Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-08-30
Whitening WINNIPEG.

WNSrHEe. August 7.-Whatever CT.
aRReratlon there has been in the vsrv-
ing and conflicting crop REPORTS "a.
ceived by the Pioneer Press. there Ger
tainiy has been no exayre,ation In ref.
erence to the salamitous bursting OF ,hs
winnipeg bubble. Auction sales, sheriff
sales, forced sales, sales of bankrnn.s'
stocks, ssies of retirement from bnsi-
ness, are the order of the a.y-and
night. Nightly there are at least hs II
dozen auction sales progressing. while
everywhere can be seen the FAC of dis
tress announcing clearances below cost.
and an ms pectiou of the goods. such as
clothing. boots aud shoes. isyeIry.
hosiery and fancy goods, and a references
TO the prices to which they are marked
down will show that these latter are no
sham, but that the unlucky dealer wants
money and is bound 70 yet it
still more unlucky eastern hou,e
which supplied the stock. Boots.
ordinarily sold at s.. are marked down
to -, and even 81 IS. Shoes Ieo;ti-
mately worth IS sell for 81 and 81 90.
Suits of clothing worth S3O are inviting
~ offered At 81, and so forth. A GEN
tleman told me last Friday that he had
come on here a month ago, REPRESENTING
Montreal house which had had too
much faith in the :" Manitoba boom, y
to try and get in some of their
outstanding accounts and be had
that day, he said, sold the book
debts of one of his customers. amount
ing to ga, 500, for the sum OF $500
and be thought himself lucky in getting
that. He sold the stock on hand at 90
cents on the dollar. Even the hotels
cannot hold their own, and last week
the Potter House, one of the largest.
went under the hammer, and its excel.
lent furniture and effects found its way
into private houses. These auctions. of
course, affect the general business. and
the business man who had no hand in
bringing about this state of things is a
great sufferer thereby.
Now the question naturally arises.
what IS the cause of all this depression
which seems to have seized upon all
branches of trade and bids fair to end
in a panic? the answer lies in a nut
shell. The Winnepeggers got i. into
their thick craniums that a big city
makes big country, and they kept
pe9gina away at that idea until they
made even the cooler heads Of Eastern
canada take IN the idea, although they
we're formerly of opinion that big and
rich surrounding gives birth to big and
rlcn cities; but tbs eastern converts
nave at last recante6 penitence and
returned to their former creed. During
the Doom craze the prices given for
town lots was something beyond all
possible comprehension. A lot was
shown me yesterday on Main street with
about 70 feet frontage; upon it was
story and half shanty saloon which
was assured was sold for $4,000
There are lots now three and
four miles ont, and which probably
may in the course Of a century or two
be required for buildings, which are
held at cool $1,000 each It weuld be
far wiser If the holders of these lots
would pillow them up and raise vege-
tables. Ut which the city is in great
need, for / never was in city, town or
hamlet in any part of the wide, wide
world, where vegetables seem to be 30
scarce. Even to-day. at lunch, in be-
iieve, the best hotel in all Winnipeg,
asked the waitress at my table il she
had no vegetables, when she replied she
believed there we're some potatoes, and
she brought me some "apples of the
EARTH" Of very Indifferent quality.
suffering indeed from drepsy. And
these were the only vegetables upon an
otherwise we'll furnished table. Winni-
peg is large city with splendidly wide
streets, and with some very handsome
business blocks, the builders of which.
however. have made them their for
tunes cenotaphs. These blocks with
the fabulous prices paid fer the sites
and the great cost of erecting,
have cost SO much that there can
not be Tor years to come, sufficient bus
mess transacted in them to pay the in
terest upon the money. All branches
OF business are vastly overdone. There
are, indeed, ten business houses where.
perhaps, one could have made q good
living, and even those which were doing
good business have been carrying i'm
mense stocks-stocks quite out of pro-
portion, and wholly out of character to
their trade. This holds good in all
branches except the liquor trade, which
has been and still is enormous. Now
this OVERRIDING business in Winnipeg is
not on account Of overestimatiug the re-
sources Of Manitoba and the northwest
these can hardly be overestimatsd.
The soil ia undoubtedly fertile, and
there is hardly bounds to its Limits; but
there must be time for the country to
NIL up. The only difficulty is that the
WinnipeRRers have commenced at the
wrong end, and now that they have a
large city they must wait till the crops
grow to feed them, but in the meanti me
some must go under.