Year: 1878

NEW YORK, Sspt. 2 1873.


The country is nearing the end of its troubles
and with the advent of autumn there will as
suredly come marke.a change for the be-. "a. In
the condition Of t.as people. u to the last
hour of the fn.Al day of the existence of the
bankrupt la.S, there was rush of penpi.
less debtofs to rid themselves of liabilities
through this convenient process of liquidation.
Few OF them possess any assets Their embar-
rsssments date great ways back. Their an.
peal for discharge is mere formality. Manv
OF them have been obliged to borrow money To
pay the fees required to effect their release.
They will have no difficulty in getting through.
Not one in a hundred of them will be opposed
by single creditor. They will simply get rid
OF debts which they have no means to pay or
compound, and Will be free to enter upon a
fresh career of eldeavor.


Through tha publicity given to the records of
the Bankruptcy Courts the public get interest
ing revelations of the magnitude of the great
wreck which has been the natural and newt
able sequence of the panic. Imaginary for
tunes, counted by merely reckoning the differ.
ence between exaggerated valuations of proper
ty and actual indebtedness incurred in the
acquisition of it, have vanished. The property
remainsi the debts are extinguished. The
most Sticking examples of the illusions thai
have arisen from these fictitious estimates of
wealth are found among the spectators in real
estate, whose operations in this city have been
characterized by the proverbial recklessness
which is generally the offspring of imitation
and the precursor Of collapse. There are hum
dreds of men among Us who have purchased
unimproved lands at high prices, mortgaged
them for all they were worth, and in many
cases good deal more, and held them, at au
enoruous Cost OF intoroet, taxes aud assess
ments, on the chance of selling them after
while at figures that would bring them profit.
As long as property continued to advance these
parties were perfectly confident of success.
But of course it was morally certain that the
tide would ebb sooner or later, and yet none of
them seemed to have the slightest apprehension
of that danger. Even after the revulson be-
gan, instead of unburdening themselves as far
as practicable they strained their credit to the
utmost to raise funds to bridge over their diff
culties. 1t does not seem to have ever occurred
to them that things might grow worse instead
of better. If they had made forced sales at the
outset, many of them would no doubt have
transferred their membranes TO stronger
shoulders and escaped without the utter sacrifice
of all they imagined themselves worth; at any
rate they would have got dsentangled several
years earlier and without the modification of
Insolvency. But they were as hopeful as
Micawber, and continually looked for some
thing to "turn up" They wanted more paper
money. That was the panacea on which they
chiefly based their expectations of succor.
Meantime the outgoes were continuous and
heavy, aud there was no income whatever.
Natural causes deepened the depression. Capt.
talists who would have bought ground in de-
sirabls localities at fall of twenty i've per
cent. in 1874 wouldn't touch it at fall of fifty
per cent. in 1877, and latterly no rate could be
named that would tempt them.


1t is worth ones while to look into the n1otlls
operandi by which paper fortunes were ac-
quired in that era of tinsel and gaud which
numerous sophists look back upon with some
such emotions as must have moved the Israel
ties to sigh for the leeks and onions of Egypt.
Mr. =, for example, acquired by the pur-
chase and sale of real estate capital OF say
$250,000. There was time perhaps when he
could have sold out and realized that sum.
But instead of pocketiug his gains and quitting
the business he bought lots IN all directions