Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1875-01-01
',Mhe Atnbttatat4
STAUNTON, VA.
FRIDAY MORNING. JAN. 1, 1875
NEW YEAR DAY.

NEW YEAR IA T.
Don't be afraid! There isn't any moral
lecture coming. Perhaps you are not very
good, but that's nothing new. Few of us
are better than we ought to be, and we
might all spend some time profitably in
the exercise of charity for each other.
This is a Day of Good Resolutions, and we
sympathize with the makers as, in a few
weeks we shall be called upon to do with
the breakers. They might have been made
in the Spring OF the Summer Oh the Fall;
but no ! they have waited for this mystic
rious first day Of the year, this white day,
this milestone in the onward route of
Humanity. And it is always good symp-
tom in this infirm humanity of ours that
it is always fixing on day to be better
and do better. No man ever yet fixed on
day to commence to do worse. The worst
of them never do that. Man may be as
prone to sin as the sparks to fly upward
but it is also true that his aspirations to
good are as steady as the flame. There
fore don't be dismayed- Nobody despairs
Of you. If you break all the good resolves
of to-day, as doubtless you will, make
some more, And that's about all we have
to say on the moral question. But we
want to talk to you about your private af
fairs for the coming year. The year 1875
is going to be a tight one. There is not
going to be a panic OF any great financial
crash, but there is to be a growing
scarcity of moneyand a remarkable change
in values. The merchant who buys $4,000
worth of goods at the beginning of this
year will find that few weeks later he
will have to sell them for about what they
cost him, and that with the same money
he can buy great deal more The farmer
who refuses 81 for his produce, next month
will have to take Is cents. Everything in
this country is settling down to hard pan.
Labor is already weakening, and two we'll
organized strikes in New York have Just
surrendered on the employers terms.
= Farm labor is in the same fix While tile
farmer gets lower prices, he must paw
lower prices. Food, house rent, dry
goods, everything must go down with
labor. In our business we must all come
down to cash. The man who buys pair
of shoes to-day on credit for SIS and ats
three months to pay it will pay what will
be worth So. 1t is the interest of every
man who can pay what he owes OF is able
to pay cash for what he buys, to do So
Of course we are all not going to fall into
this way Of doing easily The man with
the house on his hands will want the rent
Of last year, and the merchant will want
his prices of last year, and the butcher will
want the same price for his meat; but that
is where the economy Of self-denial comes
in. We must live on less. We must take
a smaller house from the landlord, and
buy cheaper and coarser goods from the,
merchant, and eat less of the butchers
meat. You have heard that sort of talk
before, you say! Doubtless you have, and
and you will hear great deal more of it
in the next year. The trick Of the thing
is, that you who attend to it can prepare
for this shrinkage of values Men who
are holding. on to anything for rise.
whether it is the muscle in his arm OF tlt
goods on his counter. doesn't look beyond
his township in his calculations, and would
do well to let go his grip. He is holding
on at his peril. These are not rose-colored
views, it is true, but they are valuable be-
cause they are not rose-colored.
This is the first day Of the New Year.
Celebrate it by inaugurating economy and
thrift in your affairs, and when the first
day of the next year comes you can look
back at one spent in comfort, and be free
From f1aaf( Old Non 1,f tl.nS IA4,l,4