The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-27
BROWN, THE COTTON KING.
known as RpI<er Player in New
Orleans.
From the New York Press.

nm is considered through the Missis-
sippi delta one of the best poker play
ers that ever handled a card. Long
before Brown bobbed into prominence
in the cotton world he was famous for
his poker exploits. He is a MISSISSIPPI
MAN by birth and knows a good deal
about cotton. He knows the plant and
its vagaries, for cotton is the most
remarkable product of the vegetable
kingdom, but, better than he knows
cotton, he knows men. He has SUI
irene confidence in himself, and, like
good gambler, he will stake his all
on what he considers a sure thing.
It was in the summer of 1900 that
Brown jumped into the front rank of
cotton spectators. The opportunity
had developed for a sensational play,
and Brown was quick to realize it.
He had BEEN "piking' along in the
cotton market in New Orleans for a
few years before that, studying the
market and studying men. The season
of 1S99-9O was peculiarly attractive to
a man of Browns calibre. At the be-
ginning of the season there was an
immense surplus stored in the principal
cotton centers. Prices were very low
and Liverpool practically ruled the
roost. In New Orleans a few big
houses, such as H. & B. Beer and
Lehman, Stern & Co., dominated the
spot and future market. Henry NJ
Neill, the cotton statistician and
prophet, was in high feather. He was
working in the interest of English
spinners and gave out an estimate
that the crop of that year would be
the biggest on record. His estimates
were accepted by the foreigners as if
he couldn't err.
II happened that in July and August
of 1899 drought greatly curtailed the
cotton crop, especially in Texas, where
nearly one-third of the American sta
pie is grown. Banking on the immense
surplus and figuring that the reports of
damage were exaggerated, the English
and continental spinners and the larg-
est houses in America fought vigor-
ously against the efforts of planters
and spectators to advance prices.
Theodore H. Price of Price, McCor-
mick &, Co. of this city tried to bull cot
ton, but met disaster. His firm failed
for about $13 600, 600. The bears were
1ubilant; but meanwhile they had ig-
nored the most potent force in the
realm of trade-the law of supply and
demand. They didn't realize, or if
they did realize they didn't properly
appreciate the fact that the world was
entering on a tremendous industrial
boom, thet the low price of cotton had
forced the staple into a hundred uses
to which 1t formerly had been unknown
and tia. the world would require more
cotton than ever before.
The reserve stocks of cotton disap-
paared with amazing rapidly. and sud-
denly it dawned upon the spinners that
they would need all the lint they could
obtain. Prices began to jump, but the
more they jumped the more eager be-
came the spinners to add to their sup
plies. From a feeling of absolute Sc
curity early in the season they were
thrown into a panic OF apprehension as
the season wore on.
During this time Brown was con-
sistent bull. He did nearly all his
specializing in the New Orleans mar
kettle largest spot market in the
world. He made money-lots of it
for those days. but small by comparl-
son with his earnings of late. AS the
shortage of the crop became more pro-
nounced Brown saw the great oppor-
tunity of cornering the tail end of the
crop. He didn't have a fortune. but
he had his nerve. He planned a corner
in the July option. Associated with
him was a young man named Haynie.
Persons who didn't like Brown credited
Haynie with doing the brain work and
Brown with attending to the fieworks
in the market However that may be-
they made great team. The corner
went through. Brown boosted July
to about twelve cents. He made per-
haps a million. The power of the great
houses which formerly had ruled the
market was shattered. The corner was
remarkably successful when it is con-
sidered how small a capital Brown
had at his command, but, then, 1t
must be remembered, all the conditions
were in his favor. and the bears were
panic stricken by reason of the phe-
nomenal advance which followed the
downfall of the Price-M Mccormick
market.
But Brown wasn't contented with his
coup in July He was a bull of bulls
and he had luck on his side. He ex-
tended his operations into the next
crop-the crop of 1900-1901 and bulled
the early neutrality-suspicious. and
October. The flood in Galveston on
September 8, 1900, destroyed $1,000 bales
of cotton and upset transportation
facilities in the Southwest for month
or more Disastrous as was the food
to Galveston, it was almost as great
in a monetary sense to the Eureopen
spinners. They were just about to
get their new crop supplies to relieve
the famine in the textile field, and the
food cut them off. Prices were sky
TOckeCl0S again. OlONh was OlA SAAS
ground floor.
Since that time Brown has been the
king bee of the New Orleans market.
1t has been his custom, when he want
ed to boast prices, to go to the edge
of the pit just before the closing hour
and bid two, three or five points above
quotations, but his bids always were
for 10. 900 or 10000 bale lots of cotton.
The brokers considered these bids as
bluffs but they didn't dare cali him.
A good bluff wins in cotton as in
poker
How much money Brown can COM
mand only Brown knows. Conditions
favor him to-day, but not to the extent
they did in 1900. What is against him
most. perhaps, is the fact that he be-
gan his play from higher level of
prices than in the other year. 1t is
curious that this year he should take
up his bull campaign after another
bun campaign had run its course, just
as he did in 1900.
There's no denying that Brown is a
great manipulation of the market. Sully
thinks the New Orleans man is too
daring and is too eager to drive the
opposition into submission. Sully's cam
paign was mastery. There is nothing
in the history of the cotton market to
compare with it. 1t wasn't as spec
tacular as Browns. but it was sue
cessful in the fullest degree. Sully,
within a few months, has become a
world figure. He's going abroad in a
few weeks to rest from the fatigue of
his campaign. He keeps discreetly ST.
lent as to who was back of him in his