The Portland daily press., 1883-12-04
Business in Boston.

Business in Boston.
Dull NHarkets--Large Expenses--Fair
Prospeets-What she Bankers, Merchants,
Hotels and Traders Report i'm Reston--
The Foreign charlottesville Postmast.
ership-T he Shaw Case.
Special Correspondence of the Press.l
BosTox, Dec. 8, 1883.
Last week was very dull in Boston, as far as
business is concerned, and the immediate
cause of the ull is assigned to the fact that the
wsek was interrupted By two holidays-Thanks.
giving, which is national, and Evacuation
Day, which affected Boston very materially,
although the celebration occurred in New
York. An interruption of business in New
York always means an impeachment to the
trade in Boston, the retail business excepted.
The present week will witness the begin
ming Of the retail holiday trade, on which the
entire business community rests very large ex-
pectstions. How far these expectations will be
realized, remains to be seen. This is certain,
that Boston will have blue time of it in jan
uary, unless the holiday trade saves the situa-
ton.
In order to get at the real situation, have
made it my business to inquire personally of
our hotel keepers how their business is. Hard
~ anybody travels at this time of the year for
pleasure, and the Boston hotels live, Just now
on the business people and the persons who
travel for affairs and trade. The result of
these inquiries is not very encouraging. Not
one house reports larger trade tLan it did a
year ago. The houses which have large pat
ronaRe from Maine and New Hampshire, do
not report any decline, but were unwilling to
confess to real improvement over last years
trade. A very popular house tells me that it
advanced its price for rooms some time ago
aud is now better able to handle its patrons
. Els this case Is exceptional. The other hotels
find that their customers look into bills and
charges rather more carefully than people do
when times are flush.
Several hotels would be willing to reduce
their tariff of charges in order to attract GUS
tom, but ara unable to cut down their OK zen.
ses. Wages have not gone down, supplies are
relatively high, and one hotel man assures me
that his raw table supplies per guest COST him
close upon two dollars a day, to which must be
added service, rent, wear and tear, and other
expenses. But he thinks that on the whole,
the tendency of hotsl prices il downward es-
peclally for regular bosrders. The December
business in hotels is expected to be good, be-
canse the holiday trade keeps one class of COM
mercial travellers and most shopkeepers on tho
try do not help the Boston hotels very much,
as relatively fewer BUYERS stop at the hotels
than might be expected. 1t is the traders,
then, who support the hotels in Boston, xcept
OF course, the family hotels, strictly social ed.
The commercial travellers report business far,
moderate or dull, and they are very good
authority. Those who have made large eales
have done 80 on slender profits, and their en-
ployers, the jobbers, complain that expenses
continue high, while profits are low, and sales
about the same as last year. A favorite word
just now is overprodaction. Theorists and
professional economists dislike the word; but
the fact is, that consumers are somewhat slow
or than are the producers, and that, as a nat
ural consequence, prices are not satisfactory to
the producers and the great merchants People
who buy for cash can now make wonderfully
good trades in Boston; but the buyer must be
sbarp,iutelligent and decisive. In this way some
splendid residences have of late been sold here
below cost, and the price of real property in
the business part of the city tends downward
rather than upward. Good buyers, in fact,
should call this q lucky season.
A large and experienced dealer in dry goods
reports business quiet, and is disposed to think
that January will be a hard month with the
retailers and wholesalers in Boston. The
banks do a moderate business, and do not earn
very much The most active bankers still
WORRY over the country checks which are cred
tied as cash when deposited, but are not col
lected until days or whole week afterward.
This controversy is fully fifty years old, and as
bankers, who never agree. But new plan will
be tried TO put the cost of collecting ont-of town
checks, New York funds excepted, upon the
depostor. This would indirectly touch the
out-of-town banks, but as q rule they do better
than do our Boston banks, and for the present
Maine funds will be as good here as Boston
funds are. But Portland check is treated as
cash iu Boston, while the real cash comes sew
eral days later.
The great merchants and international bank
n md do
look to very marked change for the better or
the worse. But il change is to occur, they
think that 1t will be for the better; and for
this they give some substantial reasons The
manufacturers are less cheerful, and seem to
think that wages rather high. But labor
is well employed, aud no interruption in the
manufacture of cotton goods, boots and shoes,
paper and machinery is expected. The inter-
ruption in the Western iron and steel works,
however, is thought bad symptom. Against
this is put the unanimous opinion that the
country has greater power of consumption
than ever before, and that consumers are
rather short of Supplies. If this view is as
correct as 1t is unanimous, the outlook must
be pronounced fair, although everybody will
do well to act as if we were to have a dull,
hard Winter after Christmas.
OF business news in the close sense of the
term the following items may be given: The
foreign exhibition has been moderate sue
cess. It has pleasantly disappointed its pro-
jectore, who have risked much, and its critics,
among whom are some of the solid people,
who think that nothing in Boston is solid
unless they sanclify it. Some people now wish
to move the whole exhibition bodily to Chi
cago. Boston is to have a new postm aster,
unless good Mr.. Tobey is reappointed, Mr..
Tobey, who is most excellent gentleman, has
been fair postmaster. Bat his administra-
ton has not been brilliant, and there is reason
to believe that some things are going on in the
Office Of which honest Mr.. Tobey /" not aware.
The candidates for the office have begun to
move, and if Collector Worthington's case be
q good precedent, Mr.. Boutwell, is likely to be
consulted by the PRECEDENT.
The Shaw case bids fair to be duplicate OF
the miserable Sprague case. A younger MEM
Der OF the Shaw family, who is not mentioned
in the assignment papers, turns out to be
member OF the firm. The creditors still hes-
tate between accepting the assignment, and
throwing the estate into insolvency. Ii the
assignment stands, as most likely it will, Mr..
Wymsn is to have a non-MassachUsetts CO.
assignee, who could be appointed by the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts. In that
case the attachments low pending in Name
must be bought off, CT will be tested in the
Maine courts. Insolvency proceedings in
Massachusetts, are very simple, 10 Malue they
require, think, the consent OF one-fourth of
the creditors in number ard amount. The
bulk OF the property Is IN Maine, but that is
less advantageous to the Maine creditors than
IL is Instantaneous to the Massachusetts
creditors. As the case stands, the creditors
would probably do best, if they accepted
settlement on the basis of fifty per cent or
more. The Shaws, who handle their case cum
niugly, have once offered one-third, but the
offer was rejected. Il is extremely doubtful
IL the creditors and debtors in this case Will
ever cooperate. Unless they do, the creditors
will lose. as the Sprague case shows. Mean
while, the Massachusetts creditors are in a
plight much worse than are the Maine
creators. The Shaws are very severely
criticized by the business men OF Boston,
But criticism and enormous fees paid to
lawyers will not settle the great case, and it is
safe to advise all persons interested in the
matter, the Shaws included, to study the
unhappy Sprague case. That case teaches how
preferable friendly settlement is to litigation
and mixed proceedings. G. W. e.