The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-22
GOSSIP or WALL STREET.

Reports that black rust has made lts ap-
pearancc again In the spring wheat country
were current In Wall Street yesterday. 1t Ia
too early TO determine how much. " any. the
crop will be damaged. Wheat prices In the
Northwest have risen 10 cents this week.
while tho advance In Chicago has been nearly
as great.
Tho professional element In Wall Street.
which wants to make money every day trad
ing In and out OF the market. gets very i'm
patient when the market becomes sluggish
The average professional trader doesn't care
which way tho market moves 40 long as II
keeps moving. Traders tried yesterday
morning to get the market started moving
upward, but they had little success. There
was no response from commission houses.
and the lar ger interests In the market showed
no inclination to help out the traders. Semi
professional efforts to stimulate speculation In
Amalgamsted Copper also failed. although
the volume Of trading In this stock Tor Q little
while after the opening was very large for
dull market. The action OF the stock on the
tape was not impressive. Later In the. day
the traders tried moving the market the other
way, with more success. In the last half
hour lively selling movement developed In
Reading and Union Pacific. The selling OF
Reading was aggressive. The stock broke
from 1851 to io2K on good sized offerings.
1t looked like liquidation. Union Pacific
which sold at i291s In the morning. also declined
sharply to i27T. The rest OF the market was
little affected by the selling In these two
issues
Those who try to scalp the market In
Northern Pacific find 1t 10 about As dificult
to find purchasers as sellers.
The ouietness in Boston is thought to be
due to the chilliness In Kansas.
Brokerage houses are sometimes very
much in the dark as to the real position OF
their most Important customers in the market.
In the big rise In the Steel stocks last year
line OF 60, 900 shares OF Steel preferred was
bought by ono OF the wire houses for some
well known steel men. The purchase of this
amount of stock by men 80 we'll Informed
and 80 successful in their market ventures
made the house very bulllsh on the Steel
stocks, and all It's customers were put long
of them. Before the December break. when
tho line OF $4,000 shares showed profit OF
more than a million dollars, the steel men
sent In q check to take up the stock. This
action made the house more bullish than
ever. Its customers took on more stocks.
but the $4,000 shares OF Steel preferred
which had been taken up we're delivered to
another house to be sold. and the line was
fed out on a rising market. Soon after came
the December break.
That operators on this side buy privileges
in London to protect their commitments
in this market is often far from the truth.
The buying Of calls In London by those who
are looking for q big advance in prices here
Is popular form of speculation with some
Of the large operators. In the summer OF
1900 while Mr.. Gates was racing horses on the
English turf. he bought calls on $4,000 shares
| of Union Pacific around 81. running well
into the winter. He was bullish on the
| American market because he thought
Mckinley would be elected He figured that
he could make an election bet in no better
way than by buying calls on a leading Ameri-
can railroad stock. Union Pacific sold above
| par that winter. and at 1893 before the May
| panic. Mr.. Gates cleaned UP several million
| dollars on his calls. Last year one of the
| largest operators in the market bought calls
In London on many thousand shares OF the
Steel stocks. and then went into the New York
market and took on big line of the stocks
themselves,