The New York Herald Newspaper, September 27, 1875, Page 4

2 THE DRY GOODS MARRET The Quiet Movement of the Fall Among Importers and Jobbers. LAST VESTIGES OF THE PANIC. Decline in Prices and Im- provement in Credits. The Products of American Looms Exported to England and China. Successful Competition with Manchester Manufacturers. FEELING THE PULSE OF THE TRADE ‘The stagnation that has existed in the dry goods ‘trade for several years, owing to panics in the money market, high tariffs and other causes, as is well known, ‘has caused numerous failures of old houses and ted to ‘@ general feeling of alarm in the country, Last year ‘was marked by a large number of failures of dry goods importers and jobbers, and during the spring and ‘summer the impression has grown in commercial ‘circles that there were breakers ahead; that the sus- jenstons of last year were likely to be followed by ‘many others this fall and winter. It ts gratifying to know that such a calamity is not at all likely to occur. A representative of the Hexatp gg devoted several days to FRRLING THE PULSE OF THE DRY GOODS TRADE, and was surprised, as will also be the reader, t@ find that all the fears of those who dooked for a crash in the market are groundless, and ‘that at no time within a period of five years has the ry goods market presented a more gratifying exhibit ‘oF @ better prospect for the future, All importers and jobbers agree that the market has revived beyond the expectations of the most sanguine, that the volume of transactions is greater this fall than for many years, ‘that credits are unusually good, that buyers promptly meet their obligations, that importers have inaugu- rated a policy of conservatism and only imported barely sufficient to meet the demands of trade, that prices are down, and, in short, that there is nsound, healthy market and a feeling of security in ail branches of the trade. Tnis is certainly gratifying tn- telligence that should satisfy the “croaker” class, who ever maintain that business is unsettled and a panic imminent, that they are not correct barometers of business prospects. It would be futile to attempt to onter {nto a lengthy discussion of the causes that have led to this sudden and gratifying revival of the dry goods business and the probable revival of other branches of trade that move in sympathy with it, But among them may be classed the low price of labor, tho large yield of the cotton fields, brought about by | the reconstruction of the cotton producing States and the abundance of money. So long as the plantation -hands of the South neglected the soil and devoted their attention to polities and the endeavor to secure ‘forty ' acres anda mule’’ the cotton crop was short, prices high, and, as @ consequence, great depression was forced upon the market. The abundant yield of the last two years, the decline in the raw material and in tabor has forced prices down, and now we find that in certain lines of manufacture our mills and looms can euccessfully compete with thoseof Europe. This is proved by the tact that quite a business has sprung up in exports of shirtings, drills and woollen goods to | England and China. Of these exports, however, we shall speak more fully hereafter, THE DECLINK IN PRICES. _ The investigations made by the writer establishes ‘beyond doabe that there has been since Inst yeera general decline on demestic goods. It is more marked, of course, on those lines of goods that are styled “off color,” or undesirable either as to colors or style. Owing to the discovery by heavy importers of a dispo- sition on the part of consumers to patronize home. manufactures, and the factthat the mills and looms of New England have been yearly bringing their manufac- tures up to a standard where they can compete with foreign manufacturers, the importations this year are not as large as they nave been in previous years) This has led toa firmness in the market on imported goods, and a continuance of last year’s prices on all desirable articles. While the importers do not agree as to the shrinkage in prices on various lines of goods there can be no doubt that the following isa fair average estimate on domestics :— Cotton goods.... Woollen dress good: Brown goods. Bleached goo Flannel good Blankets, &o ket, The decline in the retail market is more varied, and it is impossible to form any estimate. Of course the retail market sympathizes with the decline in the wholesale market, but owing to the large volume of smuggled goods brought in last year the “bearing” by auctioncers and the “‘breaks’’ by large houses, who, | to force the market and to stimulate business, mark a particular invoice down to or below actual cost, some retailers are enabled to sell away below others. This is | shown in the cotton sales by H. B. Claflin & Co., that caused such acommotion in the market last week. These “breaks” are principally in domestic manufac- tures of an unsalable or undesirable quality or style, and do not extend to importations to any great extent. In some retail houses certain goods were found thirty Per cent less than last year’s prices; in others the | game goods were held at a decline of ten or twelve, in another at a decline of fifteen or twenty percent. Some firms seem to have been taking advantage of ‘‘breaks’’ and auctions, and, therefore, have marked prices | down and do a “driving” trade, while those who have | not taken such chances have marked their goods ac- | cordingly at a figure nearer last year’s rulings. AN INTERESTING PEATURE OF THR MARKET is the progress being made by American manufacturers in improving the quality of their goods. It was only a | what. The demand for foreign productions remains NEW seven and a half pounds being them at ten and a half pounds. There are large quanti- Set em im course of preparation for foreign mar- American goods, it is shown on the other hand, con- tain only the size needed for their manufacture, and are superior4n grade to any other. Moreover, judged by the actual quantity of cotton in each, our fabrics are fourd to be about fifteen per cent cheaper than tho British, proving that, in spite of the advantages our | rivals enjoy as regards the cost of labor and capital, our manufacturers are now able to compete with them on fair terms in foreign markets. The knowledge of this fact, which is demonstrated by comparing current Prices, ought to be encouraging to our cotton spinners, who now need all the customers they can find. The Chinese buy cotton fabrics to the amount of about $45,000,000 annually from England, and if we convince them that we offer better goods we must eventually secure a large share of that trade. EXPORTS OF COTTON AND WOOLLEN GOODS. The following statement of exports of cotton and woollen goods trom the United States to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and China for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1873, 1874 and 1875, have been furnished by Edward Young, Chief ‘of the Bureau of Statistics ;-— ess 1, ess * 334] [> 33% : Bi] |: Be Bit) i: # a 12 ei (B 3, B33 $ (gg | eelFl si = re oe £] ee 8] seg] s|°/3 2/3835 s|f23|*| |g i + PE} se|s] \z 1 85 128) Fl 32 Tae z glass elegs|*| |: ~ # z B3 aay 1188 LBSlF ls * * £/ 283 |] $38] ee United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ih 1873. 