, 1884-12-31
HARD TIMES.
The Chronic Condition of the East
Unknown in Cheyenne.
The Holiday Trade Larger Than
That of Last Year.
Reasons Why Cheyenne is the Most
Prosperous of Western Cities.

There has been some talk. about hard
times in Cheyenne during the past six
months. A representative of The
LEADER yesterday interviewed a number
of business men and mercantile firms for
the purpose of ~ascertaining the condition
Of trade and the state of the money
market, as eyinced by the sales of holiday
goods, and the following reports were OBJ
tanned:
Those firms dealing almost exclusively,
or extensively in holiday goods, were first
visited. Both George L. Holt and w.
NJ. Mast, gave substantially the same re-
port. 'Trade has surprised us this year.
Our sales have exceeded those of last year.
Very expensive articles were purchased
literally, and the sales of less costly goods
were large. Our actual cash receipts did
not vary greatly from those of last year,
but our sales to people who have running
accounts were considerably larger than
those Of 1888"
Mr.. Rhodes, of the firm of Rhodes &
Troxell, said: I'VE are satisfied. Our
sales of fancy articles and holiday goods
were much larger than we expected they
would be. In fact we have nearly dis
posed of the bulk of our fancy goods.
Trade has been very good, larger than last
year"
At the Warren Mercantile company
the report was: '9Trade was splendid.
During midwinter our sales of standard
household goods may not be as large as in
the Spring and Summer, but we were as
tonisheda al the extent of our holiday sales.
Purchases we're made literally, and ex-
pensive goods, as well as other wares,
were sold without any remarks about hard
times by the purchasers"
Craig, Davis & Co. said: Moving into
our new store may have made some DIFF
ference but our holiday sales were much
larger this year than last year. We were
so rushed for several days that we could
hardly transact all of the business. Cash
and credit sales were both larger than
they were a year ago."
David Miller reported his cash sales
somewhat larger than those of 1883 and
his other sales also exceeded those of last
year, He was pleased with the holiday
business as it had exceeded his expecta-
tons.
Zehner, Jackson & Buechner gave a
similar report to that made by Mr.. Miller
and stated that their sales of very ex-
pensive goods had been much larger than
they expected.
At H. B. Kelly's dry goods store the
rush had been phenomenal and the sales
enormous, and at Cowhick & Whitcomb's
a similar report was made.
p. H. Waterman and Truckey & Van
Dyke were more than pleased and nearly
every business house in the city gave the
same report
Smith & Harrington, B. II. Hellman,
Henry Harrington, i. Bon, jenkins Il
Ross, A. Polack, v. Baker, A. Adamsky,
Marks 4 Myers, Kellner Bros, and other
firms whose trade would naturally be af-
fected during the holidays, gave one and
all the same report: Large sales, ex-
ceeding our previous calculations and sur
passing those of last year"
To sum up the reports, it appears that
all salried people have more money than
they did one year ago, but the business
men are not quite as easy as they were in
1883. This is explained by the increase
in the stocks carried, the building of ex-
pensive business blocks, the closeness of
the eastern money market and the usual
conservatism in eastern trade incident to a
presidential campaign. Taken altogether,
however, the retail trade is better in
Cheyenne than it was a year ago. The
assessment rolls show an increase in prop
erty amounting to a little less than two
million dollars. Taxes are far lighter in
Cheyenne than in Denver, Omaha or any
Western city. City and country warrants
are almost at par and although extensive
and expensive Improvements have been
made during the past year, the bonded
debt is small in proportion to the valua-
ton of property and the extent of trade.
There can be no doubt that Cheyenne
is one of the most prosperous and sub
stantially progressive cities in the Union
and a realization of the fact will result in
even greater business bouyancy and will
also silence any chronic grumbler who
may dare to growl of hard times"