The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-09-03

September is upon US. The long, tedious and
oppressive days of the hot summer months have
passed away, and the season has come for the dull
and sluggish current of city life 10 be stirred up
and qulckened by the opening of the customary
channels of business and trade But the stream
still courses languidy. It's motion is scarcely per-
ceptible The town is as empty as in the hottest
dog days. No busy hum OF stranger life fills our
usually frequented strees-no crowd of country
traders throng our business thoroughfares Ware.
houses are not empty, but their cases and bales Of
merchandise remain unopened. Candy store
windows still attract the customers, but the stocks
OF three months still lie upon the shelves, where
empty boxes are carefully slowed away, to fill I'D
the space usually allotted to new goods, few or
none of which have this year been purchased.
One-half the number of clerks stand listlessly
around The principal gravely PAGES the floor,
OF nerVously studies over the unsettled PAGES of
his account book. His rent has been reduced
his expenses have been cut down-his prices have
been lowered so IS to offer every Involvement TO
purchasers, but receipts are still remarkably light
and the prospect Of meeting his autumn payments
were never so bad.
Why is it we have nothing to do? Philadel-
phia claims to be getting along. The New
York papers talk quite cheeringly of the brighten
ing prospects for fall trade. Maryland is still
the Union. We have our communications
open with Delaware, Eastern Pennsy lvania and
new Jersey, by rail and water. We have
constant intercourse by canal with the coal and
iron region of middle Pennsylvania There is no
interruption between our city and the Northern
lakes, the Ohio river at PIttsburg, or the vast
network of railroads which, from that point.
penetrate every section of the great West.
all portions of which, by this route, are actusIIv
nearer TO Baltimore than TO PHILADELPHIA. and
many of them than to New York. 1t is now four
months and a half since our connections with
these points were temporarily interrupted, but the
distinctions were scarcely more than momentary,
and not of sufficient duration of itself to force
trade away from Old channels But still there is
no change Trade is sagnant, and men are
starving for want of employment Faces giant
ana wan meet you at every turn; women solicit
charity for their infants who could never stoon
10 neg for themselves; and in the dusk of evening
men, who seek to hide their honest bushes from
Inc light of day, fateringy ask for the pittance
r' Is needed 10 save family from starvation.
M nov 10 'ue reason of this deplorable condition
e.. ,Nenty millions of people North
East and West of us, who must be- fad w;,h
Hour, and beef and porkou - wa"
make and raise They all want -, we
cotton fabrics for clothing, and rar;on. 'N
purposes-both Of which we manpfao,,1
They need agricultural implements, and roriou,
sorts OF machinery, which are made here in ner-
lection They need iron which is produced here.
They must have stoves, and all sorts of castings,
winch can be had at our foundries They need
leather, which we have in great abundance. They
need coffee and sugars, which we import in large
Quantities. and In fact, they require in greater or
less quahtues' every species of produce, man.
ufactured wares and imported merchandise, which
are sold in the Baltimore market, but they do not
seek to purchase them here. The fact is but too
evident that twenty millions of people Of the Uni