1874. 1875. All manufactures of wool... $9,976 $8,943 $3,054 China, All manufactures of wool.... 165 217 - From the above it will be seen that American indus- try is bearding the English lion in his own lair, and year by year placing more and more of American man- ufactures on the market of Great Britain. The increase of exports of cotton to Great Britain in 1875 over 1874 China for the same period was $333,458, or more than double in 1875 what it was in 1874 No doubt one cause of this immense increase m the exports to China is due to the frauds perpetrated upon the Chinese by the English manufacturers, With a Chinese market for $45,000,000 worth of cotton por year, American en- terprise, joined to good faith, should enable us to suc- cessfully compete with Great Britain in cotton fubrics, THE WHOLESALE TRADE, The following are the opinions of some of the leading houses in both the wholesale and retail trade:— Mr. Libby, of A. T. Stewart’s, said that there is so much demoralization by politics that the people of the country are alarmed for the future. The prudent per- Bong who expect to Pay. 100 cents on the dollar are énxlous to know wheré all this extravagance caused by politics will land the country. Credit never bas been 60 sound, and the people who earn by labor and make the wealth of the country, who get it ont of the soil, never were in a better condition than they are to-day, We have had five years of Conatalioied, rosperity. What becomes of the proceeds of the development of labor I should like the ablest editor of the HeRaLp to tell the people in an editorial like that one srt 4 on the breaking up of political parties: The truth is, labor finds the MONEY THAT 18 YEARLY GAMBLED at Saratoga, squandered at Long Branch and dissipated at Washington and the political centres of all the States. Ido not wish to be understood that the laborer who produces this wealth gambles it away, me who the middie men are, and how it gets into the hands of those who squander it at the pi Thave named? There have been some reductions in prices, both foreign and domestic, since last year. There has | deen, I should say without reference to figures, fully ten | per cent reduction on domestic woollen goods, but none of any account on foreign importations. Some has been caused from the feature smuggling that demoralizes prices at all times, The | auction business is another feature of the market worth | noting. Foreign goods get into the bands of auctioneers and from them into the market at a price lower than the cost of importation sometimes, and, consoquently, | the prices of imported goods are forced downward some- | firm, and there are no new fabrics in the market. We have the same articles as last year, with variations in blending and different weavings. There 1 a REDUCTION OF PROM TEN TO PIFTKEN PER CENT on domestic cotton goods. These are the igures:— 1874, 1875, New York Mills....... 5450. Wamsutta, lsc. Utica....... 16 3ge. 150, Fruit of the Leom I8e. 1c, Lonsdale. Bye | Be Se. Among the causes of this falling off you must place | the reduction in the price of cotton and labor since last year, ie Mr. Libby expressed the opinion that the reductions shown tn the wholesale market would not be felt to the | same extent iu the retail market. Persons sometimes | are disposed to “break” on the ruling prices, with a | view of giving trade a start. Mr. Libby took A VERY HOPEFUL VIRW OF THE PUTURR, depicts a very conservative feeling abroad, 8 disposition on the part of the country merchants to buy only what was $122,436, and the increased value of exports to | goods, cloths those that weighted Mathe onions af wieee pounds in order to sell | sea hy ip bra OF ty vdnag This estimate ig not con- firmed by any other house in the same line visited, | General Opdyeke, of Opdycke, Terry & Streele, of but can you tell | Indeed, the fall opening is beyond the expectations of | cheaper than they have been for years. Importing tour of the retail stores by the writer, parison with the great body of retailers they are mercly ‘a fraction—a drop in the great streamlet that goes to advertising, keep atalltimes. Of the latter class—the men who adver- Broadway, was found pc pomacranty | saleswen and a brigade of countr: highly elated at the condition of the market and the prospects for the future, ‘“Why,"’ said he, “it is as tonishing; we always expect to sell more in the Spring, but we find our SALES TWENTY-FIVE PRR CENT MORE than last spring. The prospect is very ; do not seek unusual credit, Our receiv: from oar spring customers have nearly all been met, and our losses on the spring business will not exceed one-half of one per cent, while the usual estimate is two and one- half per cent. This shows a healthy condition of the trade of the country, for our business exten every State. The gi goods of cheap, mohairs, brilliantines aud cashmeres are chiefly w de- mand, This proves that there throughout the country a general desire to economize, There are no new fabrics in the market this year, although there are new designs, We are selling largely, to arrive, em- broidered cashmeres, which are a new article of itn portation, The demand for them on sample is heav e tind prices vary but little since last year, Foreig! dreas goods are about the same as last year, but they would have been much cheaper had the government not added ten per cent on duties, Domestics are $0 cheap that, 1 understand, they are EXPORTED TO SOMB BXTRNT | to England, This is particularly so in bleached mas- lins and some lines of wodllens.” Mr. Jaffray, of K. 8. Jaffray & Co., was so busy that his views could uot be got at length, He, however, ex- pressed great satisfaction at the prospects befure the trade and the present condition of the market. More goods wore seiling than last year and prices were down | alittle, but he could not state how much. Credits | were very good, and there in no disposition on the part | of buyers wo seck extensions of time. Mr. Hines, of Halstead, Hines & Co., ex] satisfaction with the whi brisk and a great impro lines of goods. Retail merchants exhibit'a dis | to buy conservatively, aud purchase only such stocks | as they feel they can carry successfully and profitably. Inhis opinion there is a good, healthy