Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-04
GREAT SETTLEMENT DAY.
\ Peculiar Observance In a Pennsylva-
MIA Town.

A Peculiar Observance In Pennsylva-
MIA Town.
[St Louis Globe Democrat
Nowhere in the United States can be
witnessed such a peculiar method of
transacting business as that which yearly
occurs in Chambersburg upon the LIST day
of April, which is the Great Settlement
Day, and has grown to be such remark
able and established institution. In Lam
caster county, Pa, there is some approach
to the practices here observed, but the i'm
itation is only partial, and more i'm
proved business methods are in vogue
there. The peculiar custom of crowding
the business transactions of the whole year
into one day, of transferring thousands of
acres OF some Of the most valuable farming
land in the country and making hundreds
of thousands of dollars change hands in
few hours Is a spectacle which amuses
those acquainted with the business meth
DDS observed elsewhere in the United
States, and has in it many quaint and in
teresting features.
1t is difficult to explain how the custom
came to be observed. As far back in the
history of the county as the Oldest inhabi-
tant can recollect it has been the practice
among the farmers here, particularly
among the Mennonites and Dunkards, two
religious sects which are very strong in
the county, to so arrange their affairs that
all their transactions in money and land
should be consummated on April LIST. All
agreements for the sale of land are SO
drawn as to make the title pass on that
day, no matter how far distant it may be
from the date of the agreement, and all pay
ments upon the land are arranged SO that
they will fall upon the LIST day of April of
the next or succeeding years. Leases of
farming lands to tenants upon shares are
drawn in the same way. This arranging
for the 1st of April for settlement day is
not only universal custom as to the land
transactions, but it is carried into money
lending and money borrowing in all its
phases. When money is loaned and a
judgment given in security the payments
are all arranged so as to fall upon April
LIST, and it is the same case where mort
cages are given, sale notes for cattle and
farming machinery bought, and the public
sales by farmers are dated in the same
way. Into the private transactions be-
tween one farmer and his neighbor across
the road or across the fields the custom
has also crept, until it now thoroughly
pervades almost every form of business
transaction the farmers ever have occasion
to enter into.
As result of this strange arrangement
the Great Settlement Day is the greatest
day of the year to the farmer, his wife and
his family. 1t is dreaded by the attorneys,
Courthouse officials and bankers, as well
as by those who have payments to make
and no money to meet them. Early on
the morning of the LIST the town begins to
assume an unwonted aspect of business ac-
tivity. From all points of the compass
the farmers teams arrive in quick success
sion and overcrowd the hotels with guests
Their wives and daughters, eager to
make their annual purchases Of sup
plies, quickly fill the stores and glad
while the fathers of the families make
their way to the banks, Courthouse and
lawyers offices and begin the active bust
ness of the day. The attorneys have the
deeds and title papers already prepared,
the banks have laid in heavy supply of
currency and the county officers have en-
gagged extra clerks for the great rush.
The first act of many Of the farmers is
to go to their banks and draw out
their deposits in cash. The average
farmer neither pays with checks nor &C
cepts checks. Uncle Sans greenbacks are
the only things for which they will hand
over their deeds or satisfy their judgments
and mortgages. They look with great sus-
picion upon a check and have decided
preference for greenbacks rather than for
the yellow-back gold certificates or the
silver certificates.
Many have disdained the use of banks
| and boarded up the money at their homes
An old leathern wallet, tied around with a
knotted shoe-string, will often disclose
thousands in large bank notes. In every
mock and corner parties of two and three
can be seen counting down their money,
improvising a table out of store box upon
| the sidewalk or any other convenient OBJ
ject. Many thousands of dollars are openly
displayed and carelessly handled, and it
would seem to be rich feast for pick
pockets, but somehow they have never in
vaded these preserves. Homespun and
plain jean clothing, broad-brim
hats, overcoats with capes many with
hooks and eyes instead Of buttons, give the
wearers of the costumes quaint appear
ance. The plain clothes give no sign of
the great wealth in lands, stocks, bonds
and cash which some of them possess.
One peculiar feature of the transactions
is the liquidation of many debts by single
payment. 1t often happens that a group
of six or eight farmers all have money
owing to or from one of the others. A
owes B $500, and B has arranged to pay
to the money he has received from
A, and so on. If the first debtor is
slow in paying, all parties are put back,
but when the exchanges once begin to
be made, they follow one another rap
idly. and it is not uncommon to see $4,000
or $4,000 of debts paid with few hun
dreds in money. The business of the
banks is enormous. The transactions of
the National Bank in these payments on
Monday alone footed up to nearly 81, O00,-
600. For years past efforts have been
made by the lawyers to divide up the bust
ness so as to extend it over several days,
but they have been unsuccessful, and every
year the crowds and the total of money
transactions grow larger. Strange to say,
with all the hurry and excitement, few
mistakes are made, and the farmers still
regard it as the best and easiest way of
transacting their money affairs for the