Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-02-11
#iseellaueuas 8saains.
NEW COTTON PLUNeER.
His Name ls Scales and He Is From
Louisiana.

His Name 10 Scales and He ls From
i Louisiana.
The plunge Of E. G. Scales, the in
trepid southerner In recent bull cam
Lpaign on cotton market, is graphical
ly given in a late issue Of the Public
Ledger Of Philadelphia and is all in
teresting and thrilling story. 1t is as
follows:
when James R Keene threw up
his hands, made composition with his
creditors, saying, I will some day pay
my debts in full, and will never again
speculate In an agricultural product,
the common report was that he reck-
oned his losses at between $6,000,000
and $7,000,000. So also when young
Letter acknowledged that more wheat
grew and was in farmers bins and the
elevators than he with all his fathers
millions could gain the ownership Of,
and confessing defeat, turned his back
on the wheat pit, his losses were vari-
ously estimated, the more conservative
Judgment being that at least $8,000,-
600 good money were needed to meet
them. The spectacular and comet
Ike approach Of Alfred Sully to the
speculative cotton market few years
ago was followed by rout and defeat,
which cost him perhaps ss,000,0O0-it
may have ben little more, or lit
tie less.
There would seem to be, therefore,
in these figures the hint Of some Sc
cret and yet fundamental law which
ixes somewhere between $6,000,000 and
100000 as the amount Of money
needed to teach speculator in agri-
cultural products that in the United
States he cannot buy monopoly.
Possibly 1t was some unacknowledged
recognition Of this law which persuad-
ed James A. Patten to flee from the
wheat pits of Chicago to Colorado as
soon as he could reckon on his gains in
the neighborhood Of $6,000,000. OF
more than symbols Of the popular es-
dmates Of the gains or losses to the
giant spectators in one or another Of
American crops. For no great specu-
lator ever confesses to the exact or
even approximate amount Of his loss
es, and 1t is almost automatic that
great winners refrain from reporting
the amount Of their winnings.
Scales and His Plunge.
And yet there does seem to be a
limit fixed by some fundamental law
beyond which individual or even pool
speculation in agricultural products
with intent to create something like
corner cannot go. The successful specu-
lator stops just short Of this limit
content to turn what he has bought in
to cash.
VERY likely the report that E. G.
Scales, instead Of making $10,000,000
or $15, 1000 900, has had his violent, in
trepid attack upon those who sell cot
ton defeated at loss Of $S,00O,000 is
explained by this popular estimate that
the tide turns when q speculator
stands to lose some s8,0O0,000. No one
but Mr.. Scales knows whether profits
which he reckoned only in his daily
figuring, but had not realized in cash,
at one time reached as great sum as
$S, 100000 or $1O,0O0,0OO or not. Yet
there must have shrivelled away paper
profits in a few days which, could they
have been realized in cash, would have
justified naming Mr.. Scales among the
multi -millionaires. For 1t Is the habit
in these times to begin to rank a man
as multi millionaire as soon as he is
possessed Of $10,000,000.
Typical Man of Silence.
1.-The sudden appearance of this
hitherto unknown Louisiana man; the
report which accompanied him to New
York that he purposed buying cotton
until he could market all be bought for
20 cents a pound; something mystic
rious, or at least quaint and eccentric
in his personality, and the fact that he
was transported from Louisiana to New
York, with almost cyclonic energy, ap-
pearing in the cotton exchange, Or IN
its vicinity, firm-footed, the typical
man of silence, for he made no boasts
or comments, and the individual, al
most unique in manner in which he
began and led his campaign Of ad-
vance, instantly fixed attention upon
him. He became one Of the notorities,
with the possibility that at q future
day he might gain that celebrity In
which he imbedded tine chances Of
fame.
Mr.. Patterns appearance in New
York earlier in the fall caused excite
ment, but none Of that spectacular ef-
feet and illusion Of mystery which were
characteristic of Mr.. Scales appear
ance Mr.. Patten was known as one
of the few men of recent times, whose
judgment was not impaired by success,
80 that he knew the exact moment
when the market would receive the full
amount of the millions Of bushels OF
wheat which he had bought and ap-
proximately at the price which his
purchases had fixed for it.
James R. Kene brought tragic
reputation as most successful bear
operator upon the Pacific coast and
intensified the curiosity in his per-
sonality by wearing a white overcoat
that identified him as Commodore
Gerry's fur cap establishes his person.
ality. And then he stood like Horatius
at the bridge one entire day in the
stock market, staying the midsummer
panic Of 1877. Mr.. Keene did not ven-
ture into speculation along stupendous
lines in an agricultural product until
he had lived in New York fifteen
years.
sully Likened to Scales.
Possibly Mr.. Sully's suerilla-like
advent into the cotton market few
years ago may be best likencd in the
suddenness with which his PERSONAL
ity and purpose dazzled New York for
a time with the recent appearance of
Mr. Scales.
These, however, are mere incl
dentaI considerations, superficial as