Speculation Run Mad.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1373, 20 August 1895, Page 3

Speculation Run Mad.

THE AiVIEUIUAJN WHEAT BOOM. The mail received here last week brought particulars of the “ boom in wheat” which was mentioned in a iNtjw York caolegram just a month ago. The scene on the Chicago Board ol Trade is described in characteristic language by the correspondent of one of the San Francisco journals. “ With a swishing sound,” he telegraphs, “July wheat shot up to 82c to-day (May 23). As it arose and soared a thousand hands of yelling brokers were stretched to bring it back to earth. It was a long and exciting struggle, but just before the close of the session the furore quieted, the price fluttered a while, and then dropped to 78|c, or l£c above the closing quotation of W eduesday.” But while wheat was going up and coming down, the Board experienced the greatest day in its history. There may have been as much excitement on previous occasions, when big “ corners ” were run, but the recent “ boom ” certainly constituted a record so far as the amount of business transacted is concerned. Over 250,000,000 bushels of wheat, it is estimated, were “ traded in,” Of course the wheat had no existence; bushels were, so to speak, merely the names given to the counters employed by the gamblers. During the day Mr John U. Schwartz, known as the “ Corn Bang,” was, to borrow another phrase from the correspondent we have just quoted, “ blown out of the market like a bit of -chaff.” The farmers, “ the chinch bug of the professional market,” appear for once to have got the earliest information of the condition of the crops, and bought largely for the rise. “There were five hundred of them,” according to one account, “swarming about the Board of Trade, and they continued to buy wheat. The professional, who has persisted in believing that the farmers wouldn’t get through, has been the loser. The victim of hard times and low wheat prices is getting richly repaid for his confidence.” The pandemonium in the “wheat pit,” where the transactions were carried on, was watched from the gallery by 500 women, who were scarcely less excited than the active participants in the wild struggle for wheat and gold. In New York something of the same kind was going oh. There, 287,000,000 bushels of wheat were “bought” aijd“sold" in a few hours-—making :the total “ counters ” employed in the two cities on this memorable day greater than the whole crop of the States.