The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-13
MADE
ON BULL MARKET
"A. $4,000 CHECK CLEARED To-
DAY ENDS CAMPAIGN.
Three Men, Who Had the Right
Hunch, Are Credited With Clearing
Up a Million on the Advance -
Kentuclian Clears Up $4,000, In
vesting Less than $1,000.

A single check for $4,000 which
passed thru the Minneapolis clearing
house today marked the final TRANSACT
ton in the greatest and most success
full speculative campaign in the his
tory Of the northwest, a campaign IN
which three Minneapolis men took out
Of the wheat market profits OF not less
than $1.OO0,000.
Efforts have been made to keep the
details secret, but a few facts are
Minneapolis banker says the gain of
1912 per cent in bank clearings to
Thursday Of this week was due prin-
cipally to the clearance Of checks IN
settlement for various transactions
resultant from the liquidation of very
close to 100000 bushels long Sep
TENDER wheat in the Minneapolis pit
and over 100000 bushels Chicago
September. This, it is learned, was
carried up from far down the line by
Minneapolis holders. No such specu-
lative killing has been recorded here
for years. A few men in what is
known as the Watson crowd are said
to have been the big winners.
The heaviest trading in the pit came
from Woodwork, and ran into mil
lions but the position of the house
could never be determined from the
character of the business.
Lewis the Pioneer Bull.
The original dollar bull was Charles
E. Lewis who went on record when
| September was around soc. Rumol
has it that big killing was made by
| the Lewis following. The Watson
| crowd led the campaign early ana
| late, but was suspected of beginning
to iquidate to some extent around the
dollar mark. Meanwhile James A
Patten of Chicago, who, since the
passing Of Letter and "Old Hutch and
| = q ~ 80 r o11ic c
probably the largest individual grain
trader in the country, came IN as an
eleventh-hour BULL making his head
| quarters in Minneapolis. Campaign
leadership then passed to Patten and
Lewis. The supposition arose that
possibly the crowd operating thru
Watson had underestimate the
strength of the bull movement, but
later when their enormous holdings
| became manifest, their action was seen
to have been conservative, especially
so in view Of the difficulty ordinarily
encountered in liquidating a 10000
OOO-bushel line, and the fact that some
of the traders had carried wheat VI
from around 7Sc. Even Armour founc
it hard to unload a big line in his
campaign Of last spring, and but FOL
the price stimulation due to the Jap.
anese-Russian war scare, might have
| had a hard time with it. The Mime
|
there was little suspicion of it unit
the line was almost gone.
The Whallon following and the Ed
wards Wood clientele were bulls and
made good money. The old-time ele
vator and grain trade men and thu
millers failed to get aboard. Most O
them looked on. One miller wa
1 bearish from CSC up and lost heavily
Modest scaIper's Killing.
/ Around the broker S offices Were
many winners and not a few losers.
The most remarkable instance wa
that of John Lands, who registeret
from Owensboro, KY, and sat arount
the brokers' offices. Lands got Ions
in September around soc and carried
it up SC. He then scalped arounE
( until he had credit Of about $500
One night he bought 200 calls in Min
neapolis and 100 calls in Chicago
traded against them in and out, final
ly called the wheat and in three day
more of furious trading found him
self $31, 600 to the good. At $1.04 h
was long and on break made
heavy loss and two minor losses, blu
got away from Minneapolis with owe
$4,000 at that. Not much is hear
Of the losers, but there were man
who lost heavily.