The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-09-04
MILLIONAIRE BANKRUPT
FORMER KING OF THE COTTON
BULLS" GOES BROKE"
Made $500, 900 Out of $500, and
Lost $500, 900 of 1t Because a
Walk Agreed With Him.

Walk Agreed With Him.
NEW YORK. -Eugene G. Scales
proclaimed to the world yesterday
that his purse was empty again when
he filed voluntary petition in bank
ruptcy. He said that he owed about
$228,585 and had only $2OO,50O to
pay it with.
No matter if the business of the
country is at skies and seVens the ex-
change closed, the foreign exchange
market demoralized and a dreary
prospect ahead, Wall street stopped
long enough yesterday to say word
for and about Scales, the most astute
pyramider the cotton and the wheat
markets have ever known; the mar
ket player" who would rather have
nothing than small profits; the man
who has been the possessor of mil
lions four different times in his life
and without a cent as many other
times; the man who increased 5000
to $6,5OO,OOO in little more than a
year. who lost $3,500,000 because a
walk agreed with him; who jumped
from Dallas, Tex, to Shreveport, La,
to New Orleans and then to New
York preceded by reputation which
made the shrewdest operators count
him as an ally.
Long Run of Bad Luck.
The peculiar feature of the predic-
ament of Mr.. Scales, as Wall street
saw it yesterday, was that it was the
elimination of a run of bad luck,
which began some time near the
spring of 1910. Before that time it
seemed as if he could not be wrong,
but thereafter he could not get right;
something had happend which threw
him out of step with the market.
Eugene c. Scales is bachelor, a
little past 60, who has made his home
at the Waldorf-Astoria for the past
five years. He comes from Paris,
Tex, originally, where boy and man
he learned cotton from the seed
planting to it's final use. He was in
turn a planter, a merchant, and a
broker. He was young man when
he made his first fortune and his
name as a cool, nervy, daring player.
He was rated at million thirty
years ago and was known to be with
out a penny a year afterward.
1t was nothing to him to have
$25O,00O or more or less than $500.
His name was known in all the cot
ton markets as a man who would
either have the cotton world at his
mercy any day or be around borrow
ing living expenses.
Had to Pawn His Diamonds.
This all leads up to the fact that
in January, 1908, Mr.. Scales found
himself in Dallas, Texas, as near pen
niless as a man of his experience
can be.
On this particular day in January
his entire worldly wealth consisted
of the ranch, which was overmort-
gagged, and a diamond stud for which
he had paid $4OO. He did not have a
dollar in cash in his pocket.
The diamond was pawned for $3.50.
Then Mr.. Scales bought ticket for
Shreveport, La, where his cousin, >.
J. Hartman, had brokerage ofhce.
He arrived in that town with little
more than 5000. In the days of one
cycle of prosperity Mr.. Scales had
become friendly with James A. Pat
ten of Chicago. His office was on
Mr., Patterns wire system, and the
Chicago man had a favorable opln-
ion of the Texas man. Just about
that time Mr.. Patten was manipulate
ing the 1908 wheat deal which caus-
ed him some trouble. Mr.. Scales got
in communication with him and re-
ceived some little information. The
cousin allowed him to margin pur-
chase with the 5000, and Fortune
smiled.
That 5000 had become $4,000
by the time Mr.. Patten closed out his
May wheat, about June I. Then came
cotton, in which Mr.. Scales was
specialist.
He Soon Had So, $780, 900.
Cotton sold around 81 cents
pound in October, 1908. The speeu-
lator thought that was low. He went
long of the staple, little at first, but
abs prices advanced he began to pyra-
mid and bought more heavily. He
knew that Texas had no winter rains
that year and that when the crop
was put in there was a continued
drought. Believing the Texas crop
would be a failure he kept buying.
Cotton went to II cents pound
in the summer of 1909, and by that
time the Texas man had moved TO
Nau Orleans and then to New York,