The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-28

shrinkage for five or six years to come. and it may be ten years or more before they will again possess value equiva- lent to the actual outlay.
 Hotel and cafe keepers, jewellers yacht agents and others who profted enormous ly by the patronage of the Wall street class that made so much money on the bull market, are all complaining of a fall Ing away of business. In the uptown places where stock market people used to foregather at night there is marked contrast between the slim attendance nowadays and the throngs that only A year ago taxed the accommodations of these resorts. At the height of the spec ulative craze 1t was necessary for diners to reserve tables several hours in advance of the dinner hour and one of the largest uptown hotels was compelled to make rule refusing to reserve tables after 7.30 o'clock. It Is all very different now. Palm rooms and cafes present. In com parison deserted appearance and there is no need to reserve tables and service no matter how large the dining party may be- The fashionable jewellers complain that business has fallen off heavily within the past nine months Customers who thought nothing formerly of paying any where from S50,0 900 to s200,00 for a bauble now haggle over the price of jewels of one-ffth those values. There was, per- haps, never a time before when tho mar ket was so drugged with yachts. Hand- some crafts can be rented or bought on terms ridieulously low as compared with those that prevailed two years ago when people, who were rich with paper profits, were spending their money so recklessly. The reported transfer of Thomas w. Law sons big steam yacht to H. H. Rogers recently attracted a great deal of atten- ton. owing to the prominence of the men, but really this has become a very common incident. The reasons for the cessation of the lavish expenditure of money on luxuries and means of pleasure are obvi- ous enough. Speculative stock values have undergone shrinkage. during the past nine months, of many hundreds of millions of dollars and it would be impos- sible to estimate in figures that would convey any meaning to the lay mind the aggregate of paper profits that have been swept away. Losses, whether real or on paper, make people conservative.
 There has been a good deal of gossip in Wall street this week about the losses sustained by the western speculative con- tingent on the derby racing event at chi- cago. The Gates crowd went in a body from here in a special car. It backed Drake's favorlte Salvable very heavily and was confident of success. One Wall street friend, who went along in the spe- ciai cara piunger--is said to have dropped $25,o00 The losses of the Gates crowd proper are estimates at from $200- 900 to Sso0000. Whatever else may be said of this Gates contingent, the men compos- ing 1t arc good losers They would have to be in order to mako the money they have made. No crowd of pilfers or hard losers could have been as successful as this Gates crowd has been in the stock market. It has suffered some very hard knocks but it has always taken them so coolly as to excite the admiration even of those who disapprove of It's manipula- tive and speculative methods. Nobody ever knows for sure whether tho Gates party is winning or losing and you could never tell by its demeanor whether the game was running for or against 1t.
 The handing over of the Colorado Fuel 6 Iron to the Standard oil crowd was not 80 much of a surprise as the prompt manner in which Chairman J. c. Osgood surrendered the property. into the up- building of which he had put the better part of his business life. There is reason to believe that he played every card in his hand, and then gave up like a good loser should. The sum of the whole mat ter is that the Standard oil crowd which Is now heavily interested in Missouri Pa ciflc and allied Gould properties, wanted the Colorado Fuel & Iron company, and when the Standard oil crowd wants a thing 1t gets it. The stock broke violent ly ten days ago on report that notes to amounting to $6OO0O0 were about to go to protest. They did not and 1t was ex- plained afterwards, vaguely, that the trouble arose from clerical negligence There Is another story to the effect that the Osgood faction favored a receiver ship on the theory that 1t would have an advantage over its rivals in the Colorado courts. It is a Colorado corporation. It is said that the Gould Rockefeller fac- tion anticipated this move and produced the $600000. Then the short interest was terribly squeezed one day by a rise of g points In the stock, and the board room story was that Charles Gates had been caught mapping on the short side of the stock and that the Well crowd was also hurt. Colorado Fuel & Iron ordinarily is a dangerous stock for an outside opera tor to be short of Chairman Osgood is a remarkably adroit fighter After one sensational contest for the control of the property, the Gates contingent went to Denver in a special car to take control, only to be beaten at the last moment in a manner that was simply dazlng. The Gates faction came back sold out It's stock and has been bearish ever since. Again, last year, 1t seemed morally cer- tain that Osgood would be busted by coalition of the Gould and Hartman in- terests in the property, but he saved him. self again by setting the opposition at strife with itself and seizing command of the situation while his rivals were quar- reling. Colorado Fuel & Iron has an ex- ceedingly valuable property. One day its stock will be worth a great deal more than 1t is now selling for. It was an ob- ject of dstrust, however, while the ques- tion of control was unsettled.
 The stock market appears to be await ing a fresh impulse. Speculation has be- come about as stupid as 1t could be- For more than n week the market has been so narrow that even short stocks could not be sold to advantage. It Is the science of bearish speculation to sell stocks first and depress prices afterwards, but with the apathetic interest that has recently pre- vailed it would have been impossible to sell large line of short stock without breaking prices. The bear party, there fore, has been desiring an advance on which to put out stocks. The large short interest that lately existed has been pretty well covered and the shrewdest observers on the bear side have realized that fur ther operations for the decline on this level were tnadvisable. It will be seen how, under the circumstances, speculation has come to almost deadlock. There is reason to believe that the bear crowd would assist an advance with the idea of selling 1t heavily It Is the prevalent opinion among bankers that speculation will be more two sided for a while and