Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-07-17
THE PASIAN LETTERS.

are hard. To-Day L Sd" Il "ci-AAo"n u
druggist standing in the shade at the corner
of King and Royal streets, wiping the pers-
piration from his brow, holding thick
packacc of bills in his hand and looking
demure and disappointed. | halted and
asked him the cause of his apparent dis
comfture. He shook the bills at me and
said, "Do you see these?" ! saw. swell,
| have been calling all the morning, and
haven't collected q single cent" I said, 81
am sorry for the people, but he assured me
that his grief was more personal.
This indicates hard times; and so the cry
is heard, Hard times, hard times" But,
Mr.. Editor, did you ever see the day, week,
month or year when times were soft? that
is, when money was plenty and when peo-
pie loved TO pay their debts? / never did.
People are always ready to buy, but how
few, comparatively, are ready to pay. In
disposition to settle accounts makes the
times seem hard when bills come in. The
fact is, this is not an amiable week in our
CITY. Last Monday was the last day of
grace with taxpayers. That IS to say,
Monday was the last day OF limitation
within which the ten per cent. discount was
allowed. 1t was wonderful to see how many
put the matter off till the closing hours of
The last day. Pax had to wait some time.
Many were ahead of him, and he was in adj
vance of many. My friend Colonel George
Rock-whose form stands up and stands
out so boldly and grandly in the picture |
sent you representing Hon. John S. Bar
bour and his dy-guard-called me
ed me across the hall into the Auditors Of
flee and lectured me for being an eleventh.
hour man. Friend Brockett, the Auditor,
joined him, saying that in my preaching |
urged men not TO put off important mat
tiers. ! replied that the cases were not par
allel. In the tax obligation | was not quite
sure that l was debtor; and if so, the
creditor had notified me that settlement
any day or hour before the first day of July
would secure me the discount and discharge
the obligation. But in the great debt that
man owes his Creator, in the greater mat
| ter of the souls salvation, there is no limi-
tation, no time set to which men can look
and point and say, "If l make my peace
with God within that period | am safe"
Every moments delay is an awful and dan
gerous uncertainty. With man and his
God it is nor, nou, and procrastination is q
risk as great as the souls value is vast.
But am sermonizing. To return, | must
say that some Of the visitors at the tax
gatherer's Office looked troubled and
unamiable-just like they look on such oc
casions in Suffolk, and everywhere else.
But there was one cheerful countenance.
1t was Levi's-as he sat at the receipt Of
custom and gathered it in. Luke V. IS.
But let me return to my druggist. 1t
was tax week, and bad week to be out
with bills. He did not have one against
me, and Just at that moment il was fortu-
nate for both Pax and his friend.
Speaking Of druggists reminds ne Of the
fact that, somehow, people are more tardy
in adjusting their obligations to druggists
| than 10 any other class Of business men.
The impression prevails that the druggists
charge is all profit that his prices are fancy
prices, charged for some mysterious un-
known and unknowable hierogyphc zig
zags on slips of paper; that he takes advan-
tage OF the painful necessities of people and
adds to and piles high when names Of Gus
toners go on the ledger.
| heard few days ago that the most
high charging illustration of Greek meeting
Greek in the fight for prices known in com
mercal circles was when 4 fancy druggist
undertook to offset an itemized account of
plumber aud gas filter.
A few lays ago happened across an old history
of Eirginia-a publication of lS4O-and here IS
what is recorded of Suffolk in 1884:
Suffolk contains about hundred houses, and
carries on Il pretty brisk trade, having consd-
cradle share Of the commerce Of the northern
counties of North Carolina. Suffolk stands on 4
soil so very sandy that in every step in the street
the sand comes above your ankles, which renders
| it extremely disagrccablc To remedy this incon-
| venience in somc small degree near their doors
| they have cmptied ban els of tar or pitch, which
spreads wide-the sand incorporating with it and
| forming hard, solid consistcncc-some kind OF
apology for pavement, and thereby renders walk
ing much more tolerable. The houses in Suffolk
are low, being generally not more than one story
high, which is indeed, the ground story only.
The trade OF this place consist chiefly of turpen-
| tine tar pitch. tobacco and pork which IS killed,
sated and barrclcd up here; also lumber Indian
| corn and some wheat"
| The foregoing is description by one Smith, an
| English traveller, who passed through Suffolk III
17Sl-forty-two years after the town was cstab
! ishcd. Then follows long and graphic account
| of the burning of Suffolk in 1T19 from the pen
| of Girardin.- alexandria Cor. Suffolk Herald.