Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-09-01
wednesday Evenlng Sept. /, 1850
The Business Situation.

The Business Situation.
The local and general business
prospect is suspicious, and a retro
spect Of that transacted during the
past twelve months affords much
cause for congratulation. Over this
city one year ago a Oppressive pail hung
dark and low. Nearly two-thirds Of
our inhabitants were then scattered
abroad, driven by pestilence to find a
temporary home among strangers. A
relentless quarantine, with its Gordon
of pickets, closed from the outer
world the 10000 who remained within
our corporate limits. Business was
s~tagaant, and gloom, with the yellow
sickness, held %undisputed sway until
late in the month Of October. With
the first frosts, on the 23rd and Oath
of that month, a change for the better
came. Our absent people returned
home with rushing rapidity, and with
in few days the burden of oppression,
of many months duration, was sue
ceeded by a return Of commercial and
financial prosperity, which had set in
during the early fall, throughout our
broad country. The history of com-
merce and finance presents no exam
pie Of SO rapid a recovery. A crop Of
cotton, the largest on record, and
amounting to nearly $4,000 bales,
worth $340, 0OO, 900, was in course Of
being harvested for market, and our
dealers entered the lists to handle
their quota of nearly one-fourteenth
ofthe entire production. As will be
seen by statements elsewhere, the
share marketed here has realized up
wards of $23, 100000, which has been
distributed among those OF the vicin-
age who grew it; and the price it
realized is upwards of III cents per
pound, over and above that received
for the cotton crop of 1889. The
transition with us from a state of.
helpless inactivity and prostration to
that Of sharp and vigorous buoyancy,
has no parallel. In less than a week
after the appearance of the first frost
Our deserted highways, many Of which
had grown up in weeds and
coekleburs, were crowded with
with cotton bales, merchandise
and general produce, and before the
holidays nearly one hundred and So
600 bales Of cotton were piled
within and around our warehouses
awaiting q turn on Overcrowded trans
portation lines to be forwarded to
eastern or foreign spinners. The
three preceding cotton crops had been
large, and realizing fair returns, did
much in aid Of the general business
revival. The crop of 1879 ex-
decided 10000 900 bales and sold for
1921, OOO,0 Of which nearly $17 ,OOO,-
900 was distributed by Memphis mer-
chants for the portion handled here;
while the crop of 1S77-78 sold for
$4,000, 600. In addition, the wheat
crop ofthe northwest for the two pre-
ceding years was valued at upwards of
$8O0,0O0,0 900, and the two corn crops
at over 81, 200, 0OO, 900. The entire ag-
ricultural productions of 1879, for the
United States, we're valued at over
$l,9OO,0OO 600, and those Of the year
previous at nearly | 800, COX, 900. A
ready market, at remunerative prices,
abroad for all surplus per-
pared the way towards the general
recuperation. which set in last fall all
over the country. 1t was a timely
recovery from the long six years seige
of low prices, financial and industrial
depression succeeding the great cri-
sis Of 1873. A gradual return to con-
fdence in mercantile circles followed
the resumption Of specie payments in
this country at the commencement of
last year, and when the fall trade
opened with our prolific harvests, and
the active demand abroad for all we
could spare, there was no longer any
reason for apathy or idleness. And
il is a notable event Of the times that
the tribe of tramps which had so long
overrun all parts Of tbs country quick
ly disappeared. Within the past
twelve months, every man, able and
wiling, to work has had no excuse for
being idle, and it is pleasant to say
that but few have been. The demand
for farm laborers in the cotton fields
Of our river valleys hasl been so great
throughout the past season that from
81 to $3.50 per day has been
readily paid for pillow and
hoe hands. The same demand
continues, and there will likely
be no cessation during the ensuing
fall and winter months, as the heavy
cotton crop Of the south will fully test
lhn labor onnacitY Of tho country 10