business doing, but he was unable to express an opinion as to the ex tent of the decline in prices. Mr. W. L. Strong, of Strong & Co., enthusiastically, slaimed, as he turned away from a humber of buyers “Never in our eighteen years’ experience in THE FLANNEL AND BLANKET TRADE has business been so good. Goods are very cheap, and that 1s what makes the demand. If they were reduced | to a gold basis our lines of goods would be to-day | cheaper than they have ever sold for in this country. The volume of business is simply enormous, Most of the mills have closed up and there is an over supply on the market that causes prices to fall away; our mills, however, in New England and this State have not stopped. Prices have fallen since last year from five to fifteen per cent, according to the quafty of the manufacture, but I estumate the average decline at ten per cent. We deal entirely with jobbers on thirty and sixty days’ credit, and they are very prompt to mect their obligations, having an abundance of money. The quality of American blankets and flan- nels is So fine that they drive out all importations, and frequently WE EXPORT TO ENGLAND SMALL PARCELS to persons who are aware of the superiority of Ameri- can products of this kind over the mills of Europe, The falling off in the price of blankets as compared with last year is about seven and a half per cent.” ‘The above opinions of some of the leading houses are fully sustained by others visited. They establish the fact beyond a doubt that business has taken a spring | forward, and that with plenty of money, a decline in prices and a sound conservatism exercised in all trans- actions there is a bright future before us for the fall aud winter, & heavy corps of ayers, He was ‘THE RETAIL TRADE. The political economist who can give the “why” and “wherefore” for certain peculiarities of the retail dry goods trade to satisfy everybody would be entitled to a monument in Central Park and have his name emblaz- oned in Nova Scotia marble on the highest elevation: in Greenwood. Among the gentlemen who have been identified with the retail business for years in the various leading houses there is the widest diversity of opinion as to the future, the present prices as com- pared with those of last year, the probable effect of re- ductions in the wholesale market on certain lines of | goods and the probability of a healthy recovery of the market, Among the wealthy retailers, who, it may be safely said, clothe New York yearly in purple and fine linen, there is great rejoicisty at the revival of the market. Others, on being questioned, rub their hands and snap- pishly exclaim, while they have not a customer to wait upon, “Don't ask me; I’m too busy, Can't tell youl” They are the exceptions who are to be found in dingy, uninviting stores that might be called THE COBWEB HALLS OF THR AVENUES. Several of this class were found during a two davs’ but in com- make up the grand moving tide of the oods merchants of the ic spirited and energetic, and who, their stores full tail dry city—who are pub- by judicious 0 customers tise first class goods at lowest prices—there were many found, and in auswer to the stereotyped inquiry, “How is business compared with last year?” they met the writer with an elastic step, as they carefully felt their way through an “‘abatis’’ of skirts and trails, and the general response, “BUSINESS IS BRISK, BETTER THAN EVER it has been for years. We have nearly all we can do. the most sanguine. The crisis is passed. Never in five years have we had a more cheering prospect. Prices are down—away down in some undesirable lines of goods—and our people, who have learned economy, now come in with cash and demand its full | value. They are more hard to please than ever before. They make our clerks empty our shelves, and go down to the bottom of every drawer before they buy; but they buy, and, better than all, they pay cash on delivery and ask’ no credit.” a Me Hearn, of Hoarn & Co. Broadway, whose establishment was filled with ladies purchasing:— “Business is certainly very cheering; it is away abead of last year, although the retuil trade does not usually begin until the 1st of October. Dry goods are cheaper— houses have been very conservative, and ordered only what they can sell, consequently m desirable | oe prices remain but little ditlerent trom last year. There is bo doubt some falling off has taken place in certain lines, but the market is as a whole in good condition, with every prospect of a fine fall trade.” Mr. Hearn re- ports that there is a growing disposition to purchase domestic man ures, where the fabric at all ap- proaches to the imported article. Mr. Kinzey, of Broadway, who combines dry and fancy goods, and, indeed, all varieties of articles under one immense roof, finds business improving a 5 but his experience is that it is not equal to the business of last year, ‘There seems,” said he, “to bea great dis- position to economize, and the first word a lady says on examining goods is, ‘Got anything cheaper?’ Goods are cheaper, and I should say fully ten to fifteen per cent below the ruling rates of last year.” “NRVER IN FIVE YEARS,” said Mr. McCreery, of James McCreery & Co., “have we had such a iull business. This is particularly so inpared with last they are able to realize on quickly and to ask but short bears testimony to the admission that business has re- | vived, and from early inthe morning until late in the afternoon the floors are filled with country buyers from | all parts of the Union, making their selections and | squaring off old accounts. Curry, Browning & Crane, of Broadway, report the market firm, general business brisk, but some breaking away in prices on undesirable staples. The popular | standards, both foreign and domestic, remain very near the prices of last year. They would not venture an estimate as to the decline on any line of goods. in business and a decline in prices on some things, | especially cottons. CREDITS THEY REPORT REMARKABLY GOOD, and a general disposition on the part of buyers to meet such bills as they feel promptly. Catlin, Brundret & Co. sanguine of disposing of | little while ago that the great volume of the cotton goods sold and consumed in this country was made | of American cotton in Manchester, England, and | shipped back here. Our mills failed to successfully | compete with those of Great Britain; but the times | are changing, and now we find that we can successfully | compete in foreign markets with Groat Britain | in certain manufactures. This is especially 80 | in flannels. Our own manufacture 1s of so high a grade ‘that importations have been crowded out, and to-day the mills of New England produce a better articlo than any other country in the world. American drills and