Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-12-28
BAD BALANCES.
They Are the Rule and Not the Exception Among
the Merchants OF lothian.

the Merchants OF Gotham.
Special Correspondence.
New YORK, Dec. 26, 1SS2.-Prepara
tons for the holiday trade were neye
made on q lore extensive scale thai
this year, and for two weeks or more tn
retail stores have been one grand gilt
tering display. The shop windows witt
their gorgeous embellishments have at
tracted an unusual mount of attention
because such a spirit of rivalry has beer
engendered among merchants for win
dow display that regular tableaux ar,
given, costly dressings and accessorie
provided, and fabulous sums OF none,
spent-an to draw custom from til,
passcrs by. Yet the result has not beer
all that was expected. New York pa
pas have been slow this wear in unloos
ing their purse-strings. II n were t.
judge from the crowded stores on Gil
avenue, 23d and 18th streets, and The
throngs on the sidewalks, and the
blocked condition of the wholesale
streets down town, he would have IL
declare that business could not well be
better, but the truth is tho balance
sheets of
HI YEARS BUSINESS
have been footed up and found, among
nearly all classes of business men, to
present an unsatisfactory showing.
The markets for three or four months
have been, to use the street ex-
preston, decidedly ''off.n During
the months of September, October,
and November the losses in trade it is
stated more than wipe out the gains OF
the business ''boom,'' with which the
year was inaugurated. As a broker il
European products said to me: - left
here in August for a little holiday
abroad with the balance-sheet presuma-
bly, footing up $4,000 on the credit
side. | intended to stay abroad a year.
Right in the midst of my enjoyments l
got a c%ablegram to hurry home, but not
dreaming that was urgently wanted |
took my time. | got here last week,
and find that the $40, 900 was transferred
to the debit side" A partner in one If
the oldest shipping and commission
houses here told mt yesterday that his
firm would lose $50, 200 on this YEAR
business, and the losses were principally
sustained within the past three months.
In the tobacco trade business it is sim
ply ~frightful. One of our largest man.
ufactories failed last Saturday, and
more failures are expected in the to-
bacco line. The dizziness is not confined
to any one line; it is universal. All
lower
NEW YORK Is GRUMBLING
and complaining, and there are not a
few who prophesy a panic. The cause
of all this depression in the New York
business world seems beyond intelligent
comprehension. One merchant saws it
is due to overproduction; another TO
Congressional tinkering with the inter-
nal revenue and the tariff; another. a
tight money market; and lastly that
farmers won't sell their crops and thus
put money afloat. All these things
combined may serve to bring the re-
suit which is apparent. Certain it is,
whatever the cause, the effect is I'M
doubtedly here.
But everything with us has not gone
to the ~"demnition bow-wows." There
are still plenty of people here who will
spend money without stint for holiday
purposes-many of them people whose
incomes are not regulated by the state of
trade. We have, perhaps, a greater
proportion of rich men than any other
city in the country. And, how rapidly
we are driving more and more each year
into the rich and poor, the rich growing
richer and the poor poorer, none but an
acute observer and a lover of his kind
car readily detect. If our rich men
were educated more there might be
some hope for the future. But mostly
they are not. Theft only faculties are
sharpened in the line of money-getting
solely.
THEIR ONE VIRTUE
is that of money-getting. The grand
fathers and the fathers, who. by wit and
tact, and brute force, and outrage, and
industry, and perseverance in the line
of their several callings, made, heaped
and accumulated the fortunes, are gone.
Their successors with neither the wit
nor the forceful industry of their fore
fathers, seek pleasure, recreation and
delight in spheres of action to which
their fathers were strangers and to
which it would be well if the entire
world were equally strange.
One of those neatly contrived swindles
by which the better feelings of human
nature are played upon by the vicious
was perpetrated on the ferTy-boat Ari-
IONA, of the Williamsburg line, the
other night. During the trip a scantily-
clothed girl entered the ladies' cabin
and told n pitiful story of a dead father
and a sick mother. The feelings of the
passengers were touched, and when a
handsomely dressed lady arose and
placed a silver dollar in the hand of the
girl, at the same time making allusion
to the fact that most of those present
were going to pleasant homes, there was
a shower of silver coins bestowed on the
poor child. When the collection had
been made the lady placed the money
in her snowy handkerchief and gave it
to the girl. When the boat reached
Williamsburg both the oma and the
girl left the boat and went in different
directions, only to meet a few minutes
later, when the child handed the money
to the woman, who remarked: 1--WE
will 60 home now; we have done quite
well to-day" Both returned to New
York. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
William Winter speaks thus about
Modjeska's Rosalind in the New York
Tribune; The personality is lacking in
bold color and richness. A subdued