The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-12-30
a Scv.Ycar's Sermon, on DisSracefni
EassErcE. 80 81

we are asked to, asay something. about
rho ncrfectIy seandaloIis business failures
that are every week reported rs having
faken place in various parts OF the country.
we should be very glad not only to say
for the benefit Of our indignant reader,
whose feelings seem to have been deeply
stirred upon this subject, the something"
which he has asked, but a good deal more II
we had much hope OF doing any really good
work in the premises. for he is only one OF
a very large class who are disturbed oy the
perusal OF these weekly stories OF the most
tdiscreditable and demora'izing bankrupt
cies.
d Failures are sometimes inevitable. and
are not infrequently OF a character 70 Iea ,
nc, stain. ,and infiict no disgrace upon the
harassefl and unfortunate merchant whose
business schemes have, through. no auit OF
his own, all nniscarried, and finally left him
hut a stranded wreck upon the shores OF
trade. For such disappointed, dishearten-
ed. and downsallen men We naye nothing
but the profoundcst sympathy. Toward
them every man OF the slightest feeling
would extend helping hand, and upon
them we would hope to be the last to heap
one word OF reproach, or one sentence OF
censure or condemnation.
Bi1t for the miserably dishonest, tricky
operator OF the period, who ends career OF
fraud and outrageous personal eXtrafa-
gance-a personal extravaganza participated
in and advertised by every member OF MS
household-by an evidently long-lntended,
bedged for and planned for'ten cents on
dollar or sno assets" failure, we can, OF
course. have no other feeling than the pro
foundest contempt: and we take II that
every respectable man shares our scntl-
\ -, Ia nIlr
put them upon public record. There Is
not day that passes that does not bring 10
notice some outrage upon decency, fully
and most strikinsly emphasizing the senti-
mcnts we care uttering. But there are
phases of this matter which are, perhaps,
not fully understood by ail.
Many are accustomed to look lightly aud
carelcssiy upon these notwithstanding
fraudulent failures because they sec no ac-
tual personal distress and want and suffer-
ing growing cut Of them. John Jones falis
and pays three cents npon the dollar, ana
vet John Jones's family retains the fashion,
able and expensive pew in the broWnstone
church. rides TO it with the pair OF grays
that they drove last year, and the wife and
daughters swing their long skirts up the
broad aisle rs proudly and gracefully as ii
they had been paid for instead OF having
been cheated out OF contiding dry-goods
retailers:
Thomas Smith fails, and though long
wears ago he started as journeyman me-
chanic, living in back street, his wife TAX
ing in vests to make. he now, after ending
as gigantic bankrupt, compromises with
his creditors for twenty-five cents on the
dollar, retains his swell-front house mt the
West End, keeps his eXtravagant sons al col
lege, and is in all respects as far as possible
from any idea Of starting where he began,
though so much worse of in all points
when viewed from any honest standpoint
than when earning wages as day-laborer.
But there is suffering somewhere. There
is an under-dog in this fight. There is,
somewhere at the end of the long row Of
tumbling bricks, last brick which touches
carth-which falls to the ground.
We were called not long uso to visit 4
family which was actually in freezing and
starving condition. The man of the house
was locksmith and bell-hanger, who had
had no work for q long time; yet he show
ed us o package of bills for work done in
the past for failed builders which il paid,
he said, would have carried him over the
dull season. With those bills in our hands
we had no hard task TO trace back the SUI
ferings of the furnishing children to their
source. This family was starving because
far back q gigantic swindling real-estate
operator had made Il stupendous failure OF
the character we have been describing and
denouncng, and with direct results to him
self and family such as we have painted.
Far away in the numbering regions OF
Maine settlement OF choppers is staring
grim want in the face at the opening OF what
promises to be q hard winter. They are in
suffering because they have not been paid
Tor their last winters work. The trouble
is ut the head OF their line. They have not
been paid because Shingles d Co., the great
lumber firm Of on interior city. made that
most disastrous and disgraceful failure last
sprlug. all remember their case. II was
the talk OF the town for tWcnty-four hours,
and some good, honest souls thought
something ought to be done about If.
Shingles Il Co., after borrowing"
all the money they could OF the savings
and national banks, and sweeping
in ali the lumber from whole districts in
the State Of Name, which lumber they ship
ped to all quarters Of the globe, and sold
for cash at less than cost ut home, suddenly
collapsed. And so we might go on, ii time
and space allowed, with endless illustra-
tons. We speak whereof we know.
Last month an honest, Woodworking New
Hampshire farmer hanged himself in his
barn. Cause, financial troubles. He could
not raise money enough to pay his taxes
and the interest upon the mortgage upon
his farm, because the middleman who had
bought his farm produce had not paid him;
and the middleman had not paid because
the great city commisSion-house to whom
the produce ad been consigned had made
one Of these wretched failures Of the Pc
Rod. b s3@a5.s
Last week u young and delicate girl, after
seeing the pleasant home Of her childhood
ruthlessly broken up, turned her steps to
the city and sought to avoid actual beggary
by the tolls OF the city shop, for which she
was but poorly; fitted. A gigantic real
estate Spectator Of the period whose SELL
ing out under foreclosures occupied whole
column OF the paper little while since, had
swindled the poor girl out OF her home and
ruined score Of other persons.
But "what arc you going to do about it ?"
Is a question easier asked than answered.
At any rate, we have acted upon the sug-
gestion Of our correspondent, and "said
something about it," and we hope, at
another time, to say something more about
it. There is not only something wrong
somewhere, buta good many things wrong
in many directions.
We have only time, in closing, TO allude
to a few Of the existing muddles. When
great mercantile houses make most disas-
trous and disgraceiul failures-iailureS
which reveal the fact that they have been
worse than nothing through long years Of
good credit, and 1t turns out that all the
partners OF the bankrupt concern have,
& during the years OF their good credit,
hedged against the future by paying for