Year: 1875




HARD RDTIMES-LESSOYS TO BE LEARN
ED-BETTER TINES COMING.


1t is always hard times with those who
spend more than they make-when their
surplus is used up. The times are hard
now with the masses of the people. We
have passed through an era of speeula-
tion, in which nearly everybody has some
way participated, and now we are com
ing down to the solid rock. This is all
the more difficult because people who
have been making money rapidly have
acquired expensive habits. Families
which formerly found it quite possible
to live on a thousand, or even eight hun
dred year, because they had to, now
find it very difficult to subsist on ten
times as much. This is solely for the
reason we have Just mentioned, for
prices of almost all the commodities
used in our households have come down
to low figures-except where the failure
of crops has kept them up or increased
them.


a Few years ago some men made i'm
mense fortunes in oil, "a iron, in wooden
goods, the manufacture of paper, in real
estate, and in a great variety of ways.
Others didn't, but, because these few
did, nearly the whole mass was demor-
allied. Everybody thought he ought
really to get rich in about a week, and
those who did not, sometimes placed
the blame on the shoulders the Repub-
lican party. Young men especially took
the fever-a fitful one-and made haste
to wade into something or other that
was full of snowy promise.


Men-old and young-sought light
and easy methods of making rapid for
tunes


This was an unwholesOme state of
things-and it is over. There is now no
royal road to wealth. \ score of years
ago it required many years of honest,
earnest, persistent and iudicious indus
try to acquire a fortune, and now the
same requirements prevail. The people
must get down from their high horses
and walk awhile. Reckless'and thought
less expenditures must be eurtaiIed.
Merchants and manufacturers must be
satisfied with smaller profits. Profess
siOnal men must cut thinner slices of of
their customers. Those on salaries and
wages must make their margins as large
as possible by economy and judicious
management. In fact we must all do
the best We can to save and employ
wisely what we do receive.


The first thing We need to do is to ac
cept the situation, with gratitude to God
that it is as well with us as il is. Every
man who has any practical philosophy
about4him Of proper amount of Chris
tian principles ill do this


The next thing to do is to cut off
needless expenditures. Our benevolent
contributions should, so far as possible,
remain intact. Our charities should be
the very last thing in which we should
economic. In hard times the demands
of Christian benevOIence and the needs
of the honest poor increase instead of di-
minish. Then, all necessary expendi-
turesin the way OF moral and intellectual
culture should be provided for a. far as
possible. Let the children be properly ed
ucated and trained. Let them have
teachers and books, and and let the new
carpets and the velvet clOaks, and the
dress suits, and the fine boots, 90,


Men who are not ia debt and have EN-
plOynent can have easy times by max
ing their income exceed their expendi-
lures. 1t require SONS courage and
resolution 60 come down to hardpan but
it can be done, and it is better that it be
done voluntarily than 10 have i. forced
upon Us


Those who suffer most are the debtor
class. These We shall always have with
rs. Many fortunes have been made by
judieiOusly running ia debt. It has been
safe to do 50, heretofore, but it IS not
now, and men who are in debt feel the
pressure Of the situation more than ever.
Some are honestly and justiliably in
debt-OttIers are not. All deserve con
sideraticn, and we beg all creditors 60
be considerable and fOrEearing and as
generous as their means will allow them
to be- If the creditor Of a farm can
take a piece of land from man who
wishes to give it to satisfy claim or a
mortgage, he should do 50, or if he can
secure his own by the transfer OF proper
ty in any way, to the relief Of his credit
or, he ought to be glad 10 do 50.


Then, 20 tar as possible, let everybody
pay as hegaes, and 20 without until he
can pay Use the old carpet, wear the
old clothes, give the pianos the gO-by.


Really il Is well that we have now
come 70 this state of things. .inasmueh a.
it was only matter Of time that we
should We could never have acquired
a substantial. enduring prosperity until
we had got down 10 the bed rock, and
began to build from it. it is hard for
tie debtor elass-haTd, perhaps, for
most people, but If we wissly accept the
situation and make the most OF it, we
shall very soon begin to see better times
and when they come we shall know how
to use what we get to better advantage.
Probably many of Us will try to ayoid
the errors of the past. By so doing We
shall compel better times 10 come
Springfield Republic.


BAYAHD TAYLoR's opinion of Ameri-
can humcrists: The highest develop
ment of contemporary American humor-
Gus literature Is TO be found in the
sketches and poems Of Bret Harts, in
which humor rests upon its only founda-
rion-that Of pathos and feeling. A