Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1895 — PANIC IN THE PIT. [ARTICLE]

PANIC IN THE PIT.

Wheat Drops Five Cents a Bushel ’Mid Exciting Scenes. Tuesday was the most nervous and exciting day the Chicago Board of Trade has seen since the farmers came into town some weeks ago and bought wheat up from 52 cents to 82% cents. Wheat declined 5 cents, and many nn excited man chased his fortune to the brink of the wheat pit to see it sink out of sight. And these crazy bulls, says a Chicago dispatch, brought, their grappling hooks in the shape of, reported damage to Northwest crops by hot winds, and threatening frosts, etc., and dragged the pit, but they couldn’t find their gold. Surely enough, it seemed to be a bottomless pit. The bulls were never in it at all. The bears run the ivhole show from the start. Wheat opened up at 67 5-Bc, and in three or foui minutes had sunk to 66%c. This was a threat surprise to the bull clement, which hoped for a firmer market. The bulls tried to talk, but were choked off. A week ago when the market was hanging fire they were somebody, for they could frighten the bears with a little telegram telling how wheat was growing into the shock or something of that kind, but Tuesday morning their chinch 1 ugs were dead, their hot winds didn’t blow, and their frost melted. If the bulls were disappointed when the price of September went to 66%c they were doomed to greater disappointment later. They smiled when a little rally to 6714 c was made, but that market was only fooling them when it went up there. It aooa turned around and came down hill

lickity-etrt again, and sold down to <N cent*. But thia wasn’t the bottem. Along toward thd close of the session the price simply leaped over the OS's and closed at 62%c. York the speculative pyrotechnics at the Produce Exchange were dazzling to both the bulls and the bean in wheat, and both factions were <-qnally astonished. A drop of 5 cents a bushel made the hair of the bulls stand on end and it made the bean blink. That makes 8 cents in two days. The bulls thought the course of prices altogether too much 'like tobogganing. The sudden tumble—the greatest in years—caused a great deal of excitement and interest in Milwaukee. The fact that wheat closed at 62 5-8 cents represented a drop within twenty-four hours that was calculated to create almost a panic