brown shirtings, too, are becoming very popular and in great demand in China over the English product. Several American houses are exporting cotton goods to China and India and successfully competing with the English. | men. One house in this city within a few weeks has | shipped to China 3,000 packages of brown shirtings and | drills aud have other orders on file to be filled. It i8 | mlso understood that some shipments of bleached mus- ins are being made. f COMPETING WITH ENGLAND FOR THE CHINA TRADE. One of the causes of the popularity of American cot- ‘ton goods over English in China is that frauds have fbeen porpetrated upon the “Heathen Chinese” by | ) Christianized and civilized “John Bull.” In the China (“overuse Trade Report’ for 1873 is an official statement ‘of the proceedings of the Shanghai Chamber of Com- jmorce, of which this is a part:— - Manchester, England, August, 1873. Drills a the past two or three years have been \sent out to China very much weighted, butat tho | present moment still more weight is being added to the | oods which bear the same stamp and marks which jerigs giiy obtained a name for really genuine cloth. No doubt fraud will some day be detected by the ‘as it bas been in India. | exhibited their books and gave prices have fallen from five to ten per'cent on do- | mestic woollens of an undesirablé pattern or quality, | of last year throughout, Collins, Downing &.Co., of Broadway, report great | conservative, and imported only what will barely meet activity in woollen goods, with prices ifteen per cent | the demands of trade, so that they are holding it firmly. One of the firm ex- | Domestic manufactures are becoming more and more below last year on an average, pressed the belief that the reduction had, in some cases, reached twenty-five or thirty per cent where the | and in’ line of goods had become unpopular and few calls were | made for it, In such cases holders let it go at almost any price, Yet, a few years hence, these same lines of | goods might revive in popularity and command the old prices. A representative of H. B. Claflin & Co., whose house ‘was so overcrowded by country buyers that the ear of one of the firm could not be got fora moment, said, | and delighted at the run of trade, It HASN'T BERN SO DRISK VOR FIVE YEARS. The prices of importations rule about as last y jaily French stuffs, which are scarce and desirable, he jobbing trade has not been so good for mal what, and our experience is that they are not so much in demand as last year,’’ to give any information, if the firm's name was used, PRICKS IN CERTAIN LINES “The market opens grandly, and all seem surprised | | millinery; it was noticed that many had’a passion for | Bartlett, Reed & Co., of Howard street and Broad- | colored ‘hose, and “barber poles,’ as the salesmen in j way, a large importing house, report a slight increaso | the trade call these styles, are sold largely. compared with last year:— Line of Goods, 1874. Per centoff. 1875. Per Pocasett sheetings. 10% 6 10 Brown goods... Bleached goods Bleached goods (ai other brand). 5 9 ™% Prints....... 9 pre 8 Ne ‘They report that bleached and brown goods will a’ erage from 73g to 10 per cent off from last year’s prices on well known styles, while less known ls go off even more iwprice. Standard prints can be bought on an a 8 cents. Staple woollen goods are off about 5 per cent, while undesirable styles have few callers, and, thon, at very low rates, Credits have not changed much, and money js so cheap that there are no in- quiries for longer time. Dupham, Buckley & Co., of Broadway, report very little reduction on dress goods; on cashineres no reduc- nd in great demand, Prices rule generally from to ten per cent less than last year. The prospects trade {s unusually good, and people exhibit a general disposition to pay more cash than they used Whittemore, Post, Peet & the extensive cor Mission dealers in woollen goods, report that they are 19 17-100 on these selling a8 much as last year; that 1 PROSPROTS ARE QUITE C! but that prices are away off fully credits, The immense wholesale house of Mr. Stewart | whol all their obligations promptly, and to purchase only | last year. | view of the market. Business opens briskly, and it is of Broadway, admit that | likely to be very satisfactory to all parties whose prices | Their cash sales reach fully up to last year, yet they find the old popular linea retain the firmness | goods are down, and there is aslight decline, he re- | its. A man who increases his business over that of last | prospects; report business recuperating, and a great | y, | expensive goods, and purchasers do not seem to haggle | many years, Domestic goods have settled off some- | as to price as formerly. A large commission house, whose members declined | revival of business. 1t was with difficulty one could | Tetail | there is every indication that the people have recov- ered from the effect of the late panic, and that retailers will have a fine run of fail trade. The Superintendent of Johnson, Bros. & Co., Union square, reports that all the indications point to a fine fall business; all the tendencies are in that direction, and the low price of goods he assigns as one of the reasons, When the visit was made a large number of ladies were gathered about the counters, examinin; stock and purchasing articles of dry goods, hosiery aud | Arnold, Constable & Co., although they have not yet opened in their retail department, report that there is a marked improvement in business since last year; that prices for imported goods are about the same as Mr. Lord, of Lord & Taylor, takes a very hopeful are reasonable and stocks tade up of desirable styles. Domestic ports, on some importations. The importers have been nd no wonder, for they are improving greatly, popular me cases aro fully equal to the imported article, THE BUSINESS OF THIS PALL IS A SAFE ONE. Retailers may do a very heavy business aud still find it unprofitable if they force the biisiness by extensive cred. | year must do it by credit, whi ever safe. The pros- pect tor the future is very cheering indeed. The novelties 1n women’s wear this season are chietly knickerbockers and striped hose. The ladies seem to take to the latter very kindly, and sales are consequently large. J. & C, Jobnston give a cheering accot of the fall improvement over last year. They are selling more | In ail the Broadway stores, and Stewart's especially, there was an air of business that clearly showed a | pass down the aisies and climb the stairs of the large establishinen owing to the crush of well- dressed ladies and children, on Thursday and Friday. Rarely have the stores, at this season of the year, exhibited such scenes of life and activity. On the avenues the rotail stores aro not 0 