Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-12-27
BUSINESS WAS GOOD.
THAT IS TIE TESTIMONY OF LEADING WHEEL
ING RETAILERS
A Few Testimonials Showing What The Christmas
Shopping Amounted to-In Soma Instances
Trade was Better Than Usual.

The calamity howlers have been en-
thusiastic for some time past, and here
in Wheeling, as in other places, they
have been making the broad vault Of
heaven resound with their discOrdant
cries.
They have been untiring in present.
ing the period Of business depression in
its most dismal light; they are inde-
fatigable in hunting up statistics Of
idle plants; they can tell in twinkling
how many men are out of employment,
and they are unanimous in asserting
that had as things are, in their judg-
ment, they are speedily going TO be
much worse" that the process OF re-
covery" will be every Slow" that we
are ION the brink of business failures, "
ETC., and at the end of all the long list
Of deplorable things they rake up, they
ring in politics, and while lamenting
that a large majority Of the people
didn't know what they were about at
the last general election, they paint
ROSY pictures of what might have
been" had the great American nation
only had little sense, and voted in way
Numerically opposite to the way they
did. They talk this way, because they
are partisans above everything else,
and they are perfectly willing TO do all
in their power to keep business de-
pressed, prices unsettled, the public
confidence alarmed, and the working
men idle, if they can only make political
capital out OF the situation, either as they
find it, or, il it shouldn't be bad enough,
out of what they hope to make it.
Scratch a calamity bowler, IL an indi-
vidual, aud you'll find him a Repub-
lican politician, and look at the
title OF the newspaper that is eternally
mourning the state OF affairs with one
breath and throwing in a few words
with the next calculated to make
things worse, and you'll find ReDubli-
can organ. The people and papers Of
the class mentioned are doing all IN
their power to keep business bad. An
idle industry, a falling off ia the de-
mand for goods, or strike against
reduction is thing TO be reveled In,
and commented upon, and circulated
about, and used as peg TO hang politi-
cal paragraphs upon, while the wink is
passed around TO keep it up" and
don't let times get better" is the
watchword OF the hour.
These are the people who are keep
ing times bad, if bad they are. Instead
of trying to better the situation, if il
isn't what it ought to be, we hear OF
nothing but dismal croakings and dire
predictions.
Why not try little OF the other thing?
The times are not so extremely bad, after
all. Here in Wheeling, the holiday
buying indicated condition Of affairs
not far from satisfactory. The thronR
upon the streets Saturday were unpre-
cedeuted for the last business day be-
fore Christmas; stores in the retail dis
trict were blocked with people, and had
to be kept open until after midnight Sun
day morning, to satisfy the rush Of Gus
toners. Many stocks were literally
carried of by the buyers, aud there are
not a few retailers who lament that
they did not buy more goods than they
did. Where such a condition exists,
times can't be so very bad; the people
had money, and they spent it, and that
augurs that universal bankruptcy is
not a matter for the immediate future.
One way to make better times is to talk
better times, and stop going about
throwing ashes on each others heads, or
sitting in darkness mourning as those
without hope.
The REGISTER has been among the
business men, and finds they are more
than pleased with the Christmas bust
ness. Those interviewed are repre-
sentative houses in the leading lines,
and the list could be easily doubled.
Read what the merchants say, and
when next calamity bowler raises his
voice knock him out:
DRY GOODS.
A. o.. L S+tfoI G. ~ = Mr. Trad