The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-10
GETS HIS TIPS
 FROM CRAZY MAN Wizard Of Speculation An h.
 mate Of Asylum POINTERS ARE WINNERS Was Once Plunger and Is Even Now Master of Market Conditions, AL
 though He Is Hopeessly
 Insane.
POINTERS ARE WINNERS
From the Washington Post.

From the Washington Post
 'Tn have to be running up to Provi- dence to see my crazy friend and find out from him what the markets going to do," was the somewhat cryptic remark of Wall street trader the other after noon when the unsteady market was wabbling around every which way.
 Well, 1t takes a crazy man to dope out this market" put in one Of the trad CTS listeners
 Tt takes the crazy man that I'm talk ing about to do it." replied the trader with perfect seriousness. He's been in sane for years, and he will be insane to the end of his days. But he knows more about market conditions than anybody T ever met"
 The traders listeners laughed at what they viewed as a whimsicality.
 ''Eeeing that you're all so skeptical about this thing. I'll go through with it and tell you all about it, said the trader 'T can easily understand why you fellows should grin and exchange winks when you hear me say that I'm taking market tips from a crazy man. That, however, is exactly what I've been doing. What's more, I'm going to take and play all the tips he'll give me.
 Went to Asylum.
 'sI,ast spring the mind of a brother of mine became temporarily c1ouded and he was placed in a private institution in Providence where his mind could find it. self I may as well say right here that after a few months of treatment and the quiet life of the institution he got com- pletely back to himself and he's running his factory again, trig as trivet.
 Shortly after he was placed in the in- stitution he became great pals with a man who'd been there for several years. This man--he's about 45 now-had been a market plunger, particularly on grain and cotton, in New York, and Chicago almost from his boyhood.
 He was affiliated, in his early 20s with men like Old Hutch and Pardridge and that gang of sky-high Chicago rock eters, and the strain had knocked him off his balance. Another thing that helped to burn out his mental apparatus was the fact that he had played no limit poker with those Chicago zenith clusters for nearly 500 straight nights
 "At the wind up of his gambling orgy he'd been compelled to employ physi- elan and go on tour of the world, last ing three years, with the idea of getting back his health His health returned. but his mind didn't. When he returned to the United States his folks had to have him put away.
 .I was profoundly impressed by the appearance and conversation or my brother's chum the first time l laid eyes on him when visiting my brother. He has a splendid looking head, fine keen
 4ltr -tr oferl1f at rare intervals.
 .rWell. he was delighted when he learned that I was market trader. He chirked up wonderfully when my brother told him that, and immediately he began to talk to me about market conditions.
 Was Student of Grain.
 "T was positively knocked clean off the bench by the comprehensiveness of his knowledge and information of the market conditions particularly with reference to grain and cotton. He was student of grain, cotton and staples right down to and beneath the pelts of those commodi- ties.
 He read every report of the department of agriculture bearing upon those mat ters. in addition to mass or ouieuns iss,ed bv private houses. He had crop conditions at his fingers ends. He knew down to tenths of inches the previous months rainfall of every grain and cot ion producing state of the union. He knew all about drouths in the states suf- fering from lack of rainfall.
 srHe himself made system of averages derived from many reports, some of them conflicting, with respect to crop acreages fin all the states. He took into his cal culations the difficulty of some of the states in getting harvest hands. He fig rred on the overworlzing of inadequately equipped railroads in getting crops to market.
 q sat and listened to this insane mans expoundng of market conditions like somebody in a trance. It seemed fncred ible that in his offhand announcements as to what December wheat, for instance, was going to do could be within leagues of the truth It seemed foolish to sup pose that his criticism of the department of agriculture's estimate of the cotton crop would have any meat in it.
 Yet the mans manner was impressive. There wasn't any raving in his talk. He just went over things quietly and con- vincingly, without the slightest appear ance of boastfulness.
 'sFfnaIly I decided that I'd try him out on a few predictions. I took the wheat market to him and asked him to define what the next day would probably bring forth He studied for long time and then came through with as reasonable an analysis of the wheat situation as ever came from the lips of an expert in perfect