The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-07-15

had luck. Some of our best and most en-
terprising business firms have gone to the
wall during the past two years OF depres-
sion. There is feeling Of general despon'
dency among our people that cannot be
concealed There may be real causes for it
and there may be none. No city in the Mis-
sissippi valley has such natural advantages.
No city in the northwest has better railroad
facilities. No city in Iowa has more solid
capitalists. What then is the mat
teri
And Pekin, one of the oldest
and wealthiest towns Of Central
Illinois, feels the prevailing paralysis. The
Times, Of that city, notes the dormant con-
dition Of affairs, and asks; "Why is this
thus3 Is there no energy, enterprise or
public spirit left in our peopleS Can moth
ing be done1 Shall nothing be done to ar
rest the downward progress of Pckin9 Man
after man, ola class that no town can spare
has lett us. Many others are about to leave.
Our property is unsa!eable our merchants
stand in their doors and wait for customers
that so rarely come. Our streets present
the appearance Of perpetual Sabbath,
their stiffness is so seldom broken by any
move that betokens industry and business,
What is the matter! That there is
wealth here is shown by the promptness
with which over one hundred thousand dol
lars were invested at premium in seven
per cent bonds by our citizens, but short
time ago. But few places in the state have
as good railroad facilities, as cheap fuel, or
can offer as many inducements to manufac-
turers our taxes are less than in Peoria, or
nearly any city Of our population" Who's
to blamel What's the natter
Two words embody the answer: Repub.i-
can legislation.
We have reason for hoping, now that
the government engineer has declared that
| Captain Eads has secured a depth Of thirty
feet water through the jetties and twenty
| six feet over the bar at the head Of the Jet
ties-all that Eads agreed to do--that the
Cincinnati Commercial and Memphis Ava
lanche will not further insist that the Jet
ties are failure" II .nattered nothing to
these sheets that Capt. Eads had fulfilled
all the conditions of his contract in ad-
vance Of the promised time-ln their esti-
nation he was simply engineering a great
failure and stupendouS swindIe upon the
government. 1t matterei nothing that the
government had acknowledged his fulfil
ment of the contract and paid him money
as he applied for it-he was a fraud, and
his jetties a lob" and a swindle.' But
now that the government, through the
mouth Of its own specifically delegated
agent declares that the promised
thirty feet have been secured and that the
iettles are finished We have occasion to be-
lieve that, for very shame, if not for other
reasons, the Commercial and Avalanche
will call off their hostile dogs While the
people are rejoicing, amidst the roar of can
non and sound of music over one Of the
greatest achievements Of the century, we
can certainly hope that the old cry Of fail.
ure" will not be heard. Until they discover
a new bar six miles below Vicksburg, oil
a shoaling OF the channel above Port
Hudson, to charge to the account of the
ietties, we can reasonably expect that the
Avalanche and Commercial will both OBJ
serve q discomfitted hush
| |, a., ,..; l.n,, Nt 4t,a I,.i Ia