The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-08-14
FROM CHICAGO.
Hard TfEmeS-DecIfnei i'm Prop.
erGy and Rents-DrOuEthS,
Etc.
CHICAGO, Aug. 10th, 1874.

CHICAGO, Aug. 10th, 1874.
Chicago is under a very darL
cloud just at this time. She ha
never recovered from the deartl
which the panic last fall inflicted
The giant brains that raised a mar
velous city from its ashes in two
years time have planned, maneuv
red and charged upon its stubborn
forces of adversely, from every base
that afforded hope. but they haYt
failed to bring back the prosperity
which everybody has maintained
ever since that calamitous day was
near at hand. The fact is, public
confidence is so far destroyed that
no one will trust in anything, nc
matter how reasonable its chances OF
success may be. And everybody
appears to give the failure side the
benefit of the doubt. Thus real es-
tate has gone down down until
there is no sale for it at all. Rents
have followed, until property in
stead of remunerating, is q burden.
This is why the late fire hss so APP
palled the city.
The absolute loss i'll the fire it.
self was not so great a. to have hurt
a resOlute, healthy and courageous
city such as Chicago was in the ear
ly part of 1873. But discouraged,
nervous, panic-stricken people could
not stand the shock. A very fool
ish course was taken by the daily
press of the city. They wondered
IL foreign capital would withdraw,
and cried out in despair to know
what could be done to avert this ca
lamity. OF course this was enough
for the capitalists, aud taking Chi
cago at its own word they fastened
to bar their banks against her.
Next the papers declared that Or
ganized incendiaries were at work
to burn down the city, and of course
the insurance companies withdrew
or demanded protection. The ques-
ton now arises, What next?
/ believe the idea of incendiaries
is purely a creature of oVeraWed
imagination. There have been more
fires of late than usual, and last
Thursday the unprecedented num-
bers of sixteen alarms were sound
ed. But there has been no rain
here sufficient to more than lay the
dust for many weeks, and the wind
blew a gale all that day, and every
body expected fires. Most of them
were caused by defective fiues.
But the excitement throughout the
city has been intense, and business
men show great alarm in view of
the fact that insurance is almost
wholly denied them. This fire bu-
siness, however, has undoubtedly
reached it's eliminating point, as
the city has put on heavy patrol
force, the fire department has been
materially strengthened, and great
posters are spread throughout the
city proclaiming heavy rewards for
the detectIon,of incendiAries.
There is, after all, a natural cause
for most of this depression. Real
estate and rents had been forced up
to enormously high figures, and a
collapse was perfectly natural. 1t
takes long time to re-establish VAL
ues when once they have entered
upon the downward scale. Chicago
will come up again in time, but
when that time will arise is ques-
ton not easily answered. A great
deal really depends upon:the agri-
cultural prosperity of the country.
At present the farming portion of
this section are about as despond-
ent as the city people. The season
has been an extremely dry one, and
various pests have conspired to
make the crops light. But as the
dullness now existing extends pref
ty much all over the country,
there will no doubt occur
q change for the better at no dis
tant day, which though it must be
gradual at first, will in the end re-
store ali to the proper level again.
In my next I will turn to a more
cheerful subject, and give your
readers some views on Chicago en-
terprises that have survived the
hard times. X.