The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-28
DOMESTIC ExrRAvAGANcE.
The Real Cause of Most Of the Recent Finan-
ciaI Embarrassments.

Inc Real Cause OF Most OF the Recent = man
ciaI endorsements.
Jayhawker, in Cincinnati Enquirer.
Any careful observer will trace most of the
troubles in this city to domestic extravaganza.
No city in America can show 80 many we'll
dressed people in proportion to population nor
so many horses carriages and fine buggies. The
good old Dutch maxim that ut is better to be a
poor man with plenty than a rich man with
nothing does not seem to have been observed
either in official or personal expenditures. FIX
travagant public expenditures have nearly kept
pace with those of a personal character.
Millions have been poured into public buildings;
kind have been built and are still building,
although the legal rate of taxation for such pur
poses has been exceeded by methods which are
thoaght to be an evasion of the legal inhibition.
A few conservative people have raised their
voices in protest against the public extravaganza
but they have no right to object to the private
follies which have undermined the financial
foundation of so many people. In two years
four banks have gone in this city, and when
their affairs were closed or shall be closed, they
will show net shrinkage of So, 900 600, and when
the individual failures are added to the banks,
the total swells the net loss to more than five
mllllons-a sum In excess of the entire bank
ing capital of the city. Yet men in business on
borrowed capital live at rate which in few
years not only absorbs their entire profits, but
with it the borrowed money on which they made
their start Wives seem to be in competition
with eaen 0Gn6r IN the matter OF expensive ulS-
play, regardless of the ruin which they are
bringing upon their husbands and the whole
community. Nearly one-half of the business
firms of the city have been sufferers from en-
bezzements of book-keepers and cashiers; yet a
majority of that class are to-day the best
livers in the town Their fast horses
and splendid buggies crowd the
streets evenings and Sundays, and
though they whisk by the doors of their en-
ployers in the clouds of dust which circle from
their wheels no one thinks to call a halt
In few days the list of debtors to Fletcher &
Sharpe viii be filed in court: and when made
public will astonish the community. Men who
have been supposed to be in comfortable cir
cumstances and in active business will be found
to more than their entire business is worth.
Improved real estate is selling, or being of
fered for sale, in indianapolis to-day cheaper
than in any city in the Union. Houses and lots
are selling for less than the original cost of
the improvements without regard to the
cost of the ground. And yet the volume of
business remains the same The elevators,
stock-ya and pork houses draw here the pro-
duce of the rich agricultural region which must
always make this their center of exchange. The
railroads pour out their contributions each
month, spending here large part Of the money
gathered at other points, and if each citizen
should reduce his expenditures below his in
come, the population would in few years be
the richest in the West Those who are saving
are growing rich, and, of course are profiting
out of the extrayagances of their foolish neigh
bors. Perhaps there will be a halt soon.