Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-07-17


ESsSSsSSs mer sojourners were return
gzA@Say ing. John Nason's store
was filed with new fall styles, the
shoppers were crowding the streets,
and the hustling, bustling life of a
great city was at food tide Albert
Page, full of business, was in his of
fee, and Frank Mason was studying
hard again. Small fortunes were be-
ing won and lost on State street. and
in one smoke polluted brokers' office
Nicholas Frye sat watching the price
of wheat. The September option
opened that day at 1874, rose to 70,
fell to 767s, rose to 7S and then
dropped back to 76. He had margined
his holdings to II, and if it fell to that
price his 100000 would be gone and he
ruined. For many nights he had had
but little sleep, and that made hideous
by dreams filled with the unceasing
whir and click, click, click of the
ticker. He was worn and weary with
the long nervous strain and misery of
seeing his fortune slowly clipped away
by the clicker's tick that had come to
sound like the teeth of so many little
devils swapping at him. To let his
holdings go, he could not, and, lured
on and on by the brokers' daily uttered
assertion that ''wheat could not go
much lower, but must have rally
soon," he had kept putting up margins.
Now all he could possibly raise was in
the brokers' hands, and when that was
gone all was lost
Frye sat and watched the blackboard
where the uneven columns OF quota
tons looked like so many little legs
ever growing longer. Around him
were a score of other men Watching
the figures. No one cared whether an
other won or. lost in the great gam
bling game that ruins thousands.
1t was the caldron filed with lies,
false reports, fictitious sales and the
hope and lust of gain that boiled and
| dubbed, heated by the fires OF hell.
| And ever around that caldron the souls
| of men were circling, cursing their
| losses and gloating over their gains.
And Frye was muttering curses.
| So fast came the quotations that the
| boy could no longer record them. In
/ Sledu lie cdllou lu0L1 Out III d OEdWluS
singsong:
September wheat now seventy
| three-the half fve-eighths-a half
| five-eighths split-nOw a half-three
| eighths "a quarter - seyenty-threep'
| Frye set his feet hard together and
clinched his hands. Only. cents in
I price stood between him and the loss
4 of al -,
| the lies he had told for miserable gain,
| all the misery self denial he had prac-
ticed, all the clients he had cheated
and robbed, all the hatred he had won
/ from others, availed him not His con-
temptibie soul and his life almost now
hung by a misery 2 cents.
Seventy three-a quarter eighth
en-eighths- hree-quarters-fve
-three-quarters split-noW five-eighths
"a half-a halfr'
| Pandemonium was raging in the Chi
cago wheat pit, and the ticker's teeth
| clicked like mad.
''Seyenty-two-a half-a half-three-
eighths-a alf-three-eighths-a quar-
seventy -twor'
Cold beads of sweat gathered on
| Frye's forehead. One cent more and
he was ruined.
September wheat now seventy one
seven-eighths - seven eighths = three
| quarters seven-eighths split-now the
three quarter fye-eighths-a half
half-fve-eighths-a half-a half again
-three-eighths- quarter-an eighth
ouarter-an eighth-a quarter-an
eighth-an eighth-a quarter split-an
| eighth
.Seventy-onew
Frye was ruined
He gave one low moan. the first and
only one during those three long weeks
of agony.
The devils teeth kept swapping; the
endless coils of tape kept unwinding-
The boy continued his drawl. but Frye
paid no heed. Only those spider legs
on the wall seemed kicking at him, and
that fatal seventy e-one-one-kept