The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-11-23
Thursday. November %. 1898.
SURE.


q recent issue Of the Butte Miner is IN
Brother Quinn's happiest vein. and is
moreover as true as gospel:
No. this is not a panic. The country
has not gone to the bow vows. The bot
tom Of the world has not fallen out to
let the earth drop through the hole. The
end Of earth's journey has not been
reached. Prosperity has not become OBJ
solete. Calamity is not the order of the
day. The future is not a long and ray
less waste Of dismal gloom. Hope is not
dead. Starvation has not been elected
health officer. Sorrow has not been en-.
throned upon the ruins OF a once lntoxi-
Gated Joy, nor is there any danger OF
earth's second deluge in a flood OF tears.
The country has not been ruined; it
has simply been intoxicated. For a
quarter of a century this has been a land
Of millionaires. There have been no
poor men. Money has flowed more freely
than the waters Of the running brooks.
It has been an age Of mushroom a~ristoc.
. and picturesque dudeism. No man
has been so poor as to economize. Bask.
Ing in perpetual sunshine. the Possibility
II q rainy day was banished as food unfit
for thought. Homespun was discarded
and broadcloth given its place. The
poor in pocket breathed the atmosphere
a effervescence. and became rich in
inagination. No man would admit that
10 vas too poor to carry a gold watch.
dine on porte house. employ costly car
Iiages for holidays, parades. funerals and
picnics and enjoy a Saturday evening
With a flowing bowl. Society became
acraze. The salaried man insisted upon
holding up his end. No class was too
fast for him. The millionaire set the
pace and the would-bes broke their
financial necks in a wild endeavor to win
the race. Pink teas. red c%offees. scarlet
functions and crushed strawberry fiascos
transformed the good old democracy be-
queathed by the fathers into a gaudy
circus parade of borrowed splendor and
Ghoddy orientalism. The youths of the
land drank deep of the exhilarating
wine Of excitement. The young man
1ho did not belong to a social club was
beyond the pale of society. Boys who
Aould have been studying the plain
rudiments OF business were graduated in
the science of aristocratic inebriety.
Tender goslings. who should have been
waiting at Jericho for their pin feathers
to stiffen into whiskers were loudest in
the choruses of bachanalian reveis and
boldest in their familiarity with vice.
The spree was universal. 1t perme-
ated all fields Of labor and finance. En-
terprises sprang into existence as if by
magic and remained in seemingly pros
porous condition without visible means
Of support. No man WAS without credit
or failed to draw upon it. Indebtedness
mendable adventure and its increase as
proof of healtbful progression. Oh.
what a glorious old time it was, and how
We did enjoy it during the rosy years of
its duration.
But it could not last. The day of rec
oning was inevitable. \ few men re-
manned sober during the protracted
revel and they gradually frightened the
strings until the e~cstatic celebrators
were brought back to earth. The bal
ancing Of accounts accompanied by un-
Just and vicious legislation which the
sober conspirators enacted while the
people were on their frolic made the
ending as sudden and as painful as the
festival had been brilliant and trans
porting. But the worst is past. The
country has recovered from its morning
head, and the bad taste in its mouth is
disappearing. The atmosphere is clear
the air seems purer and sweete-,
md instead Of gazing through the mag
and multiplying glasses OF manu-
exhileration the community is
to see things az they are. 1t
p bitter climax for some. but it is q
that was az inevitable as the
noen. Its effects upon the race will be
psod. 1t has brought the common peo-
- to their senses. 1t hasdemonstrated
lAe utter folly Of attempting to lift
by your boot straps. It's lesson
one that must be learned at least once
y each generation. and to the young it
nay prove a Godsend, for it will place
Ihem back in the good, safe road Of CON-
sense and self reliance from which
heir frivolous and frisky fathers de-
The people are doing some very
thinking, and the beneficial re-
uult will be felt in every limb and fibre
u the nation, and its browning achieve
nent will be the renovation and read
.-Au1r ~ tha fauo Tho co,pfrxy hoe