Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-22
In VERY GOOD SHAPE.
Local Financial BarOmeters Show a
Bright Business Sky ALI Over.
SHERIFF SALES UNUSUALLY FEW.
Executions on Only 81 in $4,000 Of the
County Valuation.
PRICES Low AND SPECULATION QUIET

Manufacturing and commercial eommu-
mites are prone 10 overtrade themselves
fiom time TO time, the intervals being regu-
lated according to specific circumstances.
The fever IL followed by the collapse or
rather prostration, known ~ panic. Some
people have been sounding the tocsin for
some time, and advising the application Of
ice water 10 the patients temples, but H.
would appear from the records Of financial
distress 10 this country that the trade pulse
10 still normal. However, the alarmiSts
doubtless have their proper place In crea-
tion and their alarms from time 10 time are
Ealutary.
An examination of the SherifFs sale list
for the June term shows that financial dis
asters are at present but one-eighth of what
they have been at times in the last % years.
1t IS true the list fills five columns of a news
paper but il is not set with the space
economizing features that marked il during
panic times, and might in this respect be
compressed at least 80 per cent. Another thing
to be considered is the fact that the June
and December lists are always by far the
largest, and il is June that is under review.
OF the list of 80 abstracts Of property Of
fered, SO are advertised to be sold on tax
liens tax-paying having been neglected
from various causes; some on account Of
carelessness. cussedness or TO settle disputes.
OF 20 Others some are on account of luna
tics or to make title, and some on delayed
executions, etc., so that but 20 represent
actual distress.
NOT MUCH FINANCIAL DISTRESS.
These 20 are mortgage cases, and these
foot up but about $4,000, and one on
tract of coal land in Elizabeth township
makes more than half the amount In most
Df these there is large salvage, so that the
actual business distress represented is quite
small when compared with the aggregate
wealth OF the county-a mere fraction.
Since the war there have been three
panics. In Sheriff Fleming's term the ad
vertising array was very large, some say
larger than during the administration Of
Sheriff Fife, who had the principal task of
cleaning up the wreckage of the panic of
1873. A part of its effect was felt during
Sheriff Hare's administration, but the main
depression was felt between 1875 and 1879.
Sheriff Fleming administered the Office
in the latter part of the sixties, when
war prices were tgmbling. Wheat shriv-
eled 33 per cent in price, prints and muslins
about IS per cent, and most commodities
in proportion, and many merchants were
unable to get rid of goods in time to escape
the crash, while others were so much in
toxicated BY their large gains that they re-
fused to believe cyclone prophets in the
business world The tumble began
in Sheriff Oluley's time and the
passage of the national bankrupt law ac-
CELEBRATED it. 1t may astonish some people
to know that the business of the sheriff's
Office is less now than it was it 1857, but
n 111o l. L.
testify to that effect.
LITIGATION HAS NOT INCREASED.
There has been no increase In new suits
entered in the courts. During the June term
last year theEt were entered in Common
Pleas No. 7b6 suits; for the June term
this wear theIe are to date 5S1, and the
total number il expected to be near that of
last year. AT the April term of Common
Pleas last year ISL suits were entered, and
this year to dste for the same term 802; but
Mr.. McQuilt9 states that the year will not
average abovd that of several previous ones
Whitney 81 Stephenson say that prices of
stocks, as well as of other commodities, are
comparatively low, though they are not
enamored OF oifWestern mortgages and think
there is mok likely to be danger from this
source than from any other. Mr.. Stephen
son is "iorfinst" the placing of Western
mortgages. II He wants the Western farmers
to 60 fuNA East for money, as he says we
have neeGc all we have got.
Colonel William A. Heron says that
while SOM people are more inclined to
speculate hhin they should be, yet he con-
siders tht duntry quite sound, financially,
IL being abH no stand moro imitation than In
the past, the circulating medium being
larger than formerly. Colonel Heron says he
has seem n sufficient number OF panics 10 feel
himself capable Of judging quite correctly,
and hr regards the conditionsas very disSimi.
lar 10 those that prevailed In 1873 There IL
considerable Indebtedness, but greatly en-
larged ability 20 sustain 10.
so DANGER or FAMINE.
Some spectators nre endeAyoring 10
frirhten people over the crop prospects, but
while most people are somewhat depressed
on account OF the excessive moisture Of the
last 20 months they comfort themselves with
the reflection that crops will stand 20
months excessive moisture better than the
same lehgth Of drouth, and In some 7,000,-
600 sqtare miles there are likely to be some
pretty extensive patches where conditions
will be favorable, SO that after all there is
not likely 10 be danger Of famine.