Year: 1875

/
steamships which leave our port carry few
passengers, while those which come home
are full The trees show the first tinges
Of the coming autumn. The summer is a
dying season. In few days the seaside
watering places will be abandoned. In q
few weeks the inland summer resorts will
return to their original inhabitants. The
theatres show signs of their winter activity.
Western trains bring an unusual number Of
visitors. From all cities we hear of the
activity of trade. The dry goods dealers
say that they are selling more during this
month than they have sold during any cor
responding month for some years past.
Money is plenty in Europe and in New York.
Here and there we have crash, Wall street
banking house to-day, the California bank
ing house yesterday, large business men in
the South or some daring bill broker in Lon
don. But this is only individual rottenness.
The surest sign Of our genuine prosperity is
the fact that the falling of these houses
makes no impression upon the general busi-
ness community.


If at any time shortly after the close Of the
war we had had such financial calamity as the
fall of the California bank it would have made
panic throughout the Republic. 1t was be-
cause during that time our whole business
system has been in a morbid, unhealthy
condition. The country seemed to be suffer-
ing from fever or congestion. We have
been gradually growing into better state.
These financial failures, these local business
panics, are simply the efforts of nature as
it were, to throw off the false conditions
under which our business has been laboring
since the fall of Richmond.


All the indications, as we have said, point
to prosperous fall and winter. The adver-
tising columns of the HERALD which are the
barometer of business prosperity, show early
signs of this steady increase. Nor is it a
sudden development of activity. The good
times began, really, last spring. The ''de-
preston of the summer" has arisen from
nothing more than the summer lassitude.
The improvement which we observed in the
spring was well founded and continues from
day to day. We have been conservative as a
people during the past few months With
the exception of the Big Bonanza excitement
in California and little ripping in stocks
in Wall street the country has been steadily
avoiding mad enterprises and foolish
schemes. AS the HERALD showed at the
time, the Big Bonanza excitement on the
Pacific coast was false prosperity, and the
first sign of its weakness is the fall of the great
bank. AS we showed also, from time to time,
the activity" in Wall street stocks was not
healthy expression of business feeling but
the emulation of desperate gamblers. This
is shown by the fact that a large section of
the securities bought and sold on the street
during the last six months have been of a
suspicious or uncertain character. This
shows that the people took the advice of the
HERALD and kept away from Wall street. 1t
is well that they should continue to do so.
Wall street is and has been for the last few
months den of iniquity, little more than
shop for the receiving of stolen goods. 1t
has been controlled by operators, many of
whom care nothing for mercantile honor and
who look upon the people as the banditti Of
the Italian mountains regard the travel
lers through their country. 1t is





Wall street will be robbed. The fate is
as certain as that of the thoughtless wayfarer
in Sicily or Greece This is.not discour-
aging sign. 1t simply shows that one depart
ment of our business has fallen into the
hands of bad men. So long as the people
keep away from these temptations, from the
| bulls and bears, and compel them to rob



each other or go out of the business, there
will in the end be no great harm. Wall street
will burn itself out like dirty chimney.
We shall have an explosion or two, like what
we see in California, and a clearing of the
atmosphere After the removal of the debris
even Wall street will respond to the genuine
business prosperity of the country. The
''Big Bonanzas" will be driven from the
street. Good honest values will be bought
and sold, just as they are bought and sold
over the counters of respectable merchants.
The foreclosures in real estate, which seemed
ominous of bad times, were only symptom
of this settling down to a conservative basis.
Men had overtraded in this way as in every
other and the squeezing process, which sent
weak holders to the wall, will only leave the
way clearer for those who can safely own real
estate.


We note these signs of business activity
and of the reviving season which speak with
so much emphasis through our advertising
columns with pride and pleasure There is
no reason why the country should not stead
lily recover from the misfortunes of the war.
There is no reason why, by earnest, prudent
effort on the part Of the people, we should
not restore our business TO even better con-
dition than it has ever before enjoyed. All
the signs are propitious. The cotton and
sugar harvests are large. From the Northern
and Western States we have good tidings of
the corn and wheat Even the misfortunes