Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1878-11-20


sands of millions of dollars, not to
create, not to construct, but to des-
troy. All this money was spent in
the work of demolition, and every
shot and every shell and every mus
ket and every cannon was used to
| destroy. Ali the time of every SOL
der was lost. An amount of prop
erty uncomfortable was destroyed,
and some of the best and bravest
we're sacrificed. During these years
the productive power of the North
was strained to the utmost; every
wheel was in motion; there was en-
ployment for every kind aud des-
cription of labor, and for every me-
chanic. There was a constantly
rising MISREPRESENTATION was rife.
and it seemed almost impossible to
lose. As consequence, the men
who had been toiling upon the farm
became tired. 1t was too slow q
way to get rich. They heard of
their neighbor, or their brother who
had gone to the city aud had sud-
denly become . millionaire. They
became tired with the slow methods
of agriculture. The young men of
intelligence, of vim, of nerve became
disguised with the farms. On every
hand fortunes were being made. A
wave of wealth swept over the United
States; huts became houses; houses
became palaces with carpeted floors
and pictured walls; tatters became
garments; rags became robes; and
for the first time in the history Of the
world, the poor tasted the luxu-,es
of wealth. We wondered how our
fathers could have endured their
poor and barren lives.
Every business was pressed TO the
snow line. Old life insurance asso-
Citations had been successful; new
ones sprung up on every hand. The
agents filled every town. These
agents were given Q portion of tho
premium. You could hardly 60 out
of your house without being told of
the uncertainty of life and the GER
tainty of death. You were shown
pictures of life-insurance agents
emptying vast bags of gold at the
feet Of discoDsolate widow. You
saw in Imagination your own father
less children wiping away the tears
of grief and smiling with joy. These
agents insured anybody and every
thing. They would have insured a
hospital or consumption in its last
hemorrhage.
Fire insurance was managed in
precisely the same way. The agents
received part of the premium, and
they insured anything and every
thing. no matter what its danger
might be. They would have insured
powder in perdition, or icebergs un-
der the torrid zone with the same
alacrity. And then there were Ac-
cident Companies, and you could
not go to the station to buy your
ticket without being shown a pic
ture of disaster.
The merchants, too, were not sat
isfied to do business on the old way.
1t was too slow: they could not wait
for customers. They filled the coun-
try with drummers, and these drum
mers convinced all the country mer-
chants that they needed about twice
rs many goods as they could posi-
bly, sell, and they took their notes on
sixty and ninety days, and renewed
them whenever desired, provided
the parties renewing the notes would
take more goods. And these coun-
try merchants pressed the goods
upon their customers in the same
manner. Everybody was selling,
everybody was buying, and nearly
all was done upon credit. No one
believed the day Of settlement ever
would or ever could come.
i THE CRASH.
| Suddenly there came crash.
Jay Cooke failed, and I have heard
thousands of men account for the
subsequent hard times from the fact
that Cooke did fail. As we'll might you
account for the smallpox by saying
that the first pustule was the cause
of the disease. The failure of Cooke
4 Co. was simply a symptom OF
disease universal. ~
i No language can describe the
agonies that have been endured since
1873. No language can tell the
sufferings of the men that have wan
dered over the dreary and desolate
desert of bankruptcy. Thousands
and thousands supposed that they
had enough, enough for their de-
clining years, enough for wife and
children, and suddenly found them
selves paupers and Migrants. During
these years the bankruptcy law
was in force, and whoever failed
to keep his promise had simply to
take the benefit of this law. As a
consequence, there could be no real
solid foundation for business. Prop.
erty commenced to decline; that il
to say, it commenced to resume
! that is to say, it began to be rated al
, its real instead of its speculative
value, Lots worth from five to tel,