The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-27
lUNDERTONE OF THE
 MARKET HEAVY Volume of Dealings Falls Off
 Another Notch SILVER IS VERY STRONG Rise of 5ess an Ounce Is the Highest Level Touched Since November
 1so1-6onds Are Dull,
 But Steady.

New York, August 26.-Nothing worthy of extended comment was accomplished by today's meagre bidding in stocks in either distribution of securities or price changes The volume of dealings fell another notch towards absolute stagna- tion with a total for the day of only about 200 shares and the cases in which the price variations reached point were very few. It was observed that the telephone calls on the exchange and the announcer calls to members by number were extraordinarily few which is re- garded as evidence that very little bus mess originated outside the exchange.
 Even the professional operators of lar ger calibre are going away for delayed vacations, which have been prevented heretofore by the troubled state of the market and the smaller class of room traders have the market to themselves. It Is the complaint amongst these that when they offer prices down they are unable to force any renewal of liquida- tion and that they soon meet support ing orders. while if they attempt turn on the long side of the market, they are unable to find satisfactory market to realize on at any advance in price.
 The undertone of todays market was heavy. but the only apparent reason for this was that yesterdays movement was upward, thus exhausting the limits of the small traders in the decline. Att tention in the financial districts is cen tered upon the money market rather than upon stocks. Todays official ad- mission that the efforts of the Consol- dated Lake Superior company to secure subscriptions to it's bond issue had failed, was another example of the extreme difficulty at present of inducing capital to assume any fixed form. There Is con- tinued unwillingness to lend money on time and rates are strongly held. al- though there is little demand for loans of this class, owing principally to the extreme dullness
 Bull commercial paper of the highest grade finds a difficult market. There were further offerings of bankers fin- ance bills in the foreign exchange mar ket today which caused a yielding tone in spite of a hardening tendency in dis counts at London and Paris. Attention was attracted to the returns of the Ca madam banks for July, which show falling off in the loans on call in the United States by these institutions of more than $14O0OOO0 in twelve months. while current loans in the United States were reduced by aDOut Sb,Wo,OOU. ln1S helps to explain the persistent mainte- nance of the loan accounts of our own banks in face of the heavy stock mar ket liquidation.
 The marked strength of silver is also a feature of the situation. today's rise of 56ss cents an ounce marking the high est level touched since November of 1901 It is believed that the London dealers have over sold the market and are now covering and there is some special buy ing for mintage purposes by the French government. Atchison had some advan- tage from it's July statement of earnings. showing an increase of $296, 931 in the net conserved out of an increase of $79s,Ss5 In the gross. Erie and Reading were also relatively firm on the expectation of a very favorable showing in the forthcom- ing annual reports There was profit taking in cotton. but wheat advanced on unfavorable crop news and corn showed some strength.
 The bond market was exceedingly dull but steady. Total sales par value s1260,- 0O0
 United States gs advanced IS per cent on the last call