New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-12-10
FROM PHILADELPHIA.
Correspoas nee Of The N. Y. Tribune.


The frat month Of what TIE wisea,res heresbouts
predict is to be mild and open Winter, finds our
city in condition of suspended animation. The
BODY of its BUSH ess is robust and full OF the soun!
est muscle, but the volume of blood runs 10 slug
pith current. Ore suspended house on Chestnut
street has $1,000 900 worth of domestic goods
piled up in it's e,pacious rooms, and there is no
trustn ortby market for them. The West, which
used to take eff these goods with an almost limit
less demand, has cea.ed to pay for those it had
already purcba,ed, and must be content for the
present with the tick it has IN hand The
South, edged in by dependence on single staple,
and setting up cotton as the greatest good OF the
greatest number has seen that tavorte stap!e fall
from eahtee &C nts to nine ten with Sprospectofa
greater fall and long Of low prices Insist
Ing that the men of Manchester shall Tx the prlce oi
cotton instead of the men Of Lowell, and hat the
consumer shall be - far removed from the producer
| az possible, her people have brought upon them
selves collapse no rulnous as that at twenty years
| ago. Their sins be upon their own heads. 1hey
can no longer buy of us, because they can Io!tner
| pay what they owe nor sell what they nave. be
| tween this common prostration OF Tue SCUM ana
| West, all wholesale trade lie .tagnant here. Book
keepers are busy enough in calculating chances as
around the undisturbed pies OF cases aid samples,
while petty clerks and porters have become super
Bumeraries and are sent of to spend as happy
| Christmas as they may may OF them TO seek OccE-
I patton in new quarters.
Some business, however, is still doing among the
| wholesale men. But the old system OF tong circuits
NAV be said TO be abOl shed. Half cash on delivery
| is demanded by many firms. They know that con.
sumption is going on while production is rot, and
that Spring and Summer are certain to brlbg on
| comparatye revival They can therefore take
strong ground believing that the stagnstion must of
necessity be only temporary. What business they
do is therefore safe. The best paper recommends.
tons from abroad will no longer command store-ull
Of goods. Owning town lots in the West has be.
come damaging to ones credit Speculation Of that
kind is in as bad odor here it is at home. third
or half cash. and the bslahcs ID ninety days. is
ofteper the rule than otherwise. As tnsequence,
buyers take hold sParngly and they too are uo'
doubleday doing safer business They sell az All for
more cash and less credit so that the consumer
less be pays better and the compulsive reformation
in credit and consumption operates throughout the
whole framework Of society. Under so thorough
revolution as is now going here, Phlladepha cse-
not fail to hold her head up In another SIX months
The duties collected at our Custom House FOX the
last month show falling oil AZ per cent, ana Tor
| the year of q per cent Our shiPping interesi Is
| almost as dull as during JefersOn's embargo. Ihe
railroads have discharged many hands as possible,
reduced the number Of their trains aud are cutting
| down expenses wherever practicable, sudden de-
| Termination having been come To by all OF them TO
| get rid Of their floating debts These debts STU
keep some of them in the street at one and hall
month, or one per cent on eau. IL the detefmlna-
ton to accumulate floating debt was once conta-
gOus, equally sturdy one to wipe It out has noH
become the primary object.
In such a state Of things, it may be taken for
granted that eur banks doing little or nothing
But What they really do is known only to their Gus
TONERS. They are close corporations, publish no
statements and the general public are kept IL pro.
found ignorance of their true condItlon lt IS well
known, however, that they hold enormous amounts
of suspended paper that they are very liberal III re.
newDg it, seeing that they do 10 better; thai
they DO not sue any delinquent seeing that the stay.
law interposes a difficulty, and that they dis ,ouli
most if not all the etedged paper which is offered,
seeing that none such is made. Yet tho stock of all
these baLks except the Girsrd 10 above par, aud
though no che knows how they stand, reister does
any one lack confidence in them. This ignorance
being bhssful, why geek to be made
wi.ef1 The street brokers tel me their
occupation is gone. No saable paper in any amount
ia TO be had. Collaterals have become so much the
order of the day that they are insisted on In moss
cases, and, what il equally curious, they generaIy
Gene at the bidding. The city appears to be igu Of
them. Business men have invested spare FUNDS 10
stocks and bonds at high water, ard now when inc
tide has run out, find them on hand high and dry
They have sunk too low to sell aud 80 play tbs SUD
ordinate part of coilaterals. If this practice OF
thus investing odd thousands had not been generay
prevalent among our business people, there could
have been no absorption for the vast amount set
afoat Mortgages are down to 10 and Is per cent
discount and plenty to sell at that. But mortgages
have become TOO allow for the temper Of the tines.
These who shave prefer taking CIT every sixty
DAYS. Real estste ms;atairs its character literally
it is imnovable. There 10 ye.y little selling,
and that little at low priess. Re1ss have gone
down very pslceEn0y a0d VcGo e0utN aee