The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1874-06-18
[For VALLEY VIRGINIAN.1
Hard Times.

. AA&SA u u AaAACSe
Times are hard and money is scarce. is Al
! expression we have heard for the last thirt
years. We have not only heard it but we hav
, often felt it Try sensibly. With the Increases
facilities at the present time for making money
that we have had hard times is strange; bil
!. that none should know the cause IL strange
still. That mo- e. Is generally arce In iii Vii
ley of Virginia Is true, land is it stranger Re
member that we have become fast people.
proud people, fashionable people, and &c i,
proua, fashionable and fast, costs great dea
of money. The time has been when gentlemen
and ladies were not ashamed to appear a
church OF on the streets clad initleiEhomespun
wearing hats, boots, shoes and bonnets mad.
| in their own county or neighborhood; but now
a lady would spurn the idea of wearing any
thing made at home. At that time it the en-
tire outfit for bride cost twenty-five dollars
1t was considered extravagant, but now, TWEEN.
ty-five hundred is not uncommon. The time
has been when Ia lies Of high responsibility aid
refinement were found at the spinning wheel
! the loom and the dairy; but now, You must
| look for them at the melOdeon, the organ, the
piano-forte or perhaps perusing the last
novel. The time has been when wheat was
| sown broadcast, cut with sickle. threshed
with fail: when railroads were no , and banks
were few; when every thrifty farmer had a sur.
plus deposited in his own desk; when three
lawyers and six physicians were enough to sup
| ply q county; when three groS shops were Z,
nough to supply o1aunlol anu wv uist'iielies
were enough 1or Augusta county "nei o'l
| ers make buckets, tubs and barrels, our matters
make hats, our tailors make coats, and our
women make their own wearing apparel; when
| men could wagon TO ocottsvliie ana hlchinond
| and bring back groceries at Whoiesale pfices'
when three or four stores We're suincient 10 sup
ply county With dry goods, "hen country
girls could be educated at common scnoois ana
when state and county ofilcers were wise, patrl-
o.ic and honest men. Some people SAID times
we've hard then.
Farmers, why are tlmes nara WIN you! WI!
is money so scarce! lOtr Janus IN lofiner uays
brought good crops. You could at1ord TO raise
wheat at one dollar per Dusnel ana nay at Yen
dollars per ton. and other produce III proper
ton. Since then you nave improved your lands
with fertilizers, at from fifty to one hundred
dollars per ton, your lands must be much rich
er than formerly; you must raise much larger
crops-you have all the labor saving machinery
Tnis you have bought very cheap,(the Yankees
having consented to let you have 1t atstlve hum
dred Dr.. cent advance on the original cost. if
YOU pay the agents welD and you must culti-
vate your lands much cheaper than formerly.
and your produce brings much better price,
Are the times hard. indeed? You say tho times
are hard and YOU know not the reason. Do
YOU remember when one barrel Of flour would
buy complete outfit for your wife, or daugh-
ter? Do YOU remember the time when your
own wool and flax were the chief material used
for your wearing apparel, and your wives and
daughters were the manufacturers? Do you re-
member when your own beef hides served for
your shoe leather, and your mechanics were
paid from the produce of the field? Do you re-
member certain lands that you then bought,
and how easily and punctually you made your
payments? Did you work harder then, and are
the times harder now? You surely mistake;
times are easy now. you can have how what
YOU could not afford then. You can build fine
houses to dwell in, at a cost of two or three
thousand dollars; you can have fine horses, fine
carriages and fine bugges now; you can sport
a fine turnout worth a thousand dollars;drive up
to church that costs several thousand, and
hear fine sermon from minister that is hired
at one or two thousand dollars a year. These
things you could not do in former tines. The
whole family could then walk two or three
miles to Il log church that cost three hundred
dollars, hear a good sermon from minister
that received little or no salary and go home
satisfied. But the mere mention OF a lady walk
ing two miles to church would be shock to the
nervous system now.
But times have oilanged-you say times are
hard. Is it so? Are you not mistaken! Why,
you can support scores OF lawyers ana pnysl-
clans, dry good stores and groceries, grogshops
and taverns, peddlers anu huckstefs, menaSSer-
les and circuses, you can also support innumer-
able agencies for the sale OF foreign books and
periodicals, thresh1ng maohlnes, reapefS. NOW
ers, drills, rakes, sewing machines, fertilizers.
churns, patent me iciles, &c. You are GER
tainly mistaken; times are not hard and money
is not scarce, money is CERTAINLY plenty,you can
send your daughters to a boarding school how,
at a cost of four<Or five hundred dollars year,
and when they have learned all the Grecan
bends, and fashions of the day. YOU can buy
them piano.and set up fashionable boarding
house at home.
Times are not hard when you can spend the
price Of three or four barrels OF flour on the
wardrobe of your wife and each Of your daugh-
tiers every six months when your sons can
wear fine broad-cloth, five dollar hats, and ten
dollar boots, ride a fine horse and saddle, and
sport twenty-five or fifty dollar watch and
fine gloves with gauntlets to his elbows. These
are not hard times-you are mistaken-actions
speak louder than worls-times are not hard.
I acknowledge. here, that some men have
means. but these have the consolation to know
that the Bankrupt law was enacted 1or' their
spec,al pene: anu .l,e ~ dnht or @ -. ther
can nav thev 20 n easilv wine ont ali these IL
tie matters without difficulty and without fear
OF being looked upon coldly, because bankrupt,
thouSh looked upon py tlie colilhion peop1e ~