Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1878-11-28
OF Eastern Montana Of
BOHEMIAN, MONTANA THURSDAY, NOVEMBER %, 1878.

highways of iron. During the same time
we had war in which we expended thous
ands of millions of dollars, not to create
not to construct, but to destroy. All this
morey was spent in the demolition, anu
every shot, and every shell, and every
musket, and every cannon was used sim.
ply to destroy. All the time Of every sol
dier was simply lost. An amount of prop
erty ineorceivable was destroyed, and
some oftl'e best and bravest were sacri.
feed. During these years the productive
power of the North was strained to the
utmost; every wheel was in motion; there
was employment for every kind and de
scription Of labor. for every mechanic there
was a constantly-rising market, specula-
; ton was rife, it seemed almost impossible
to lose. AS consequence, the men who
had been toiling upon the farms became
tired, it was too slow way to get rich.
They heard OF their neighbor. of their
brother who had gone to the city and had
suddenly become millionaire. They be-
came tired with the slow methods of agri-
culture. The young men of intelligence,
OF vim of nerve became disGusted with the
farms. On every hand fortunes were be-
ing made, a wave Of wealth swept over
the United States. hutS became houses,
houses became palaces, tatters became
garments, and rags became robes; walls
were covered with pictures. floors with
carpets, and for the first time in the his
tory OF the world the poor tasted of the
luxuries of wealth. We began to wonder
how our fathers endured life. Every kind
of business was pressed to the sky line.
Old lite-insurance associations had been
successful, new ones sprung up on every
hand. The agents filled every town. These
agents were given portion of the premi-
um. You could hardly go out of your
house without being told of the uncertain
ty OF life and the certainty of death. You
were shown pictures of life-insurance
agents emptyng vast bags of gold at tie
feet of disconsolate widow. You saw
your own fatherless children in imagina-
tion wiping away the tears of grief, and
smiling with joy. These agents insured
everybody and everything. They would
have insured a hospital or consumption in
its last helnorrhage. Fire-insurance was
managed in precisely the same way. The
agents received a part OF TIE premium, and
they insured anything and everything, no
matter what its danger might be. They
would have insured powder in perdi:ion
or icebergs under the torrid zone with the
same alacrity. And then there were acci-
dent companies. and you could not go to
the station to buy your ;icket without be-
Ing .aa-sss,tpI .--1-os.
would see there four horses running away
being thrown out; you would see steam
or blown up on the Mississippi, legs one
way and arms the other. heads one way
and hats the other; locomotives going
through bridges, good samaritans carry
ing off the wounded on stretchcrs. The
merchants, too, were not satisfied to do
business in the old way. 1t WAS too slow;
they could not wait for customers. They
filled the country with drummers and
these drummers convinced all the country
merchants that they needed about twice as
many goods as they could possibly sell,
and they took their notes on sixty or nine
ty days, and renewed them whenever de-
sired, provided the parties renewing tie
notes would take more goods. And these
country merchants pressed the goods up
on their customers in the same manner.
Everybody was selling, everybody was
buying, and nearly all was done upon a
credit. No one believed the day of settle
ment ever would or ever COULD come.
Towns must continue to grow, and, in the
imagination of spectators, there were
hundreds OF cities numbering their millions
of inhabitants. Land, miles and miles
from the city, was laid out in blocks, and
squares, and parks,-land that will not be
occupied for residences probably for hun
dreds of years to cOme,-and these lots
were sold, not by the acre, not by the
square mile, but by so much per foot.
They were sold on credit, with a partial
payment down and the balance secured by
a mortgage. These values, Of course. ex-
listed simply in the imagination, and a deed
of trust upon cloud or mortgage upon
a last years fog would have been just as
valuable. Everybody advertised, and those
who were not selling goods and real estate
were in the medicine line, and every rock |
beneath our flag was covered with advice
to the unfortunate; and have often
thought that, If some sincere Christian had
made pilgrimage to Sinai, and had climb |
ed its venerable crags, and in a moment of
devotion dropped on his knees and raised
his eyes toward Heaven, the first thing
that would have met his astOnished gaze /
would in all probability have been '.St.
1860 X Plantation Bitters."
THE CRASH.
Suddenly there came crash. Jay Cooke
account for the subsequent hard times
from the fact that Mr.. Cooke did fail. AS
well might you account for the smallpox
by saying that the first pustule was the
cause of the disease. The failure of Jay
Coeke & Co. was simply symptom of tile
disease universal. No language can de-
scribe the agonies that have been endured
'ince 1873. No language can tell the suf-
erings of the men that have wandered over
he dreary and tlesolate desert of bank
.uptcy. Thousands and thousands sup
,osed that they had enough, enough Tor
heir declining years. enough for wife and
and suddenly found themselves
,aupers and vagrants. During all these
years the Bankruptcy law was in force
nd whoever failed TO keep his promises
lad simply to take the benefit of this law.
Is consequence there could be no real, ,
old foundation for business. Property ,
to decline. that is to say it be-
an to be rated at its real instead of its sll- .
erficial value. Land is worth what it will ,
roduce and no more. 1t may have spec
lative value, and, if the prophesy is full 6
lied, the man who buys it NAV become =