Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1878-11-06

were kept at worF at destroying Ev-
cry mnsket, every canteen that We
made, every mans time was wasted,
Men went from productive pursuits to
the work of destruction.
Then, IN twenty-five years wo spent
five thousand millions of dollars In
making railroads, How many indus
tries were ioslcred by this espendi-
turcl The iron maker tho coal min
CT, the blacksmith, the carpenter all
proiltcd by 1t, Imagine the immense
amount OF industry put 10 motion by
building these railroads, A wave Of
prosperity rushed over this country,
Huts became palaces, rags became
silks. There never was snch time
In the whole world--ncvcr. II was
the first time in the history Of the
world that the poor man tasted Of the
sweets OF life! But we got in debt
for all Of II! daughter II came
about that people got
SICK on rlIE FARM.
Every young man said "thcrcs a
fortune Tor me in tho city So he
said good bye TO the old man, kissed
his mother and started out to be lite
insurance agent, or a merchant
Uaughlcr')
How the life Insurance. agents did
swarm the country! They were will
ing to insure every one--for they got
part of the premium. They would IN
sure u man IN the last stages Of con
sumptiou--they got part of the pre-
MUM. And then the fire insurance
agents. They would insure your
house and everything you had. As
long as they got part of the premium,
they would insure iceburgs, it made
no difference. Gaughter.) And then
there were accident policies. You
went TO the ticket Office at the station
to buy car ticket and an accident
policy vas issued you at the same
time. Hung up on the walls you saw
large picture of four horses running
away with stage full Of people, and
another with collapsed train and u
man hobbling of on crutches. Uaugh
ter. And then all these companies
had officers at $4,000 a year, who
had the wonderful duties to perform
of drawing their salaries. They built
elegant palaces.
LoLIED IN LUXURY,
and everything was perfectly lovely
Uaughter) Men were building rail-
roads for the benefit of the public
Everybody was doing something for
the benefit of the public. He was
making patent medicine if he could
not do anything else. l honestly
believe that if you should make a
pilgrimage to Mt, Sinai and make the
ascent, if, after you had got most up
the summit you should be impressed
with its solemuity and grandeur and
falling on your knees you should
reverently raise your eyes to heaven,
the first thing you would see would be
as. r. 1860 X. Plantation Bitters. =
(Uproarious laughter.) Merchants
came to their customers instead OF
customers going to merchants. The
government became large purchaser.
The bankrupt law allowed a man, who
couldn't pay his debts, to put sched-
ule of his assets into court, and that
was the last seen OF them. They dis
appeared-the ma.shals and the sher-
ifs, the deputies and the attorneys
know where. The merchant who
bought goods and never intended to
pay for them could undersell the man
who bought for cash, and this brought
warfare among traders. So it went
In 1878 there came
CRASH.
The life insurance agent found that
the man in consumption had died.
Everything went down with one ex.
ception. Land under cultivation did
not fall. City house lots with stakes
at the corners and a nice map Of them
hung up in the office of course this
kind of land fell. 1t could not pro-
ducc anything.
We discounted the future three or
four hundred years. The horse that
was worth $5OO,OOo, because he could
trot fast, dropped to $500, and many
other things in the same proportion.
That horse resumed, that's all. He
could produce just $500, and that was
his real worth. Every cultivated acre
will now produce as much as ever,
and hence is worth as much.
How much the American people
have suffered in the last FIVE years l.