The Portland daily press., 1873-11-04

it; for in this broad land there is enough for
every man to do of work that benefits not
merely the doer, but his fellow men.
Apart from the immediate connections and
dependencies of the Spragues the people of
Rhode Island will have reason to rejoice that
an overshadowing political oligarchy in their
little commonwealth has gone into eclipse.
Rhode Island has come nearer to some of the
old 'rotten boroughs'' of England in respect
OF its local government than any other State
in the Union. This powerful family, with its
capital of (borrowed) money and votes has die
tated Mayors, Governors and Legislatures. and
kept one of its members in the Senate of the
United States for two terms. Places which are
purchased with money, or in the procurement
OF which money is suspected to have been
used, reflect discredit alike upon the incumbent
and the electors, and it is idle to deny that
there has long been kind of moral faint upon
the average representative of this little terri
torial atom of New England. Occasionally
they relieve themselves of this odium by put
ting forward men of conspicuous excellence
and homer, like Anthony and Burnside, but it
is the general opinion that when the Spragues
have a protege to take care of they put his
election upon purely commercial footing, and
do business in this department on strictly
cash basis, which is in fact matter of necessi-
ty, for there is in double sense no credit in it.
That dear, delightful, whole souled, great heart
ed merchant Horace B. Ciahin, whose pluck
energy, vitality, good nature and perfect integ-
rity has captivated everybody who ever fell in
with him, has had occ aston for month or so past
to revise the theory in which he has apparently
done business all his life, viz, that one man can
sell all the dry goods in the country. His great
shop is one of the curiosities of the city, 1t is
deep and a good many stories high. There are
such a multitude of cashiers, book-keepers,
check clerks, entry clerks, statesmen, porters,
cash boys, fremen, engineers, cartmen &C., en-
ployed in the premises, that even the head of
the house finds it quite impossible to keep count
of them. From morning till night this colossal
establishment is crowded with goods and with
people, from cellar to attic, and presents much
such an appearance as the stock exchange of
New York or the Bourse of Paris. The annu-
al sales amount to $55000,000!
Fancy panic striking man doing such an
enormous trade as that, at least three quarters
of it On cre6 I'D with debtors in every State
of the uni (p Maine to Oregon. 1t will
at once ~ every sensible reader that
nothing but~ydp erhuman exertion can keep
such an overloaded craft from sinking in a
heavy sea. But Mr. ClaHns Indebtedness is
largely on book N unit. He gives out very
few notes, and thosesonly in large amounts to
parties who will not throw them upon the open
market. For while he bravely responded to ev-
cry call and met his obligations as they matur-
ed, but last Friday he found he must have help
or ask for grace On the advice of many of the
largest of his creditors he decided to adopt the
latter alternative, and with some accommoda-
tions of this nature, he is likely to weather the
storm and retain the control of his affairs.
Now if this estimable gentleman, who de-
serves as well as anybody ever knew, the ap-
pellation of merchant prince" could be pur-
suaded to moderate his ambition, and reduce
the volume of his business, the panic would
prove the greatest of blessings to him. He
could curtail say forty millions of dollars with
great propriety. That reduction would not be
bit too much. Fifteen millions is enough for
one man to do in all conscience. And then he
would occasionally have some money of his
own / don't suppose he has seen day for
eleven years, when he wasn't under a debt of
at least five millions of dollars 1t is stated
that single banking house in Wall street ne
gotiated twelve millions of his endorsed paper
last year. He makes nothing of borrowing a
half million CT dollars at time, and is COM
monty as bright. cheerful and joilv as if he
didn't owe dollar in the world.
But when there comes real sharp demand
for money, it is quite plain to see that the lines
of care are making their traces on that usually
sunshiny face. don't believe that there ever
was man more acutely sensitive about fulfill
ing his obligation to the letter. He is the soul
of honor. That is why he has such unbounded
credit, and probably to-day, amid all the uncer-
taintes of this critical period, he could buy
goods of anybody in the country who had them
to SELL on as long time as ever he could. New
ertheless, Mr.. Claf1in has overtraded beyond all
boundaries of prudence, and has nobody but
himself to blame for the dilemma in which his
own rashness has placed him. Everybody
hopes he will weather the storm, but nobody
whose Judgment is worth considering ever
wants him to involve himself again in such
imminent perIls.
1t will be remembered that Mr.. Claflin was
one of the gentlemen who urged the President
and Secretary of the Treasury to trampe on
the law in order to afford relief to the banker,
stock-jobber and merchant who had sown the
wind Of speculation to reap the whirlwind of
disaster. One can easily estimate the motives
which prompted this bad advice, in view of the
fact that his own imperative necessities render
ed him for the time utterly oblivious of the NOR
oil of he
pretty much all the unsound and in many
cases. ridiculous counsel which was pressed up
on Gen. Grant and Secretary Richardson on
the 21st of September had its origin in the
fright and excitement of the parties giving it
arising out of the magnitude and urgency of
their own immediate liabilities. If those gen.
tlemen had been weak enough to yield to the
pressure of Importantly, the panic would
have been adjourned till next year and
meantime the Spragues would perhaps have
increased their Indebtedness from eleven to
fifteen millions and Mr.. Clafin, his business
from fifty-fve to sixty millions "Better to
bear the ills we have than fly to
others that we know not Of"
The defaults of the Burlington and Cedar
Rapids, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
companies IN tne payment OF interest on their
Bonds constitutes another chapter in the great
drama of suspension with which the times are
rife. The lines are drawing closer and closer
day by day to the bed rock of actual values.
Fancy stocks are no longer purchasable on mar
gins, and there is so little inclination to buy
them on the slender chance of their subsequent
appreciation that the quotations for them
grow ''small by degrees and beautifully less as
the conviction gathers strength, that things are
hereafter to be weighed in more accurate scales
and with mathematical precision.
YARMOUTH.
For COuncillOr-Luther Billings.
BRIDGroN, Nov. 8.
To the Editor of the Press:
There seems to be considerable interest
fhrorcrhnrt no Stato nd iaIlx