The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-04-10


shudder to think of the want and the
woe it has entailed upon the honest,
worthy unfortunates, doomed to pub
lie robbery.
This year, SO far, things are getting
worse. The Sheriff of Lucas county,
during the first two months of 1879
January and February-has published
eighty Sheriff's sales, and the Master
Commissioners half as many more. In
many cases each sale includes several
properties. In one Sheriff's sale there
are
EIGHTY-sEvEN DISTINCT PROPERTIES,
more than one-half being homes of the
labering poor. It is also safe to say,
without exaggeration, that not less
than three hundred properties and
homes Of unfortunate debtors have
been offered under the hammer in the
city of Toledo. since the LIST of January
1879.
This is in addition TO that enormous
list of delinquent land offered to be
sold for taxes. We haye almost $685.
600 of unpaid taxes, and unless we get
relief soon by a change of financial
policy the city of Toledo will become
bankrupt in less than FIVE years, and
like Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Mem.
phis Tennessee, will pass into the hand,
Of q receiver.
Since January l, 1879, we have had
the most disastrous failure of manu-
featuring establishment (Osborne,
Swayne & co.,, ever known in this
city, and nearly every factory and
Workshop, and lathe and loom in To-
ledo to-day is
RUNNING AT LOSS.
Take the country at large for the
first two months of 1879 and we find
more business failures in the aggregate
than during the same time in 1875, and
more than any entire year from 1864
to 1873. And there is not q laboring
man in any city Of the United States
with q family, who can make enough
by daily toll to clothe his wife and
children decent enough to sit in q pew
at church. Never before in the history
of this country has the condition Of
the laboring man been as abject and
deplorable as now.
During the entire year of 1865, whes
we had plenty of money, there were
but $50 failures reported throughout
the entire United States, with an ag-
gregate liability of but S17,625 600. In
the first two months Of 1879 the fall
ures have aggregated
MORE THAN TWENTY MILLIONS.
From 1865 to 1872 any man who
wanted work could get it at fair wages
and-a tramp was an unknown factor
in our political economy, and our
ideas of Shylocks were obtained sole
ly from the works of William Shak-
speare. Business was then done on a
cash basis, and newspapers could live
on legitimate business, and did not de-
pend, as now, upon the SherifFs sales
and the delinquent tax-lists to exc out
q miserable and dilapitated existence.
The rich mans children and the poor
mans children could not be singled
out as now in the public schools by
their clothing, and labor was honora-
bly, and well rewarded. The man of
toll could sit around his own hearth
stone, under his own roof, without
fear of either Shylocks or the Sheriff.
THE FATE OF TWO CITIES.
Take the record of Sheriff's sales in
Toledo and Lucas county for the past
two months. What is the result2 Has
property brought any better price
since sham resumption2 I say no.
Have there been any sales at all, ex-
cept to the plaintiffs in execution?
say no, with hardly an exception. Go
to the court house any Saturday MORN
ing aud verify the facts for yourself.
What IS the business of the County
Recorder now? Principally record
ing the mortgages on the property of
new unfortunates, who will ere long
join that "innumerable caravan" of
the b homeless, who have been robbed
before by the same process.
Let US not confine ourselves to To-
ledo. I will take another city. The
city of Philadelphia, the staid old
Quaker city where the Declaration of
Independence was first proclaimed to
man, the city wherein Liberty was
first rung ont to the world, and
where the old Continental Congress
first convened. One of the Oldest,
wealthiest, and most conservative
cities in the United States. What do
we see there2
On the 9th of January, 1879, six days
after the resumption ghost was clothed
IN it's winding sheet, Sheriffs Sale
was advertised of.
ONE THOUSAND HOMES
of citizens of that city.
I quote from An editorial in the
Philadelphia Record, hard money pa
per, of January 2. 1879:
QUOTATION.
"Sheriff Wright, on January 9th,
will begin the largest sale of real es-
tate ever held by any Sheriff in the
city. There are 699 writs, covering
about one thousand properties. The
sale on the first day will begin at four
O'Clock, and will extend from $40 Oh
the list to 692. The present sales, then,
are 1877 writs, covering properties to be
sold for taxes due the city"
The Hon. VIM. d. Kelley of Penn
sylvania, in speech he delivered in
the House of Representatives, Febru-
ary 14th last, in commenting upon this
enormous SherifT's sale, said: "The
LARGEST sale nl nleYiOus to this was in