St. Paul daily globe., 1893-09-24
HARD TIMES OF YORE.
SETTLERS or THE EARLY DAY HAD
SOME SEVERE EXPERIENCES.
REACTION FROM LAND CRAZE.

How Bonds We're Floated and
Used as Basis for Currency
Bonding the State sor Rail
road Building-Bread Scarce
and Dear. and Profitable EN-
piOyment Not 10 Be Had.
Every fellow you meet on the street
will want to stop you and talk about the
times. One will damn Cleveland as an
old pirate for not having called an extra
session of congress before he did; an
other will swear at the banks for being
so Internally mean as to refuse dis
counts; now and then an old moss
back Republican will draw you near
him and whisper in your ear, - told
you so; it is all owing to the Democrats
being in power. If Harrison had been
reelected we would have had good
times, and the poor man roast beef and
81 day." Another will lay it all to
the Sherman act, Notwithstanding the
fact that but little while since Sher-
man was a light amoug Republican
mOgulS of as much candle power.
AS George Bulan agreed to furnish
the city under ais proposed gasoline
contract. Another will tell you that it
is all owing to the fact that the old city
hall gang has been cleaned out and
their places filled by lot of fellows
who have attempted the feat of con-
solidation of morals and business i'll
municipal government, and not acting
square with either. Another will give
you sly wink and charge it to Nc
Cardy and MiIler'S new system of book
keeping, and q withdrawal of a large
amount of money from general circula-
ton to create sinking fund. An
other will swear like trooper and say
that it is all owing to the people them
selves, for the reason that they have
not adopted the populist theory and
turned everybody loose in the coal, sill
yer and gold mines, in the railroad.
and telegraph offices of the country
with a right to take everything they
can carry. And so it goes.
WORSE TIMES IN THE PAST.
Yet it IS not mooted question that
times have been much worse. The
years '37 and 81 ('73 was marker that
some of our real estate men have not
forgotten were years much more MEM
orable for financial ruin and distress
among all classes of people. A few of
the former year are yet living to tell the
story of universal poverty. The second
period is still as familiar to the older
inhabitants as the Lords Prayer. This
was the first that the earlier settlers of
Minnesota knew anything about, and
the mere recollection of it makes men
who passed through it shudder to this
day
On the oath day of August. 1857, when
the Ohio Life and Trust company closed
its doors, st. Paul may be said to have
been a growing town-a fast town
every male inhabitant a quasi-million-
aire-and, as l. Fletcher Williams in his
history of st. Paul, says: THE stores
were almost overtaXed, so profitable was
their trade. The hotels and boarding
houses were crowded to Overflowing:
the principal streets fairly hummed
with the rush of busy life; building
never so brisk; an army of workmtn
and mechanics labored night and day to
keep up with the demand for dwellings
gagged in grading streets and laying gas
pipes, the air being continually shaken
with the concuSsion of blasting rock
Saloons, of course, thrOye as they always
do, be times flush or hard. That season
they coined money; so, also. did the
livery stables. The city was continually
full of tourists, spectators, sporting
men. and even worse characters"
A month or two later-neWS did not
travel as fast then as now-we had
neither railroads nor telegraphs-we
began to realize that the bottom had
dropped ont of the tub, and that nearly
all men were equal, that is to say, bank
rupt: and. as Williams further writes:
Business was paralyZed, real estate
actually yalueless and unstable at
any price, and but little good money in
circulation. Ruin stared all classes in
the face. The notes secured by mort
gage must be paid (by sale OF the
mortgaged property, but all values
were destroyed. No device could raise
any money, for no one had any to lend.
Everybody was struggling to save him
self. The banking houses closed their
doors. Nearly adj the mercantile firms
suspended or made assignments. All
works of improvement closed, and gem
eral gloom and deSpondency settled
down on the community. In few days
from the top wave of prosperity it was
plunge d into the slough of deSpond."
A GLOOMY PERIOD.
| And now the hard times commenced
! in earnest No description of this ter
rible and gloomy period will convey
| any idea of it. With many, even those
who had but shortly before imagined
! themselves wealthy, there was terri
! ble struggle between pride and want
| But few had saved anything, so gem
orally had the reckless spirit of the
| times infested all classes. The hum
| bier poor, of course, suffered, but
the keenest suffering was among
those vino experienced the fall from af-
! fluence to poverty. The papers were
! crowded for months with foreclosures
! of mortgages, executions and other re-
! suits of the crash. Not one in i've of
! the business houses weathered the
| the Storm, despite the most desperate
struggles. The population of the city
| fell almost fifty per cent. and stores
| would scarcely rent at any price.
| Day by day as winter grew on apace,
! times became more close. What cur
| rency was iii the territory at the begin
| ming of the panic had nearly all disap-
! peared by the ceasing of navigation. haV-
| ing been sent East anu South in pay
| ment of bills and to purchase winter
| supplies. What little coin some of the
more fortunate ones had was hid away
| in the stocking.
From time to time during the winter
| public meetings were held to de-
wise means of relief, as the
people had little else to do,
and 10 recommend to the legislature the
| passage of such laws as would furnish
some aid to the people. The common
council was advised TO issue city scrip,
to be used as currency, which it did in
| denominations ranging from FIVE cents
| to 81, and for while this was the only
money in circulation. While scrip was
being used as currency, and in fact
| afterwards, when wildcat money was
being placed in circulation, exchange
! on New York was hardly ever less than