crowded, but a number of houses on Sixth and Kighth avenues are doing a brisk fall business with a fine prospect of an increase as the cold weather up- | | proaches. Among those who report great activity and | | whose stores, crowded for hours daily by eager buyers, confirm it are Stern Brothers, B. Altman & Co., E. O'Neil, Richard Meares and O'Neil Brothers, of Sixth avenue; Jones and Ehrick, of Eighth avenue; Macy, of Sixth avenue; Lord & Taylor, Ridley & Son and ot 8 cents, while special styles command | Doyle & Adulphi, of Grand street.” Walker & Mesorley | report a great change for the better this fall, and although they have extended their business and put on an extraforce of salesmen the rush is so great that they wili have to increase their force. Doyle & Adolphi report that business is one hundred per cent better than last year, but, prices being off fully twent cent, the profits are not proportionably large. rf idley & Sons have made large additions to their place, houses fully compete with cheapuem and ther shelves of Altman bi 5s a tr at E i i fallt HS HE i HH HH | THE THREE FORMS OF MAN'S LIFE—SPIRITUAL, INTELLECTUAL AND BODILY--BOW WORKING MEN MAY IMPROVE THEMSELVES BY EDU- CATION. [From the Manchester Guardian, Sept. 15.) At the annual meeting @ the Hawarden Literary Tnstitute, held last night, the Rev. Stephen Gladstone presiding, the adoption of the report was moved by the Right Hon. W. K. Gladstoue, who said: wih you can but select, and which one can only touch hastily on account of the time which ft would require te exhaust Tn the first place, let me say, in recommending to your encouragement and patronage an entablivh. ment of this kind, that I do not do so as if either bodily exercise or even mental culture and the im- provement of our intellectual faculties are of them. | selves the whole of what man requires in of this his pier earth, Man forms of Iife—hie spiritual IMfo, bie intellectual life his relation to good, wu the know! upon all that concerns That tsowitan tie und his happiness really depend. On these don’t presume to address you. It is mo part of my function here, I address myself here to @ lower task, but still to a very high task, when I sider what can bedone, leaving to fit and better entitled to do % wo in proper times and places, Task you to consider question of the intelligent life that we ought deavor to live and which belongs vo such aa | as this. I have said that MAN HAS AN INTRLLIGRNT LIE, the life of his intellectual tacuities, and, posi life and material life. Of that bodily life the wants are perfectly imperative and ble. Itis in his choice to a great whet! will cultivate his intelectual faculties. It ean be said to be his choice whether he will labor supply of his bodily wants and the supply of the want ot those =who are — imi upon him It often im the = mi: and imperfect condition in which we live the exigencies of bodily and material life are such, and the means of supplying them so-limited, that they actu- ally press out, squeeze out it I may say so, that oppor- tunity of attending to the wants of our intellectual jite, and that perhaps is the great excuse that men woul make for passing by the calls of an institution of this kind, They say:—“It is all very well for people with if i & 5 rs : i eS : F Hill plenty of money to spend; but I am aot in taeir post- tion. Tama laboring man, | “meme upon iny hands, dependent upon my health’ Ihave got a wife and ebil- | dren to support. it is not for me, and I won't be both- ered with it,” Well, now, is this an excuse that ought to be made by the laboring population of this parish as they now stand? There tg no circumstance more grati- fying, in my view, in the condition of the country than that great change which has taken place, especially in our laboring population, as to the means which they pos- ‘segs both of seli-support and self-improvement, I don’t enter upon the question whether in their case they have all that is to be desired in this world, It will have to undergo a great many changes before those who inhabit it can have all that 1s to be desired, but they have now what they had not in other times, There is not only a great improvement upon their condition im other times, buta contrast of a most highly le character, a coutrast which must carry Joy and satisfaction to the heart of every intelligent man not belonging to the laboring classes, who knows that the laboring class is the basis and foundation of the institutions of the country and of all that constitutes the nation. I should like to draw to your minds a few facts, although they must be necessarily incomplete, us to what has been in other times the condition of the laboring classes, and to show that if your fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers before you did not belong to institutions of this kind they had an excuse and reasons for it such as resent day, I will say a few words upon the subject of agricultural labor, and afterward a few words upon the subject of mining labor. It is now about thirty-six years ago since, very greatly to my own comfort and advantage, I became very closely connected with this place, that is a very limited time in the hfe of acommunity. But WHAT IMMENSE CHANGES HAVE TAKEN PLACE in the position of the agricultural laborer even within that time, You know what his wages were thirty-six years ago and what they are now. Undoubtedly in that period of time there has been a very great change in- deed, a change that has been brought about without great grievances or oppression, I will venture to say, to any ion of the community; but, on the outcl with the general conviction that it is for the good of all, although these changes in some degree momentarily rub and fret in particular cases and in particular cir- cumstances. The right honorable gentleman then re- do not exist in the ferred to Mr. Eden’s work on the condition of agricul- tural Jaborers in ten counties of En; be- tween the years 1790 and 1800 to show that the average wages then received by an agricultural laborer to support bis wife and family were eight shillings per week. Continuing, he said—of the sixty-two cases of families who are given in the most minute manner, in forty-nine the wages of the man and of his family were not sufficient to meet the expenditure, that expenditure being basea upon a nar- Tow, scanty and defective scale, That was the condi- tion of what we called “Merry England” eighty years ‘ago; and now you hear people sometimes say that the tume of merry England is gone by. Well, it may not be as merry now in all cases as we should wish it to be, but I suspect it is quite as merry as it was in the times of your fathers and grandfathers, and many genera- tions before them, and a deal merrier too. (Applause.) ‘As