The Washington herald., 1908-06-21

| Corn is king in the West and James A
Patten is its prophet There are some
| folks In the vicinity Of Chicago who
would be inclined to take issue with this
statement unless the spelling Of the last
word in the sentence be given a double
meaning. And they might be justified.
too, for while James A. Patten Is the
recognized and able prophet in the corn
pit, his dealings in the cereal for some
years have been most profitable, says
Henry Barrett Chamberlain in the Boston
Transcript.
! There are other people in the vicinity
of the Board Of Trade in Chicago who
since the cleanup" in May corn have
decided that the elements are always with
Patten in his deals They remembered
that April was dry" month, not only
! because the Prohibitionists we're success
/ ful I'm closing some 1.5O0 saloons in IIli-
nOis, but because there was scant rain,
and these people speculated that corn
would come forward early this year in
such quantities as TO push the price down
10 the lowest notch. These folks, obsessed
| by the thought OF low prices and much
panic Of October and November. and they
sold their corn where they could-sold il
for May delivery at 467s cents the bushel
Eatten. being an optimist. was I'm the
market 20 buy, and buy he did. His
steady buying advanced the price, and
/ the pessimists became almost cheerful as
/ they handed him the cereal on a steadily
| advancing market. until he had accumu-
| lated something like 100000 bushels at
an average price Of perhaps 90 cents the
/ bushel. Six million dollars worth of corn
! is some corn, and the sellers thereof were
inclined to be bit gleeful when they
thought Of the day Of reckoning with jim
Patten.
May came and the next day 1t rained
It kept on raining and the price Of May
corn climbed 20 So 81 cents Then came
! the day when some Of the people who
| had sold corn 70 Patten discovered that
| they had promised 10 deliver more than
they had. IL was necessary for them 20
| buy corn TO fill their contracts and the
only man with the cereal was the man
| 10 whom they had sold and he was hold
ing his store at 81 81 cents the bushel.
/ When the bell rang on change the last
day OF May. Patten still had the corn. II
was for sale and he sold ii at his price.
!
him a triie Ike 100000 And IN this
l connection it may be pertinent to sug-
gest that James A Patten was the only
man who suspected that Il might rain In
May. even though April was a dry month.
/ Strange. isn't IL. when you consider that
the records OF previous years indicated
pretty much the same conditions2 And
yet there are Some folks who still insist
that the elements are always with Pat
ten in his deals.
Incidentally, Patten is Just now engi-
neering a deal in oats. There are those
who say that he is feeling his oats be-
cause Of his success In the corn pit and
predict that the diamonds he added 20
his crown Of corn viii be rhinestones be-
fore he finishes trimming his oaten gar
land. but the corn king appears cheerful
and does not seem TO be in want Of any
Of those things which go 10 make life a
pleasant Journey lie is also able 10 slip
q few thousand Of dollars 20 institutions
/ and charities in which he Is interested
| without figuring the numerals on the
stub Of his check book.
/ James a. Patten IS native OF Illinois.
He first saw the light at Freeland Cor
ners In De Kalb County, May S. 1852 His
/ father. Alexander Il. Patten kept a gen
eral store on the old Galeua stage road
and did a profitable business until the
Burlington Railroad came along and put
| staging out OF the running. IL was along
| about 1857 that the Patteu family moved
10 Sandwich. Ill. and here young Jim
went 10 school until the time came for
him 10 seek better educational facilities.