The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1875-01-14
From the New York Safeguard.
The Tide In Turnfpp-

Aoh sAfS WV 1Ofk oaLcgu8ru.
The Tide Is Turning.
From all over the country evidences
are coming In to us that the people
are awakening from their wild dreams
OF extravagance. We hail these signs
of the times with delight. We see in
them sunlight through the clouds, and
like the returning profigate, our Wis
: aon grows clearer as we travel fur
ther away from the sickening scenes
of our folly i-.I
During the past ten years our peo-
pie have been infected. The malaria
OF paper money got abroad in the land
-crept into every mans vest pocket,
and from thence, like a subtle poison
IN the blood, diffuseG itself through
the body polite, and attacked the ma
tionai brain. We were crazed with a
sort of money to6ia. 1t seemed in
curable. z,f.-.,. - zl..IIa g
National, state and city rulers lost
balance, and dreamed that "fraud" had
changed its nature, no longer ending
in perdition, as OF old. The ancient
landmarks were turned topsy-turvv.
All pleas for honesty were termed
sentiment Truth was kicked out of
doors, being too soft for the times.
To deceive became fashionable. and
was termed smartness. Regulations
OF a-quarter of century were bar
tered away for a hupdred thousand of
first mortgage bonds. And Americans
who twenty years ago scarcely knew
the meaning of the word bond, have
now become so familiar with every
form oflegal indebtedness that boot
black in the street would feel insulted
were his ability doubted to define the
term dobpon.O Ls}|sIAIf
We have national debit" estate
debt, 'county debts" "town debts" +"
"bonnty debts, ".'improveinent debts'
'spark bonde, ,''wa.er- bonds,D .sink-
ing funds" consolidated bonds, ;" .-raiI-
road mortgages, and what not. Piled
upon these, one above the other, till
our heads grow dizzy with the con-
temptation, are first, and second, and
third mortgages on houses aud lots all
ever the land. We have literally COW
cred ourselves with debt, mortgaging
the solid accumulations of our hard
working forefsthers that we might
riot with the proceeds. Is this not
true, reader?
Look about you for the proofs. A
S0Oid or silver watch in every sody's
pocket, snowy iewelry about the neck,
in the ears, or on the fingers of every
girl in the land silk dresses, laces and
embroidery, bronzed shoes or Jockey
hata and feathers, familiar in every
workingman's home pianos are COM
mon as mahogany tables once were !;
houses frescoed at a cost which would
have bought the same mans domicile
before the war marble mautles with
gilded CRATES and tenders costing more
than all the furniture of a comforta bic
home fifteen years ago.
These are but single items to show
the thoughtful mind what we have
been doing with the proceeds of all
these mortgage debts. But the great
ocean of money our people have su-
perfuousiy eaten and drank, and
squandered away on things which
have dissolved like dew, can hardly
be computed. And yet we wonder
that there Is a breathless pausing now
"A stand-still in the business world.
We look into one anothers, faces
gloomily-d5ad 1t is ,ceU!
Old heads see in these signs q hon
py turning of the tide. You will find
no gloom on the settled faces of ex-
penence at signs such as these. They
brighten rather. The gloom was upon
such faces when the flood was at full.
IFear = not the signs of the times.
reader. Let retrenchment come! The
quicker the better. 1t means safety.
confidence. low rents, payment of
debts sfrugality, temperance, peace and
content. There is real prosperity i'm
it.
The other -thing-that which we
have been doing-is folly in its Wild
est form. 1t means intemperance.
pTodigality, wantonness, discomfort,
distrust and early dissoIution. There
can never be anything but ruin in it
national and individual.
nmHIn QnIT UNCLE Bzs.