regards mining labor, the change has been very great and extraordinary. I don’t speak of the change that has taken place within the last three or four years. Ihope there are a good many miners in this room, and to them I would say as a friend, I have always looked upon that change with very mixed teelings. It was too great, too sudden, not ‘to be of a short-lived character, It was quite manifest that so great and sudden a change could not be sup- orted permanently. It is not in the nature of things. The saws of trade did not permit the rise that took place three or four years ago in the price of coke and c It was entirely without precedent. It was like a great storm that disturbs the air with exceeding violence, and 1 don’t speak of that, because a reaction from a state of ‘that kind is apparent to all who are concerned. THE CUSTOM HOUSE NET. WORKING OF THE NEW SYSTEM TO PREVENT SMUGGLING BY OCEAN TRAVELLERS. Great complaints are made that the European steam- Ships are not boarded by a Deputy Collector at Quaran- tine to enable passengers to take their oaths as to the dutiable quality of their baggage before arriving in the city, Against this itis urged that some of the said customs officers are too corpulent to board steamships at the above mentioned point. Several representatives of the Treasury Department at Washington are in this city at the present moment, making reports to their department as to the working of the now system ap- pertaining to passengers’ baggage. One of its present absurdities 1s that cabin passengers can take oath: fore a Deputy Collector, as to their baggage, while steer- passengers are not’ allowed this privilege, From all reports, the oath with some pears is quite elastic, and treated merely as a ‘Custom House oath.”’ Other people of more serious frame of mind look upon it, when falsely taken, a8 perjury. To people not under- standing the English language, it is, as a rule, an empty formality. Last week a number of second class passengers from Scotland went to Castle Garden to there have their baggage examined as ordinary ‘‘steerage’’ passengers, father than take the iron glad customs oath. Many fashionable women who have merely put on dresses for a couple of minutes under the new oath, swear to said dresses being in ‘constant use.” The customs officers ask them if they have worn them at evening receptions and balis, and the almost invariable answer is, “Oh! yes’? Actresses’ wardrobes are now far more YORK. HERALD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1875—I'KLPLE SHEET. INDIAN FRAUDS Fort Berthold Agency and Its Pic- turesque Surroundings. AN ARCADIA FOR THE GEOLOGIST. Aborigines Addicted to Houses and Empty Trunks. A GLANCE BEHIND THE CURTAIN. Fort Baaraoun, Dakota, Sept. 16, 1875. ‘This agency differs from most of the others in the Northwest, The Indians live in circular houses, each ‘containing from five to twelve beds, The agency car- penter, wader Mr. Sperry, has made them rough bed- ‘toads, and most of them are provided with better stooping accommodations than the New York lodgers in the Fourth ward hotels, A strangor is struck with the number of trunks in the tepees. I see no earthly use for more than oue trunk to fifty Indians, but some havo one apiece, As they wear little clothing the trunks are Probably devoted © dried pumpkins, and the opera glasses which the government iasues to them with the _ i Requimaa land The road from Fort Stevenson this way is level sbout eight miles, then the prairie becomes domes loom up directly tn front are the sculptured remains of is not thirsty, and his they are beautiful to antiquary. A more singular and solemn mpectacle cannot be found outside of the great moun- In places the clay has turned to svone. Resides the domes there are columns and arches and winding corridors carved by the storms of centuries, They are deautiful by day; bat one should see them at night ‘anders fall moon. Then the harsher outlines disap- Pear, and from the bottom of tho passageways the starry sky seems to rest on the tips of the domes like sroof of sapphire, The last time I passed that way the Right was fine, bat I rode an Indian male, and the poetry Was not so conspicuous as it might have been, The road from the cast winds among these fantastic Space is given to this singular region because it te the | home of Mr, Sporry's Indiana Notwithstanding the | talk adont the desert, Bad Lands, grasshoppers, mos- Father De Smet had « good deal to aay about the Mis. ‘wourt River country, and this is what he wrote of the | Bad Lands in his letter to the Central Council at Paria. FATHER On SMET OF 1) | be gave them 109 cords from tho re noble. grandeur, there ry ecm ‘reared. to the ‘vault. of Seaven.” Further on "70 may. deacey stor oat by the tempest and surroun: by manteliaced wails, ite s hepamanie’ of . earibyaake sud thunder bolas of and pyramids which recall | ‘the gigantic labors of ancient ‘sround The at | Agents work upon such effert that — Pag or dostecying those surangs constrestions lieve are, | foand sadrapedo, mingled. wie tae ‘wlepats hare, Ihave soon wail sculin, ‘ee. 60 | : that two men could them. distinct impress of their primitive mature INDIANS AT WORSE: The Indians undoubtedly have a higher appreciation | of tho sublime and beautiful than the vulgar traiickers in merchandise give them credit for, Each day, as the sun sinks down in the west, solitary Indians may be seen climbing the highest bills There they sit hour after hour, silent and alone, until twilight creeps over the landscape and the stars come out inthesky. Ifa of their white teachers of the Ring. During the summer season companies of Indians go | to the green valieys among the hills and cut hay for — winter, while their children play along the river banks or gambol under the trees, The laughter of childhood is just as sweet here as it is in Counectiout or Central Park. Leaving the variegated monuments of the bad lands the traveller approaches Fort Berthold in the west. The prairie sweeps from the river bank away to the north, where it rises and forms what is known as the third bench, or the plains proper. The rounded | roofs of the Indian village are in sight The bastion of an old fort still stands at the upper corner of the stock. | ade, and the square roofed turret on the top, with quaint old weathercock, makes one think that be is ‘|p| rieoage b some ancient village in @ foreign land. know no other place in allof the Northwest where good fighting Indians are so easy to civilize. Of course, Mr. Sperry don’t think * but were he to try his hand on the Tetons he would wanta new scalp every two hours, The Berthold ludians like to live m houses when they don’t starve, Their children are nick to learn at school, and, all things considered, | they are