The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1875-02-13

curing u Fargo pToppltlnN W HNpH
promising lpdc, aud which extended
over such AN area " rich farming
land which had, ~ II were, Just heen
discovered anew by the opening OF the
great lines Of travel, the Missouri,
Kansas aud Iexas, the Central rail-
road CONNECTING with II NJ Denlson,
aud the Texas aud Pacific railroad,
communicating with the cheup freight
lines Of steamers from st. Louis, Gin
clnnaiI and Now Orleans
All these advantages were the more
readily seized by new merchants OPEN
Ing out, aud led 10 renewed oSerlIons
by those already established, 10 hold
the trude when the staple continued TO
come into our city from NIL directions,
unlii something near thirty thousand
bales worG received, and continued
good crop prospects was the cry from
all poills. -,
No such harvest had been ANTICIPATED
Tor years from the green fields Scat-
tered all over this great grannry OF
north 1oXus, aud cotton planting went
ahead NJ an Increased rate the late
arriving eniiglAnla we're being Induced
10 engage In IL, instead Of raising the
nccessarleS of life, for the next year
This stnte Of affairs, OF course, induced
the purchase Of largo stocks OF goods,
the building OF
BLOCKS on BRICK STORES,
for rent as well ~ occupancy by mer-
chants formerly occupying box houses,
which they could have bought with
Que days sales Of their merchandise.
or course the actual capital OF men In
these lines was used and debts lncreas-
ed 10 carry out their enlarged plans,
and the banks lent all their available
capital readily at two to three per cent
per month, to the rcal estate owners
who only proposed building to rent,
though merchants even borrowed nj
those rates IN build handsome stores
which they thought they needed to be
enabled 10 compete with their neigh
bors in attracting the attention and re-
sprct of the interior merchant aud
general buyer.
Something unusual happened. Some
of our friends among the Jewish mer-
chants even engaged in real estate
ventures outside Of their own needs.
They generally prefer not to make un-
certain Investments in this line, rs
their excellent knowledge of other
branches OF business generally
enables them 10 turn their
capital to II better account
In those branches. Everywhere your
pathway was blocked by the piles of
brick, beds of sand and lime, aud hosts
of workmcn hurryingto and fro laying
brick walls, and the noise OF the saw
and hammer was heard from daylight
to dark. Our Main street was built up
in business and dwellings for over u
mile, while dwellings appeared dotting
every section of the city for the space
of one and half miles square, many
OF which are models of comfort and
taste, and not few quite large and
elegant.
In midsummer we found ourselves
with good credit abroad, orders for
goods from the surrounding country
large, and bright prospects for the new
crop of cotton, and corn was counted as
safe, if not already made beyond a
doubt, when the long continued drouth
set in, during which the heat was SO
much more whitening than usual that
it soon stopped the maturing of the
corn, and made the crop rather short
one, though much of il was too nearly
made to be destroyed altogether,
and the cotton just boiling was
ruined, and the young forms, and even
young bolls, shed, and soon 1t was
known that the crop was to he quite u
failure. Most of
THE READY MONEY
for the years purchases, which had to
an unusual extent been made on cred
it, rs we'll as that of farm and home inn
provements, was to come out of the
proceeds of the crop of cotton, aud
were now looked upon rs snatched out
of the grasp the farmer had thought sJ
secure. This, of course, caused the
country merchants to begin to look
about them, and to see if they could
set their houses in order, rs they had
of course incurred debts themselves
for part OF the purchase of the goods
they had sold on credit to the farmers,
and this again reacted on those of our
city merchants who, TO control trade,
had sold and bought on credit them
selves. or course, sales on credit AZ
once very materially lessened, and
this In time to prevent much greater
extravaganza, which would most prob
ably have been INDUCED in by both
merchants and farmers, but for this
warning.
1t is much to the credit OF the BUSH
ness community that under these draw
backs which caused very great falling
off in sales and more e;ially cash
sales which had all along held up COM
parativeH, and that too when they had
purchased largely on the prospect of
good crops, and had quite large stocks
on hand that none of our large mer-