The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-07-16
'Mhe Gseil Mhtg
ELKTON, JULY I6, 1870.
In the wild and tangled exuberance of

In the wild and tangled exuberance of
a tropical fancy peculiar to The Democrat,
we are reported as being satisfied with the
progressed Elkton in increase of population,
and the high rate of interest which pre-
walls. We expressed no opinion of salts
faction or otherwise, but stated the facts as
they exist, and gave one of the immediate
causes for the high rates. Had that wild
fancy for exageration Of The Democrat been
suppressed, this is all that could have been
discovered in our article. That paper,
with its usual astuteness, however, per-
sists in attributing all the misery Elkton
flesh is heir to, arising from usurous rates,
to the money-lenders, and charges, forth
with, The Wing with the crime of note
shaving. Jehu! an Eastern Shore Editor
money-lender Such an inputation is ac-
tionable under the statute for SANDER.
The man who sells money is the same
frail creature in every essential, with the
man who sells wheat, except in individual
identity; the latter, generally, not having
the cares of watching over vast sums, laid
on his shoulders Where is the farmer who
can obtain $500 a bushel for his wheat,
that will dispose of it for $1.00? He
dosn't have an existence the present day
The same principle identically, governs the
money market and the wheat market
that of supply and demand. If one Dor
rover offers higher rate Of interest for a
loan than another, the securities offered
being equally good, the highest bidder
will get the loan, and it is the most
egregious folly to grumble and find fault
with the lender. The act is voluntary on
the part of the borrower, as much SO as on
the part of the purchaser of bushel OF
wheat, they both purchase with similar
objects in view, either for their own indi-
vidual consumption OF use, or to sell
again.
That favorite smile of The Democrat
a drowning man, is produced, with hard
hearted fiends, representing money-lend-
ers, standing on terra firma, demanding
half of his worldly possessions before they
will assist him out of the water. We beg
leave to say there is no relevancy i'll the
comparison whatever. The Democrat, after
stumbling round awhile i'll this manner,
leaves the subject where he found it, con-
founding cause and effect.
But correspondent, more wise in his
generation, comes to the relief of the phil
osopher of The Democrat, and sums up, in
three words, the primary cause of the evils
complained of; namely, Politics, Idleness
and Whisky. This is the whole secret in a
nutshell, and not only the bane of Elkton,
but every other town in the country where
unthrift prevails. This correspondent
might have rested here on his laurels, but
he pursues his subject by matchmaking
infirm fellows who crowded DR.. Dunot's
Office, in 1868, to expose their weak points
and prove they were not fit to carry mus
ket. Well do we remember the scenes
here alluded to, and we are happy to state
that nearly all those infirm fellows were
democrats.
Idleness and whisky will ruin any COM
munity, and the latter is a constant COM
panion of the former. If parents would
inculcate habits of industry in their chill
dren, and educate their sons as mechanics
and artizans, in place of allowing them to
roam the streets and frequent grog-shops,
the next generation of Elkton would aspire
to something higher than mere clerkship
in store, sweating their brains with the
intricate knowledge of weighing pound
of sugar and measuring yard of calico;
and for recreation choose something super
ior to the pleasures of a bar-room or loafing
listlessly on street corners.
With proper education in habits of in
dustry, those who are next to direct the af-
fairs of Elkton, will not be compelled to
pledge the real estate which they inherit
for the payment ofmoney borrowed at 20 per
cent, with no prospect, perhaps, of redeem
ing it. But if the same system is pursued
of bringing up boys which has been and is
now in vogue with parents in this part of
the country, there is no prospect of an in
crease of anything but the loafer crop.