as bright and as an intelligent Jot of savages aa can be found this side of the Cherokee Nation. A real tame indian, such as the half-oreeds of Fort Garry, is the most monotonous, unattractive speci mens of human mahogany that one can — There is no fun, pathos or poetry in hin. Red Cloud has more substance and originality in bis bitte Onger than all the Indians on the Red River, from Lake Win. nipeg down. Mr. Sperry will never have a better chance to distinguish himself as missionary and re former than he has had here, “ae ‘ite |~ ee ag on 'r, Sperry peen peculi@y furvunate in having a good ‘clerk. His name 1s William Courtenay, coutnonly ‘nown in military circles as Judge Co . He ban | the best set of books on the river. He was educated in @ great merc&ntile house in London. Double entry | bookkeeping in all its branches ts at his Onger ends | His reports and abstract statements are models in every — it, and were it not for y's outside operations | the agency would be a credit to the governinent, There are several ways of running these inswtutions The ‘usual style is to lump out the provietous in the eaniest | and quickest way, and keep as few books as pommble | Mr. Courtonay follows out the rules of the departinent to the bitter end, which consist in making reports aud vouchers and vouchers and reports, Almtracts and schedules, and monthly and quarterly reports of all sizes, apes and descriptions, until nether agent, Indian wor commissioner hardly knows who got away with the last steamboat load of am nuity goods, The circumiccution of the Interior bookkeeping department is in exact keeping wreh te Investigating expeditions, but with all its boomkeep: and investigating the people are defrauded and the diang starved. There js much machinery om paper im the War Department, but the soldiers get what is dee them, and the system of keeping scoount® so ad mirable that there is a check on everybody, from the jeneral down to the corporal It is for this reamen that 6 wisest and most conscientions men in the country aro now in favor of turning the Indian management over to the military, | have no doubt that Judge Courtenay could devise a much better way of keep: the agency accounts, he pot governed by the pried rules of the department, Certainly he could fet ie vent @ worse system than the present, aniess he were to throw his books into the river heave Aperry eof Raymond {n charge of al! the supplies. DUTIES OF THK AGRNCY CLERK While Mr. Sperry is concocting outside sohomes for morifyin his reformatory inswtution, Judge Courtenay joes the legitimate work, such aa feeding and pacily ig the Indians and making out reports Among other things which be does, may be mentioned a weekly | strictly overhauled than previously. The customs officials collected on Saturday upward of $1,800 duties from the passengers of the Anchor Jine steamer EPIZOOTY IN NEW JERSEY. A disease resembling the epizooty has broken out among the horses of Newark and the surrounding dis- trict. The symptoms are the same, modified, as and with 700 employés have all the business they can | those which foreran the trouble two years ago, The do to wait upon the customers who by the cold weather have been driven to winter purchases earlier than usual. ‘They report that they have sold more goods this year than any year of the twenty-six they have been in business in Grand street. Goods are shrinking in prices horses sneeze and cough and in the more severe cases run at the nose. Unlike then, however, the horses now eat and work well. Livery stable keepers are much alarmed, The disease has even broken out Dey the but ina mild ire Department horses, bt Ag ali the time; desirable lines, they believe, are as high as last year, but those not vovular there is uo detmand. for, Orange also the horses aro statement of fuuds; a rey of issues, giving the a ber of Indians and ihe wmownt Teobed ‘on week, 8 monthly report or synopsis of the aftaire of the agency, of from five to ten with reports from beads the departments, including a monthly funds; also @ quarterly statement, containing & of property on hand and property received Washington who get tons to supply lost tribes with Vouchers are wu: all transactions, apd are required for each transaction, In eel the clerk has to furnish an , a list of supplies Soon, "en abstract of schedule of certified vouchers, an estimate annual revort concerning the white residenta, | Rperry'* Grease are trowtied He knows or statistics of education, witn necessary ex Ky Allerasures and"interlineations. taust be explain ane spepuated for under oath before @ en mores, letters have to be written during the year, and estimates and Tequisitions made ‘out for contracts and supplies, Recently the Centennial — people sent in a little request for historical sketches, geologt- cal and botanical specimens, collections of rare ani- mals, implements of war, together with an article on the country and its peculiarities, covering thirty-two pages, and requiring an extensive intance with ancient and modern literature, the scicnces, arts and various departments of human knowledge. For doing tllis work and feeding and keeping peace with tho In- dians whom the agent swindles, and preventing an w rising and general massacte, the said clerk receives the enormous sum of $900 a year, interspersed with fre- quent insinuations and rebukes. My information does not come from Mr, Courtenay, but from others who know what is going on under the agency roof. Courte- nay and everybody know that the rations are 81 more than athird of what they should be; but in Mr, Sperry’s absence the Indians fare far better than when ho 1s here, looking after his contracts and vouchers. The Indians speak well of the clerk, and they say that were it not for him they would obliged to leave t agency or drive Sperry away. But, tt may be as! if the clerk does most of t! ork, how is it that so many false entries and fraudulent papers are made out? [ leave this question for Commissioner Smith to answer, It is not for me to tell who reports “irregularities” to Washington. I know that damaging statements have been forwarded to the Interior Department, and. that the abuses were not reformed. If an agent has a com- petent clerk to do all of nis legitimate work, he has plenty of time and chances to manage his outside busi- ness, such as drawing his dividends from Indian goods sold by his partner and preparing special vouchers for transportation companies. The legitimate duties of the agency should not be confounded with Mr. Sperry’s operations, Mr. Courtenay’s system of issuing supplies is admir- ablo, He has brass checks like railroad baggage checks. ‘They are numbered and entered vn the rolls apposite the Indian's names. If ‘Black Catfish’? has check No, 343 he cannot