The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-12-28

THuRsDAY........... .DECEMBER q. 1855.
High Water.
This phrase we have chosen for . heading to
this article. which is devoted to considera.
ton of high prices, inasmuch Al we know
nothing better illustrative OF the one than the
other. The rising, whirling and eddying wa.
tiers cause great disturbance Of the ordinary
pursuits Of life, and drive people to desperate
exertions to save themselves and their effects
from being swallowed mp. In like manner
community struggles to sustain themselves In
the midst Of high prices-to keep their heads
above the highwater rates which have inva-
ded and are rapidly submerging everything
about them. They retreat from point to point,
parting with their movables for safety, until,
unincumbered and homeless, they take refuge
in the tree-tops and await the falling of the
waters!
The contemplation Of that condition Of
things, in which all the necessaries OF life are
high, and rents stin higher, while occupation
is limited and vast Numbers Of people are with
out anything to do, is painful enough; to be
one Of those, laboring under its effects, quee
insupportable. This is the condition of this
city at the present time. The high water pre-
walls. and people are sorely troubled to escape
it. Rents are beyond all precedent; even un-
der the Confederacy they did not reach the
present climax until 1864, we believe. Land
lords could not keep pace with the depreciating
Confe1agate molDv, and 1t was only in the lat
ter part of the struggle that they elevated
themselves TO the extreme indicated by the
rapidly falling financial thermometer of Mr..
MExxrxaER. But having gotten at last to
this elevation, they seem to be entirely unable
to come down; they are like the sal 1or at the
top of the mast-they cannot safely look down,
but keep their eyes towards the horizon across
the waste of waters.
Rents are from three to five times the rea-
sonable rates which could be sustained by the
business of this city Immediately after the
surrender of the city, spectators and adven-
turers fOcked thither under the impression
that there was field for fortunes here with
ont precedent. Business stores were scarce,
and the demand for them became so great,
landlords found that any price they would ask
was readily paid. Indeed, they often regretted,
after renting at enormous prices, that they
had not asked more, since others had possibly
obtained higher prices. The adventures
brought large stocks of goods and exposed
them to sale to q community little better than
one of paupers. People beheld the display
who had no money to buy. But for the pre-
sence of the army, with its disbursements,
and the sale of a little tobacco that had been
saved, the newcomers would have sold no
goods and taken in no money. The result
was that some failed and others left with
their goods in disgust, while few that were
the first in the field have remained to endure
their disappointment.
Unfortunately for that commercial commu-
nifty which has taken more the appearance OF
permanent residents, rates are but slightly di-
minished. They have to bear up under the
extravagant rents which the adventurers es-
tablished. Not only are they oppressed with
the rents in the business part of the city, but
private dwellings are no less expensive. Fami-
lies are compelled to some extent, still to pur-
sue the economy of sub-renting and room
keeping, which was introduced under the refu-
geeing and scarcity of the Confederate times.
Board is also dear in proportion to rent, and
business and enterprise of all sorts are bur-
thened and straitened in manner highly in
furious to trade, as It must be- under the re-
action which will come, to landlords also.
We know too much of the history of high
prices and financial troubles to expect an
easy solution of those we now complain of.
The remedy must come in due time. The
landlord is seldom disposed to reduce the rent
to a tenant that is in his house. Afailure and a
change of tenants-the old one going out and
the new one coming in, with the advantage of
the reduction as a condition precedent to his
occupation-is the only mode in which the
change can be well established. But that the
reduction must come is certain. The business
of this city, nor any city that we know of,
save, perhaps, New York, can justify such
rents If it does not at this time justify it, can
we be encouraged by contemplating the flu
ture Certainly not. There is no tobacco
made this year in Virginia, and we have abso
lutely not single staple article in sufficient
abundance for expectation, and cannot have
until the ensuing wheat crop, the character of
which no man can foretell. What are to be
our resources then in the interim None that
we know of, save the money that may flow in
by the sale of lands to emigrants, sQeculators,
and mining and manufacturing companies.
This would be immense, if the wealth of Vir-
ginia VIZ fully understood among the men
who have money to invest. Whether fully
appreciated or not, there will be a large in
coming revenue from this source, but not in
a current sufficiently rapid, nor yet so imme-
diately concentrated in this city, as to au-
thorize or maintain the present high rates OF
rents and all the articles which support life.
That there must be great reduction, every
one must know and the sooner we prepare for
low water the better.
Manifest Destiny-A New Phase.
Senator WILsos, of Massachusetts, tells the
world that the sons of the Pilgrims have never
failed in anything they undertook, since they
first began to be known by that interesting de-
signation and as they are just at this time
engaged in a variety Of enterprises, this an
nunciation can be regarded as nothing less