'T
There Are Kings and Kings Rut
Only One Queen and Her
Name Is Giles.
HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL
BY Means of a Simple System of Cor
respondence She Keeps a Nervous
Finger on the Ever Changing
Pulse of the Cotton Market.

New York World: Did you know
that we have a woman cotton queen
here in New York? There are
Sullys and Browns and Prices, there
are kings and kings, but there is only
one queen, and her name is Giles.
Miss Kate Giles, If o please. she
Is pretty, too, which makes 1t all tie
more Interesting.
She has golden hair and big gray
eyes and a cotton boil and tea-rose
compIeNion, and altogether it is not
wonderful that the great cotton brok-
ers seek her out. to talk about the cot
ton crops
BY means of n simple yet compre-
henSive system OF correspondence MISS
Giles keeps q nervous finger on the eV-
exchanging pulse of the cotton crops
IL all the eleven cotton-growing states.
Twice a month she mails a thousand
or more return postal cards to all
points within the cotton belt, the reply
card bearing the following questions:
/. Cotton-What is the present con-
dition in your county?
2. When will picking be finished?
s. Please give indications as TO
weather conditions.
4. Has there been frost in your
county severe enough to injure the
plant?
5. Is the crop in your county larger
or smaller than last year? How much?
c. Are the planters holding their
cotton for better prices1
Twice a month she reduces to order
the chaotic mass of information that
comes flooding back to her and issues
her report on the extent of the cotton
crop IN advance of the government re-
port. 1t is the promptness and Won
derful accuracy Of her forecasts that
,-.,N-, +l,a-,. nF S,,,l, 1-o1,,a 70 thnca. who
play the dangerous cotton game.
While others are waiting anXiously
for the government estimate. those who
get their information from Miss Giles
are buying or selling, as the situation
as shown By her warrants, and fortity-
Ing themselves for the movement that
the announcement OF the government
,eport is likely to produce.
Once a month she CLEANS from hel
statistics the quality of the crops, ant
announces the result a day ahead o.
the bureau of agriculture.
The next tw~enty-four hours are un,
quiet ones for Miss Giles, especially the
five minutes before noon on the thirt
OF each month, at which time the 9TH
cial estimate is posted on the produce
exchange.
Five minutes before the fateful mo
ment on these days she slips up int
the balcony ana stands there alone ant
trembling until the verification of he
figures brings relief to her tense nerves
You can't imagine what q strain |
is to simply fold my hands and val
to see whether I am right or not. know
ing how much it means to the men VIII
employ me. Why. If l had million
staked on it myself l couldn't be nor
wrought up V 1t. OF course, in
smaller way, it is just as vital to ms
for, OF course, If my reports were un
~ -a1;ohJa ia cHnn lose my rI1StnJnprSN
Have you ever been far out of tn
way?" she was asked.
She hesitated a moment, With q litu
rueful smile on her lips.
yes, / was seven points out Of tn
way one month in my quality estimate
How did I feel? AS though the en-
of all things had come for me. l wa
simply heart-broken about it, and
came back here to my office and erie
| and cried in utterly unstatisticiarlik
} fashion. When the phone a l we
. shaking SO I could hardly answer It, fc
> I firmly believed that 1t was only II
l first of all my subscribers who woul
call up or sem some n to upbrai
= me for my failure, Il not to sever a
3 connection with me.
But it was not anything of the sor
4 and do you know that not one of tho!
: men ever made the smallest referent
t to my mistake or seemed to have la
L IN me q ol IL l I
t hope they won't lose it now or THU
y that a any hand In bringing II
$ work before the public, for indeed
: have no idea how it leaked out.
a aside from that, 1 am delighted ov
= it-that it should be admitted that n
e reports could so influence the marks
d 1 knew that eventually this recognize
would come, but was not prepared t
l. 1t so o
n The knowledge that TX. NJ. Giles
i, a woman will come as a great suspri
to hundreds of the correspondents W
have been filling out her reply post
cards for years. All but three of tbs
believe that she is a a These thr,
lie knowing her sex. nav been M
d those who have lent her a helping haI
When the cotton pods begin to bun
t these three men. who live in wids
different sections. send carefully CT
n Iected samples to Miss Giles, and it
$, largely through these specimens Viii
y she receives all through h cotto
growing season that she Is able