draw his rations uutil ho presents it. ‘As oach Indian receives his portion a check mark is made against his name onthe hst. The amount of rations now issued 18 as follows:. THE RATIONS Six ounces of pork to each Indian a week; three and one-eighth pounds of flour, with no coffee, no sugar, no beef Last winter the issue was one beef animal to sixty-four Indians, every fifteen da; one sack of flour to sixteen people every fifteen days; three pounds of pork were also divided among four persons every fif- teen days. No sugar nor coffee wore given except to those who worked for it and paid trader's prices. These items show the proportion—the amount each man got during & certain number of days. When it is diviaed into daily rations the amount is small, Y ‘The schedule of issues has been revised. Each In- dian now receives once a week six ounces of por! three and one-eighth pounds of flour, but no bee! coflee nor sugar, except in wages for work. THE APPROPRIATION for the three tribes at this agency this year is $85,000, There are said to be about 2,000 Indians on the reserva- tion who draw rations. From the day that Mr. Sperry first set foot in the village he has been at war with the Indians and opposed to living with them or near them. Finally, after much letter writing and many journeys to Washington, ho obtained permission to’ erect new butldings on the rivera mile aud a half below. With framed houses and a new carps of assistants, he expected to run his little empire more to the satisfaction of humself and the joy of the depart- ment. But this mvestigation business has destroyed his schemes and now he sends in his resignation, whieh he had ought to have done two years ago, The #word of Damocles has not hung by a single hair, but be bas been in real danger of losing his scalp ever since he ——t on the Indians’ labor. That he owes hts life to the fuithful services of Judge Courte- Bay noone doubts for an instant. When they have been actually starving bo has issued extra supplies, and when they were out of fuel and the storms were fo terrible that none could be hauled from the woods agency pile, for which he was abused by the agent. When Sperry re- fuses to listen to their complaints the clerk calls the in- terpreter and waits jently until their wants are made knowa, Then, if proper, ho secs that they are supplied. NOW TROUBLES ARISE. Tt is diMeult to prevent misunderstandings, which may lead to serious results even when both sides are in the right. Lvemember one occasion, when an In- dian clastned pay for sotne hay that he had cut, Courte- hay said that he had been paid. Still he insisted that be had not, Then the receipt was shown where he had made his mark, and witnesses were called im to prove vt Sven the interpreters tried to make the Indian un- derstand that he had we They all remembered ow, the cireumstance well Mr. Sperry would bave the savage from the room, Out Mr. Courtemay, who had already spent two the matter, was determined to da he iy seus to a distant part of the vil- ebief who was also present when the d veer pad. The warrior svon came bound- office, with a smile on his face, The case Mbated. "Yes," said he, “you paid Yellow Horse for hay, bat ws young Yeilow Horse. This ts the old man,’ By two nature @nd paket investigation pre | oer) man’ burst inte a laugh when he saw how it “8, ahd, shaking Lands with the clerk, went out to we to bis friewds Courtenay works from the morning until late atnight After he bad releved the sullering Indians in the winter home and Set up a territic growl about ex- 38 jeave their bores tn the Kast and work for him, He made them rose colored promises and said he would see should want for nothing, When they ar- ¥ wore aasigned quarters in tho barracks, Winter came on The winds how! wih fury. The doors were vpen and the coilings full of reviews, Dust rattiod down, and the air ie the rooms war almost fromy. “Yea, I will send the said the reformer, ens and while the wives children of his friends shivert [have heard. thom tell of these things with ry flashing sed bands clenched, and they asked ifa man whe broke bis promuses to his own kin could be ex. pected to keop faith with the Indians. HOW THE AGENT TREATED U8 EMPLOYERS, Panama, Chautauqua county, married Sperry’s cousin, was asked to be bis ” said the young agent, “to be my right hand man.” We will tun shings isa Christian way, and Twa man 7 you $1,200ayear. Morgan is an intelligent good education, His wife is young, beautiful aod They came to the agency. He worked for (he agent as jong as he could wihoat mort- ny ey soul and bedy to the man, then he weat ok reduced his aoe until they were only $900. lie charged himself, bis wife and child for board, so that he bad nothing for his services. ad yet, at this very time, the sham reformer was stealing government oo for his mess and pocket- ing te proceeds This is only one instance of the jong list of outrages perpetrated on Mr. Morgan aud his family Last summer James Boyle, a former employé at the | agency, was ordered off the reservation, He saddied his horse and was om the point of leaving, when Sperry came out and asked hit what he came there for. He said to we his Indian wife, Then he was ordered to leave forthwith, Hoyle grew augry and said be would not go ult he got read; ‘Sperry saw that he could do abone, oy Lye cael out some Indians who did Boyle and had them drive him For doing this he gave them (according to the: wtate- ent) ove sack of four, a side vi bacou, Geen pounds of sugar and ten pe of coffee, Sperry tod bim that he had orders % the agency, and if asuiugton to drive him from to call on the military packages came open in the wagou and © portioa of the cole apilied Sperry end made bo entry of the monny ob the About the treanest thing that Sperry has ever dowe is thin Ip the winter, when the weather was very sod the = hades ore = eneatnped wwter quarters, he ki othe for home use, Sent them the eeiraiis, boats and, borne i feon the men woo did the haul ould bardiy Wrar the sicwch, putsstection had i far, The weather was ould, bat the reluse lam im beaps and uly tee surtere of the compost froeen Fourteen loads are o8 fecord the men trom §5 to $46 lomd for sexisting famous) ot Ik money 804 mm eoireie—vEt 10 Vien tes betomged to by fir i ? Sisli epee are aivaye on hun He knows he may be awakened by the edge of « knife Gad teas show bem meres bat the emita be at tbett beef have go morey. Tne atom them (otete < Ogrns s [temde proterred iaremtines to weet I bot Olrare, Wek ewnenn poy ie bus Mr Mperry dal mot give ee eons eee i ui . ow Het FIRE ON THIRD AVENUE. Ab about four o'clock yenerday morning » fre broke ery Brick tenement house Na #78 Third avenue, owned by The damage to the builting is ontt $4,000; insurance unknown The furnitare