The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-03-22
) COTTON KINGS CAREER
Rise and Fall of the Great
Spectator SulIy.
CAME FROM NEW ORLEANS
Wasn't Looked Upon as Much
of a Factor.

New York, March 21-sullys career on
the Cotton Exchanges Of New York and
New Orleans, has been remarkable, and it
is believed that his profits were about
$500, 900 in the bull campaign that has
been waged for many months.
The firm Of J. d. Sully & Co. started out
about the first of the year to do a general
banking and brokerage business. AT that
time Walter H. Crandall was added to the
firm.
When he first came from New Orleans
he was not looked on as of so much i'm
portance as has developed. Brokers were
inclined 20 look on him and his bull claims
for cotton with some skepticism. In d few
months he was master of the markets of
te world on an upward movement that
made millions for him and the growers of
the south
He was born March 9. 1861, at Provi-
dence, r. l., of Yankee stock that had not
made any great impression in the financial
world. He attended the public schools in
Providence, and prepared for Yale at the
famous old Free Academy at Norwich
Conn.
Instead Of going TO college, he became a
clerk in the Office of the Providence Coal
Company His life was humdrum; no in
dication yet that one day the name of
Sully would shake the cotton world. He
married in 1856, Miss Emma Frances, only
daughter of Col David NJ Mills, gen
eral manager of the cotton mills of Robert
knight. the largest manufacturer of cot
ton goods IN the world Sully was taken
into the employ of this firm He was sent
south to study cotton in its native fields.
He learned how it is planted, cultivated,
guarded from pests, harvested, ginned,
baied. scored, transported, and sold. He
has the seeing eye and a keen memory.
After that two years of study Sully got
employment as clerk for a firm of Boston
cotton brokers, with whom he stayed four
years. He returned to Providence and be-
came a clerk for F. w Reynolds & Co,
cotton brokers, who after few months.
admitted him to partnership. He built
UP big trade in Egyptian cotton, a sta
pie which had hitherto been neglected in
American trade. But during all this time
iit liioUt Il iiiOucSl WHICH dI D6SI
never rose above SO a week
Sully's system of booming cotton was
not a complicated method. He works on
the theory that the demand for cotton is
increasing faster that its production
That is why ne is always calm even in
the widest excitement on the exchange.
satisfied that the price must in the long
run continue on its upward tendency
Though it drops for a day, it must go up
again.
At all times Sully is debonair He can
not speak to you without smiling It
IS a slow, rather lazy smile. You can
see his cotton creed back of it. One day
the bears of the pit had sent prices
tumbling and Sully had lost at least Il
million of his profits The Cotton King
looked up with a smile His large blue
eyes twinkled.
Don't you think cotton has reached the
top figure?" was asked. Isn't it going
to be cheaper?"
Again the smile. SulIy looked south
from his window to where the brilliant
winter sun made the still waters of New
York harbor one vast shimmering mirror
THE sum-" he said. still smiling lis
shining brightly
When Sully came to New York he
brought With him his system and his OPP
timism- He spent months familiarizing
himself with conditions and the practice
in the pit OF the New York Cotton Ex-
change. The pit in one city is much like
the pit in another. yet there was much
detail TO be learned before the shrewd
Yankee could develop his idea. could put
into actual gambling practice the cotton
dogma with which he had become pos
sessed
One day he sat in his office and talked 4
about his methods
Others speculated on wind" he sand.
'but l speculated because / was firm in !
my belief that cotton has been deteriorat- /
ing for years 1t was in February. 1899.
that the idea first came TO me. l was
on one Of my semi-anual trips south L (
observed while riding along the Yazoo
and Mississippi railroad that great guam /
titles Of cotton seed were lying out in the
road. exposed to the freezing weather
Casually, l wondered what must be the
effect of this frost on the next cotton
crop. The question kept coming back to
me. Al last ! became more interested in
It than in any other problem 1 ever en-
countered.
Il know that the outside layer of the
led must certainly be frozen. and that
the life in the heart Of the seed must in
evitably he affected by the frozen outside
layer. I know from long observation that
the planters would not take the trouble to
pick out the frozen seed, but that they
would sow it Just as it lay on the fields
and in the pens.
Before he sells his cotton staple the
planter has his first chance 10 get ready
1T CTFEF FTLNC