Wichita eagle., 1889-01-15
old TIMER" ON A NEW COURT.

Inc last election return done US up.
Our sun hath set.
Hope in Democratic breasts fell.
|, AS we heard the earger yell,
Ihat sounded to US knel
mat our dreams were over "a SPELL"
mat for a time we wouldn't smell
The flesh pots" Harkl the chestnut bell
The principal object of courts is tc
punish criminals, and redress civil
wrongs, and compell men to perform
their voluntary obligations when they
won't do it. The reason given for not
; wanting court is the reason why there
should be one, viz: Men can't or won't
pay debts.
"Old-Timer." however, does not treat
the question fairly. Creditors are not
all thieves, any more than debtors are
all honest.
There is two sides to this, in fact four.
The honest creditor who loaned money
and neither bought or sold property; the
worthy debtor who is to be pitied; the
''rapacious cuss" who speculated, who
bought and sold, and who is ''ahead of
the game" and the debtor who is ras-
cally dishonest, unworthy, worthless,
shiftless
There is some fairness in the demand
for new court
The Sedgwick county district court
has never been up since 1880. 1t has
been crOwding ever since. Lawyers
want courts. Granted. Debtors always OPP
pose courts. Individually, regret the
need of this court, but | feel that we as
a city must do something to move real
estate or get in shape TO move it. l re-
member when property now quoted at
a million dollars sold at sheriff s de-
llnquent tax sale," for less than the sher-
ifs and clerks costs. And unless we
''get move on u.s. it will come again.
| If any one believes that the financial
judgment day which follows speculation
can be averted by simple delay, by post
ponlng the day of retribution, he is well
come to the opinion.
Compensation as thread runs through
everything.
Drunkenness has day of remorse,
aches and pains.
Dissipation and excuses of every kind
are punished. | have faith in the doc
trine that much as we hope; for good, we
are to be sorely punished.
Experience, history, philosophy, as
well as theology, teach us that that
which we sow shall we also reap.
! We sowed wind, the whirlwind is COM
ing.
Much as hope, ambition, pride,
faith, self-reliance bid us think
we are secure, that time will bring pros
perity out of gloom. I can not but think
that we are sinking, that we are tempo
rarily buoyed up, that hope is the cause
of brightness.
1t is the temporary brightness of the
consumption eye ere dissolution COM
menceS.
We are to taste the waters of financial
DEATH The drunken fit" that pervaded
| the west, that made conservative men
wild, that caused railroads to spend
millions in non-paying lines, that bullded
palaces for homes, temples for business,
that turned churches into broker offices,
ministers into land agents, that increased
banks, capital and lessed dividends
that brought industries, manufactures,
good and bad, worthless and chimercial
from the east, that scorned advice.
cursed the timid, insulted the doubter
and brow-beat the weak, that forced
street cars on to the prairies-water-
works to the hill, plow works to the
country, colleges in every direction, that
laid foundations whose nakedness mute
ly appeal to be hid from sight, all pro-
claim that we deserve punishment.
The feast is over. We have attended
a huge financial banquet. We have had
the champagne bright and sparkling We
have gone to bed to dream, and we have
awakened. Oh, what pains, nausea, and
blindness!
We have vowed in our remorse,
THAT
Well meier again touch the bowl
That brightens the eye, lifting The soul
To clouds of inspirating bliss
The lees of the glass, bitter as gall,
Turn our st0machs inside out
Meier again we'll go to trout"
We had glorious financial drunk.
highway and alley of business drank to
excess.
We shall have the remorse and "bust-
head" that comes after.
Ny opinion is formed not from
logic but from what l think
is the bitter The very sad
experience of other places that have had
an EZRA of unexampled prosperity which
sion and which have contained the for
tunes, ruined hopes, blasted prospects of
people as wise as those who inhabit Kan
sas.
Shall we escape?
Court or no court. Postponement of
settlement or none. Time will prove
that, that the end is not yet, that we are
yet all over Kansas to go lower. lower, |
nd nv Ic moi ho1
again be on the ascending scale until men |
who are not in debt, men who are not |
cramped can fix the price of property. |
The mortgagean by his anxieties, his |
crippled condition, his desires to turn. to |
be free and independent, is today an in
voluntary bear in our market, and |
rules the prices paid and fixes the values
OF all property.
The bull of speculation is the ''bear"
when the fever is gone. The bear is
and yet men believe that the
way out Of the woods" is to postpone
debt paying until his horns grow so that
he can enter the ring as bull
The involuntary bear must die; he will
die. He is the Phoenix of finance and
his hope of resurrection is in his ashes.
Zen in his ashes live his wonted
fires"
If the quality of owing more than is
due you, if having thousands Of dollars
in real estate unsalea5le, if.having mort
cages due which you cannot pay and
are forced TO renew-if having the
knowledge that for every dollar you owe
somebody owes you fifty cents which
you cannot get for years-if all these
make a creditor and deprive one OF any
voice in community, then / beg leave to
be cnnnfnl as a ssl,radIfnr y