The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-21
KING OF COTTON FOR A YEAR.
THE RAPID RISE OF DAN SULLY TO
BE RULER OF THE PIT.


Then studied the Game of Manip-
CIer<ship Like a ROcket-LOse
or Win He SmiIed-TheOry That
Made Him a Bull.
From the New York sun.
Daniel J. Sully diced with the law of
supply and demand and lost The
story of his rise and fail is the old
story of the success and failure of
every man who has tried to control
absolutely one of the staples of the
world. The Curtis Jadwins of fiction
are the Hutchinsons. Letters. Phillipes
and Sullys OF fact But never has a
would-be corner maker flashed with
the brilliancy and gone out with the
suddenness of Daniel ]. Sully.
1t is hardly more than a year since
/ Sully came out of the East. 1t is
+ hardly more than twenty years since
j he was an inconspiouous clerk, with
a supposedly inconspicuous future, in
the city of Providence. r. L
Had the speculative structure which
/ he rared in so short a time fallen ten
! days ago he might have celebrated his
/ birthday amid it's ruins. He was born
1 in Providence on March 3, 1861. He
/ was prepared for Yale at the Norwich
| Free Academy, but went into busi-
| ness instead of going to college. The
/ nrSt Job he got was a clerkship for
| coal company. His salary was some
| thing like S25 a week and his employ
1 ers said he was worth all he got.
| While he was selling coal, however,
/ he was planning for the future. The
| first of these plans was perfected soon
/ after in 1855. he married Miss Emma
! Frances Thompson, a daughter of Col.
! David NJ. Thompson, general manager
/ of the mills of d. 3. & r. Knight, the
/ largest cotton spinners in the world.
| His father-in-law got him job in the
| general Office of the firm.
How He Learned to Know Cotton.
/ Sully then knew as much about cot
/ ton and its manufacture into cloth as
| he knew about the geography of Mars
/ But the real nature of the man as
| serted itself. He saw there was op-
portunity for him through his connec-
| ton with the great house of Knight.
1 He determind 10 make the most of it
and lost no time in getting to work.
He had been with the firm only a short
time when ne sought an interview with
one of the partners. To him SuIly
| said:
"I can be of real use to you, If YOU
| will permit me to learn the business
| from the ground up. AS near as 1
/ can make out. there isn't a 3otton
! spinner in New England who knows
any more than he ought to know
bout the production of the product On
which his business depends. Send me
down into the cotton country, let me
study the conditions of production, and
| I'll make money for you. and my
self"
The young man was talking to a
| veteran in the business. but the young
| er had the faculty of impressing the
| older then, as he has impressed other
men since. He mad then, as he has now
| the power of bringing other men 10
his way of thinking. To the South
he was sent. and for two years he
! studied cotton production.
When he returned to New England
| there was nothing about the growing
of cotton that he didn't know, hut
he no longer had a great interest in
| it's manufacture. Instead of return
! ing to the mills he gave his employers
all the information he had obtained.
Then, feeling that he had paid the
| debt he owed, he went to Boston, got
a clerkship in the office of a firm of
cotton brokers and began to learn to
play the game of the speculator in
| cotton.
At the end of four years he return
ed to Providence, entered the employ
| of the brokerage house of F. w. Rey-
| nolds & Co, and. after a few months,
was admitted to a partnership in the
| firm One day, shortly after he had
become a member of the firm, some
body asked him why he hadn't stuck
to the mills. The smile. which has
made Sully friends wherever he has
gone, mantled his face and his blue
eyes twinkled as he replied:
lone day you'll all see why 1 left
the mills. The money in cotton is
at this end of the line. 1 know the
situation, about which others are only
guessing, and I'll get the money"
His Advent in New York.
AS the soldiers of fortune say, he
"piked" along for a while as a specu-
lator, both in Providence and Boston.
He made more money than he lost,
| but the game was slow. In the early
winter of last year he announced that
he was going to New York to live.
What for?" asked one of his part
ners.
ITO study the game and get into it,"
was the laconic reply.
He took an office in the Wall street
district, bought a seat on the Cotton
| Exchange, and day after day went
into the pit, stood around and kept
his eyes open, studying the game as
he had studied the production of cot
ton in the South.
Theodore Price was the big man in
the cotton pit in those days-the same
Price who, a few years before, had ci-
phered out first the course cotton prices
would take, had speculated according
| ly, and after a few brilliant successes
| had dragged his firm down to failure.
! Price was the great cotton bull, and
Sully watched him. The price of cot
| ton was somewhat below cents then,
! and Price was telling all his friends
! il was bound to go up. Sully heard
Price talk, but he didn't buy. He was
! learning the game.
1t was early in March of last year,
before the young man from Rhode Is
! land felt that he was ready to play.
! Then, without any blare of trumpets,
/ he started. and from then on the cot
! ton spectators of the world had to
| reckon with Dan Sully.
Began where Price Quit.
He took up the trading where Price
! baked, when cotton was selling around
! 9 cents. Sully said Price was only
! guessing at things about which he.
| Sully, knew. In less than a week
! Sully was the commanding figure in
/ the pit. He traded on the exchanges
/ Of Alexandria. Liverpool. New Or
| leans and New York. and ii was ever
and always buy cotton"
! Conservative operators shook their
heads. the bears growled and clawed