The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-31

l lVSAtbe
 The day was made more notable by the age and commission house with branch
 offices all over the South. The ap- nouncen.ent that the firm had gone under
 was received at the local office a few
 minutes before Il o'clock a, m, It Is sup posed that the firm was long on large lots of cotton and could not stand the sensational advance of yesterdays mar ket. s s..s.-', ',.-. (J Created Some Excitement. A notice was chalked on the board that the firm had assigned and that all trans- actions were closed on the days close of l the market. The announcement that the | firm had assigned created considerable ex-
 eitement In the downtown district among
 the cotton men and those who watched
 attentively the black-boards in the com mission of1ces.
 | The Montgomery ofiice of Baxter &
 Co. was located on Blob Street near Com | merce. The company has been doing q | commission business at that stand since | it purchased the business of Murphy 6 Co. thirteen months ago. It had rather 2 large local clientele. Thero were reports that a number of local investors in fu- ! ture options had been hard hit by the failure.
 AHpso kepVFlS I1du U that several lnVeSt~ ors had lost sums ranging from &S,0u0
 downward. These reports could net be verified. Two of the men named as losers
 declined to make any statement concern
 ing alleged transactions with Baxter & Co.
 At the office of the company it was l stated that neither tho manager nor any of the local officers knew anything con- | corning the failure beyond the brieG
 on1cial notice that came from the com panys headquarters in New York. It was l said yesterday that 1t would probably be | several days before any definite state ment could be made as to the liabilities
 and assets of the concern.
 Major c, J, Campbell was the manager | of the Montgomery branch. The notice which was scnt hiIn was telegraphed to all the branch offices of tho company. l Baxter & Co, thirteen months ago, pur- chased the extensive brokerage business of Murphy X Co, This deal was said to 1 have been made at an outlay of several million dollars. Up4to that time Baxter 6 Co. had not been doing business in 1 the South, As successors to Murphy &
 Co. the firm opened chain of branch | offices throughout the Southern States.
 In all. the company had l20 oflces. Il Was said to be capitalized at $20O,000. Conducted Bucket Shop" It was said yesterday by several busI- ness men in position to know, that
 Baxter & Go. come under the desigua- 1 tion of bucket shop" concern: that is,
 it did not actually execute the commits sions entrusted, but pooled or "bucketed'' the orders, playing selling orders against
 buying orders and collecting commissions
 on both. It was stated yesterday that the
 company did not have a seat on the New York E,Xnhnnaoa and thaPafnra did y1At
 have the legitimate facilities for exeeut, ing its contracts.
 The notice on the blackboard stated that J, II. Venester was the assignee of the company's affairs.
 Tho advance in the early cotton quota.
 tions were startling in the extreme. The press dispatches say that such a sensa-
 tional market was never experienced be-
 fore.
 The market had closed weak on Friday. A drop in prices was confidently looked for. The opening Liverpool advices show
 ed that instead of failing, the market had
 bounded forward.
 The New York market showed also a sensational advance. The market which
 had closed weak on the day previous, opened from 60 to 70 points up. Through out the day the market held Its own, closing about 70 points above tho closing figures of Friday.
 Local Market Was 16 Is.
 The local market kept pace with tho advance. The 15 1-2 cent high water mark of Friday was quickly submerged and before the day closed one lot of cotton had sold at Is Is cents. This price Was regarded as hardly justified by the New York quotations. 1t was regarded as toe high for tho board quotations. This high market was looked upon as a result oi the anxiety of the short splnners to se- cure cotton before any further advance
 was made.
 Cotton men said that 16 cents was the true local market for middling although 16 Is had been paid in one instance and Is l-16 in more than one instance. There is strong feeling among loca
 cotton men that the cotton market during
 the week will show still further advances The Ginners Report issued by the Census Bureau will be made public next Wednes- day. February !. If this report estimated
 the total crop at nine and a half millioy
 bales as it is expected to do, cotton will
 In the week it is believed, jump un g and 2 cents.
 Some Local Sales. The record-breaking prices resulted ir
 but few spot sales in the Montgomery
 market. The men who own tho cotton
 which fills the local warehouses appear tc
 be content to quietly await further do. velopments. There was no disposition yes l terday to turn loose large lots of cotton. One of the most interesting cotton sales yesterday was the disposal of a single
 bale by Jim Butler, well to do negro
 farmer who lives at Sellers Station. But
 Ter received, perhaps, the largest amount
 uf the season for single bale of cotton.
 For one bale Butler received from the
 firm of Sellers and Drum the net sum of S97.S5 after insurance and storage charges had been paid Butler brought his bale to town three months ago and decided to hold for better prices. The bale, which weighed 6l5 pounds. was sold yesterday at 16 cents.
 At the same time and at the same fg- ure two bales belonging to Butler 6 mother-in-law were sold.
 The largest single sale of the day was by R. s. McWhorter of Haynevillc. MT. McWhorttr disposed of S25 bales which he had been holding for higher prices. TL made his sale early in the morning be- fore the heavy advance in the market had been felt, taking an offer of 15 7-S cents a pound Mir. McWhOFter. for his 325 bales, received an average price of $7s.S9 1-2 per bale.
 Sellers and Drum disposed of a list of sixty bales for customers at Is IS cents