Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1864-09-06


are awaiting the November session of The
District Court Owing to the greatly in
creased rate of provisions it is thought tia,
the price Of board will have to be in
creased.
DEAD FuSDs.-This county has now or
hand the sum Of $4,000 Of the School
Fund which cannot be loaned under the
present laws and restrictions, consequently
the schools are not receiving the benefit
they usually do in the way Of interest,
therefrom. At present it is so much dead
capital. Would it not be well for the Board
to take some steps to have this sum invest
Ell in funds some way so that something
may be gained from that fund? We be-
lieve there is law providing for the invest
ment Of such funds in l.. S. Bonds.
'TnE Dry GooDs TRADE OF DAvEvPonr," :"
AS 1T Is.-A day or two ago the Gazette an
nounced, with flourish of trumpets, that
in short time it would spread before the
public some very important and valuable
statistics concerning the Dry Goods Trade
of cur city. Knowing that the editor Of
that paper had taken plenty Of time to cx-
plore this important branch of business in
Davenport, the public very naturally ex-
pected something claborateiy accurate
some statistics that would do honor to our
city and to the acknowledged enterprise Of
her merchants. What, then, must have
been the surprise of the youth of our city,
to say nothing of our business men, at read
ing the column ofstuff that paper contained
this morning concerning the dry goods
trade.
in a very few words, for we have not time
to do such bundle of stupid errors justice
in this issue, VIC propose to set the matter
right. 1t would be an outrage to let such
an article 60 forth uncontradcted, as it
places our city in most dcspcabe light,
and does great injury 10 our commercial in
tcrests.
The gist Of the article is there are p
dealers in dry goods-which sell "at least
over 100000 annually" OF this the s'iob-
bing trade amounted to over 100000
Wonderful With a population of over
$4,000 people, it is very huge business :
These stores have "capital Of 1926, DOOR !
also "45 clerks, at an expense OF SIC, ,ooo.'
Our observation is different. We have
only had time this afternoon to canvass |
eleven Of the twenty one dry goods stores,
and we find that the annual sales of these |
amount to the very respectable sum Of |
$500 .O0o! We also find that the jobbing |
IS confined principally to three or four
houses, and that for the past year that
branch of trade amounts to about s2s5..
OOO: These stores, we find, employ a
orcc of about sixty clerks, at an expense of
,bout $4,000.
Some of these stores do about as much
business as the Gazeho gives the entire
twenty lone" that it "canyassed" credit for
ind We can point out single one that in the
past year can show by its books a Job
ping trade ofnearly three times as much as
hat paper comedies to all One Of these
irms assures us that it will give million of
lollars for the leading dry goods trade of the
;ity; and that by proper cffort-employing
travellers, etc., it can easily do
business Of one-half million of dollars
annually with no decrease in the present
number Of dealers.
This answers the main features of the
Gasette's story. How it should have fallen
nto such an egregious error, after ''can.
7assing the city," as it declares it has done,
S more than men of ordinary Judgment can
determine. A thorough canvass must show
igures considerably heavier than we have
made above, but as before stated, our limit
ID time would not permit us to give the /
natter that thorough Investigation that the
subject demands.
The minor details Of the article-such as
he advance in price Of certain. styles of
goods, etc., are nearly IS absurdas the rest,
,ut it is not worth our while to follow them
through and make corrections, Any lady
'r gentleman can grin information of q
practical kind, upon this head, If, indeed,
hey have not already tried the experiment,
y taking hundred dollar greenback, and
yoing into any one Of our stores to purchase
! few dresses, some musiins, trimmings,
'tc. Ordinary prints, ,haus gone up 700 per |
,ent. |; 30 have muslins-and more too, and
'ther kinds range up close upon those high |
igures. '@ a. :. 80
In justice to the commerce of our city
md particularly to our Dry Goods Mer-
Gents, we hope our contemporary will make
prenpt correction Of its errors. Such an |
article eoing forth among the people as
reflex OF bssiness here, cannot be but hurt
iul TO the interests Of our growing city.
ANY little village can sell as many goods "A
our neighbor gives Cur dry goods men cred
It for selling. Davenport sold more drv
goods than that 10 years ago, and ten wears !
hence We look to see her selling her million
where now she sells her hundreds Of thou
sands.