Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1857-11-07
VOL. tx. NO. II.
Insolvency.

ing propensltlCs Is insolvency. 1T may fall
strangely ON the ears of those who have
never looked into the question, to be told
that of all thc marriages which take place
in Massachusetts,, four scycnths are Irish.
Yet the fact is not less true than strange
The Irish there would seem to be the only
class of which the childish extravaganza Of
the age has not taken so complete posses.
sion as to render them unable to indulge
i'll the luxury of marriage The statistics
of commercial life develop kindred facts OF
an equally astounding character. If Mas
sachusctts presents remarkable condition
of things so far as marriage is concerned,
her history is equally curious in relation tu
the success of her mercantile community.
Before this array, the "sold men of Boston
become but a collection of phantoms No,
more than three in a hundred of thc mcr.
chants and traders of that city became indie
| pendent. Gen. Dearborn, who for twenty
years was Collector of that port and who
had ample opportunities for observing tho
vicissitudes OF trade declared, in a public
| address before the Legislature, that amon0
every hundred Of the merchants and trader.
OF that city, not more than three ever ac
quired an independence. This conclusions
was not arrived at without great distrnst
but an experienced merchant, who was con
suited, fully admitted its truth. A Boston
antiquarian in the year 1900 took memo
randum of every person on Long Wharf
and in 1910 only five in one hundred re-
malned. All but three had either failed or
died insolvcnt. The Union Bank com.
mcnccd business in 1913, there being then
only one other bank. The Union was over.
run with business, the clerks being OBLIGED
to work till midnight, and ever on SUNDAYS
y recent examination of one thousand nc
counts opened with the bank at Startinp
showed that only six remained. All tho
| others had either failel or died insoIyent.
Houses whose paper had passed without
question, the very parties who had consti-
tuted the solid men, had all gone down in
that time. Another person had occasion to
look through the Probate Office, where the
estate of every man who dies is registered
He was sstonished to find that more than
ninety per cent. of all the estates there set
tied were insolvent OF the Directors Of
the Bank of Massachusetts, over a third
were found, upon examination, to have fail
| ed. In the Direction of the Union Bank,
the proportion was even larger. 1t would
thus appear that even a class so generally
presumed to have at command facilities not
accessible to mere dcpositors, are not on.
cmpt from visitations of a calamity which
IN tins country seems to be hopelcssly chron-
lc. The proportion of capital affords no
apparent guarantee against ruin. Abstain
ing from business by those who arc able to
live without it, may be considered the only
safety. But, ifwisdom come by experience,
and it those who fail acquire any of the for
mer IN consequence, those may be counted
comparatively happy who fail while young.
that they may have time in after life, to
amend the errors and repair the damages of
their early ventures on the ocean Of trqdn
II MAS not I'd DC inferred from this dSaS-
trous exhibition that commercial misfor-
tune has been peculiar 20 che people of Bos-
ton. The same examination elsewhere
woud be found to expose the same results
as inscparablc from the uniform imprudcnce
with which business is conducted in his
country. The Bankntpt Law of 1S41 dis
charged some thitty-thrcc Thousand men,
who returned in thcr petitions the names
of more than million of creditors. Their
debts were admitted 30 be S440,93i,6l5,
but they probably amounted to round
half billion. To pay this enormous indcbt-
cdncss they returned only $48,GS7 ,307 OF
assets How much more was cnnce .lcd, il
IS impossible to conjecture with any accura-
cy In Pennsylvania and all South of that
State, tie records show that moi one cent
oil the dollar was ever realized from the
assets surrendered. In Illinois they Weld
ed 6 2-3 cents to the 800, in Michigan and
in Iowa of a cent each 10 the 800, while
Massachusetts, produced but 4 cents and
/ Connecticut 6-l0 of a cent TO the $780,.
Kentucky yielded the highest, being SG
cents No commentary on the mode of do
ing business practiccd in this country can
be more impressive than inc array OF such
facts as these. .-4Scc Y0,k Tribunc.
-
| LEAVES. NO marure is so we'll worth
saving in October and November as the
now falling leaves OF the season Accord
ing to Payne, they contain nearly three
times as much nitrogen as ordinary barn,
yard manure; and every gardener who has
strcwn and covered them in his trenches
late in the fall or in December, must have
noticed the next season how black and moist
the soff is that adheres 10 the thrifty young
bcets he pulls. No vegetable substance,
! yields its woody fibre and becomes soluble
quicker than leaves, and from this very
cause they are soon dried up, scattered to
4 tho winds and wasted, if not now gathered
and trenehcd in, or compostcd before the
advent of severe winter.