Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1877-04-20
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II Is fact, not appreciated as u do
serves 10 be, that the pressure Of the hard
times has borne more heavily upon the rich
than the poor. Above all others, the once
wealthy owners Of city real estate have been
the chief burden bearers. The losses, sac
ridces aud suferings Of this class Of property
owners have been simply terrible. To them
the continued depression and shrinkage 10
values have brought misery in degree all
The more ruinous because Il has been for them
a long drawn out agony, whose only end
could be complete collapse. 10 the circle Of
every ones acquaintance arc instances Of ut.
ter inpoverishment, where reported wealth
has wilted to nothing, as at the touch Of an
evil magician's wand. Families, formerly
moving 10 high society and leading spirits
in fashionable life, wo heretofore have never
known want unsupplied or 4 wish ungrati-
fed, are now paupers and, in the most literal
sense, without visible means Of support.
As is we'll known, real estate values have
since 1873 undergone q gradual shriukage,
month by month, which has reduced this
class Of property TO an average Of about fifty
per cent. of the prices ruling three years
ago. Sales have been slow, difficult, and at
times almost impossible. Rents have come
down by the run, until the income from real
estate is often found to leave very small
margins over taxes, insurance and cost of re-
pairs. Mortgaged premises and lots have
passed into the hands Of mortgages, at the
face Of the mortgages or less, leaving the
owners, after enduring untold sacrifice in
the effort 10 save their property, nothing
whatever 10 show for what once had been
magnificent estates.
Even where owners have thus far able
TO hold on to their property, as against mort
cages and tax assessments, or happen to own
il free from incumbranoe, the income proves,
in most cases, insufficient as u dependence
for support. Aud 10 short, real estate, from
being the one substantial and secure invest
meut il once was considered. has got TO be
good deal like certain other possessions Of
which the more one has the worst of one is.
Ii is true that the worst examples of loss
and misery have occurred among holders of
and spectators 10 unimproved uptown lots
But, 10 save these venturers from foreclosure
and sale, the owners have had to cucumber
other property aud render themselves poor,
losing everything in = vain endeavor TO ward
of the impending crisis. 1t has been fight
against inevitable fate, and fete, as usual,
has come of conqueror.
In view of the facts, and we know that
those are the facts. there would seem TO be
abundant room for sympathy to be exercised
towards class Of citizens whose troubles
have not been considered. And when we
think, too, Of what our once wealthy PEG.
pie have suffered from the shrinkage in stock
values in addition to their real estate losses,
it is plain enough chat, even if the poor have
endured much, tho rich have been called upon
to endure more. With q past of prosperity
and disqualification to think upon, and a
future Of poverty staring them 10 the face,
a fair proportion of our avenue nabobs are
to-day 10 a position which makes them sad
spectacles of fortunes ickleness, and truly
sOrrowful illustrations Of the mutability Of
terrestrial things Nero York Mail.