The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-23

wears IN the Penitentiary, or fine OF S2ooo,
or beth ut the discretion Of the court!
1tpon this discovery the senior deacon 9
aeonscience'' was not near SO placid as 1t had
been. He forthwith concluded that he would
trv to raise the money You can bet that
the old gentleman will never have any trouble
about that bond. But had 1t not been Tor tha1
four-lne penal statute-whch seems 10 nave
been framed expressly to quicken the COLI
sciences Of senior deacons-he wouid nave
been compelled TO foot the bill; to refund that
orphans money which the senior deacon haa
so,,andered upon the extravagances OF Ills
daughters. :,
Now. then this is an incident; and set 1t
forth as fair, even sample OF the average lou
of Christianity which prevails at the North.
That expression of the senior deacon that
ssbis conscience was clear because the bonds
man was good" describes 1t exactly. In the
face Of that sort Of Christianity | take an o.
pecial delight In subscribing myself Pagan
SO much by way Of illustration OF
THE SOCIAL RoTTrNNEss or THE NORTH,
for we may readily assume that the grade OF
manly honor runs low In community where
1t requires the most rigid penal statutes TO
restrain senior deacons from embezzling the
pittances that tho government doles out 70
soldiers orphans.
OF course nobody will imagine that mean
to say all the people Of the North are on
plane with my typical senior deacon. what
do mean to convey Is that the class ne rep
resents has been dominant In this section Tor
many years: dominant to the extent OIL snap
Ing its political policies, fixing Its business
customs and debating its social tone. They
have made its politics synonym for illber-
atty, venalty and corruption; they have
brought its business TO bankruptcy; they
have turned Its religion into cant, hypocrisy
and the ehiefest OF hollow shams, and they
have made Its society hotbed Of fraud.
THE WORK or REGENERATION
has begun. The school of politics which
these dominant influences built up has pro-
duced such specimens as Colfax, Harlan,
Newman. Blaine, etc., and, like the tree o.
death In the Arabic fable, has died OF its own
fruit. The business system which they built
upon the sandy foundations OF deceit and pre-.
tense Ia erumbling in the wreck of o general
bankruptcy. which not even the largest crops
and the greatest export demand known fol
many years can avert The religion they
shouted and snuiIied has eliminated In
Beecherism, and their social structure has
been laid bare as their other handiwork,
which hid its deformities, has crumbled
There can be but one result. The spell Of
fraud and cant is broken, and henceforth as
| said, the work OF
POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND BUSINESS RECON
sTRUUr1oN
will go on at the North until the Influences
which have been dominant shall have van
ished, and the manhood, honesty and deceney
or the section shall reassert it's ascendaney
The bankruptcy Of which wrote and which
writing 40 agitated the gall Of my friends
the Texas editors is nothing but an incident
in the general change OF things up here
simply part OF the convalescenee OF the
tumefied. cancer-eaten and bloated patient
For my part have no sympathy for com
munitv which is thus wallowing in the throes
of a collie that is the natural penalty OF Its
own greed.
A moment ago 1 said that not even the
largest crop and the greatest export demand
known for years could avert
THE BANKRUPTCY or THE NORTH
That opens up department OF my theme
which is worth dwelling on briefly. You have
observed that the Northern journals make
great cutlery over Mr.. Cards estimates Oh
the unexampled foreign demand which VII
be made for our grain crops this fall This
we are told is TO prove panacea for all the
ills Of the North and bring good times again
Well. now, let us see what these people meat
when they speak Of
"aooD TIMES"
They mean such "tlmes" as they saw when
what with greenbacks and compoundinteres
notes and national bank notes and seven
thi,ttes of small denominations used as cur
rency. there was nearly 81, 5000 600 in circu
lation In the North alone when cheese woult
fetch twenty-five cents q pound, wheat ~
bushel and other things nproportion; wher
skilled labor commanded So and common
labor 80 day; because their currency was
worth only about forty cents on the dollal
recsoned on basis of real money. During
such period the North contracted debts o
all sorts, public and private, which | have
seen estimated as high as $4,000, 10000 ant
now these debts are falling due. Men who
were In debt at the begin ming of this periot
and awaited themselves of its flush tx
pay up, and did not contract any new
debts, are now rich. But they are in the
minority. The vast majority Of property
holders in this section bought their posses
sions at the high rates of the last twelve
years. paid part and mortgaged for the re
mainder. The pinch came upon them, ant
now they are being sold out, and their prop
erty generally fails TO satisfy the mortgages
given few years ago to secure moieties o
the purchase money. The trouble Is not sim
ply that business is slack or "the times
dull" The root of the difficulty Is that
THE RATE OF CAPITALIZATION rs TOO HIGH
and that is difficulty which can be overcome
with precisely the Same facility with which
water can be induced to run up hill.
But here Is this mountain of debt and mort
gage on the one hand, and there Is the unex
ampled demand for our produce on the other
The estimate is that Europe will take thi.
ab,.if, e ,hno fho,