Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-01-18
SCALES PUTS DAN
SULIY TO THE REAR.
Said to Have Made Five
Million This Year.

paw II LASnCI " llll14IOlIS Ill 1GE5 Ln1lt
two years is the story in brief of E.
G. Scales of Texas, and the Waldorf,
one of the most daring and success
full operators of the century in the
cotton market. Dan" Sully, meteoric
and spectacular as was his career.
was not in Scales class and he was
lured to his destruction by that will O
the wisp, fatal to so many, corner
ing" the market.
$5,0O0,OOO This Year.
But big Gene Scales-baptized Eu-
gene-has steered clear of that propo-
sition. His bank roll to date is close
to the $5,000,000 mark, if not beyond
it. The greater portion Of it was
cleaned up this year. He and his as
sociates, w. P. Brown, James A. Pat
ten, the Chicago wheat operator, who
has almost doubled in cotton the mil
lions he made in wheat last spring,
and Frank Hayne of New Orleans
the big Four" of the local cotton
market and comprising the most pow
erful bull clique the country has ever
seen, have made about $15,000,000
during the present year.
Cotton, in the more active months.
recently brought 16 cents pound, the
highest price since the Sully days and
double the price of a year ago.
Of these four men, Scales is the
most picturesque as well as most dar-
ing in his operations. He is the lead
er in the cotton game. In the frequent
conferences of the Big Four" his
is the last word. Time and again dur
ing the last three months when cotton
touched new high records and this was
followed by heavy liquidations, his as
Ps&5ciates became somewhat alarmed.
But Scales advice to "sit fast, hold
tight and don't rock the boat" prevail
ed, with the result that the four have
almost been submerged in the golden
flood that has swept swiftly upon
them.
1t is not to be understood that
Scales has plunged bl!ndly. On the
contrary, there is no keener student of
the market than the big. Texan. He
was one of the few who realized that
the crop. would be the scarcest in
years, as the government reports have
since proved so convincingIy.
Two years ago Scales hit New York
penniless. His sole asset was dia-
mond ring. A comfortable little nest
egg, accumulated as a drug clerk in
Texas, had been wiped out in cotton
speculation, and Scales was determin-
ed to get it SICK. 1t was a raw Feb
ruary afterlfoon when he reached the
city, and according to his own story
he had just % cents. After deposit
ing his battered suit case in an obscure
hotel, he went to a pawnshop and
pledged the diamond ring for $3.50
Always On the Winning Side.
With this he drifted down to a bic
brokerage house in Williams street
near the Cotton Exchange, and, after
day or two devoted to studying the
market, opened a small account. From
that time to this he has been with the
exception of once or twice, on the win
ming side of the market He has been
bull, first, last and all the time That
same brokerage house now holds for
him in Reading securities $1,300,00C
and he has a cash deposit there of
50 900 600. In a New Orleans bank he
has a balance of s55O,OOO. His cotton
holdings at the present time will east
ly total up an additional million.
During the dull days in cotton E.
year ago Scales decided to seek a vent
for his excitement in the Chicago
wheat pit. Luck was with him. He
followed Patten in all his deals and
came out a big winner. The two men
had never met before, but the ac-
quaintance made then has now ripened
into strong friendship.
When Patten closed his wheat oper-
ations he came to New York and fol-
lowed Scales in cotton. Then Brown
and Hayne joined issues with them.
Scales methods in operating have
to be guarded jealousy these days, fol
he is marked man. Last week, fol-
example, before the issuance of the
government report, he wanted to buy
100000 bales of cotton in the local
market. He sought out broker who
is regarded by his associates as g
man hoodooed by long run of bad
luck. When the hoodoo man started
in to execute Scales order he had not
the least difficulty, and the market
went up couple of points When he
had secured 10000 bales some broker
learned that Mr.. Hoodoo was acting
for Mr.. Scales and the market Went
soaring.
You'd never think Scales was once
peripatetic drug clerk" remarked
one of a group of Texans in the Wal
dorf, where Mr.. Scales lives. Il re-
member when he used to take in the
state from Point Isabel up to Ochil-
tree as the representative of drug
house.
In those days snakeroot was deem
ed the great specific for all the ills
a Texan was heir to. But the root
became scarce, and Scales cornered
the market and turned these maneu-
vers into $4,000. !. think this was
Scales first financial eeupRSS