THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Too mach credit. 



"There are too many persons engaged in mer- 

 cantile pursuits who have experienced the disad- 

 vantages of too great a facility in procuring the 

 loan of money. It is stated in Hunt's Merchant's 

 Magazine for November, that in 1802, Mr. Carey 

 was elected by the Senate of the State a director 

 of the bank of Pennsylvania, which station he oc- 

 cupied until 1S05. He mentions, as a disadvan- 

 tage to him from the position, the lenity shown by 

 the other directors, whereby his debts rose extrav- 

 agantly high. This evil he urges with great 

 warmth and zeal, as one which several times in 

 business life came near bringing him to bankrupt- 

 cy. "I printed and published," he declares "above 

 twice as many books as were necessary for the ex- 

 tent of my business ; and in consequence, incurred 

 oppressive debts — was laid under contribution for 

 interest to usurers, which not only swallowed up 

 my profits, but kept me in a constant state of pen- 

 ury. I was in many cases shaved so close that 

 they almost skinned nie alive. To this cause, my 

 difficulties were nearly altogether owing, for I did 

 a large and profitable business almost from the time 

 I opened a bookstore." 



The late Matthew Carev of Philadelphia, who 

 died a few weeks ago at an advanced age exceed- 

 ing eighty years, from an irtjury received by an 

 accident while riding in his carriage, was among 

 the most noble spirited, enterprising men of the 

 country. He has been an extensive writer and ed- 

 itor both before and since he left active business in 

 the hands of his sons: we have seen volumes of 

 literary periodical magazines which he conducted 

 and published as far back as the year 1790. Re- 

 cently the house with which he was connected, di- 

 vided into two firms, has undertaken and publish- 

 ed works on science, art, medicine, geography, 

 &c. &c, the magnitude of whose expense would 

 astonish persons who deal on a small scale. Near- 

 ly every work of the imagination, novels, romances, 

 stories of fiction and stories of fact, plays, poems, 

 &c. which have been reprinted in this country, were 

 first published by them ; the house has even been 

 at the expense of purchasing original manuscript 

 copies from' eminent authors in Great Britain, that 

 they might precede all others in the early issuing 

 from the press of the most interesting books ; Scott's 

 Waverley novels were by them procured in tliia 

 way. The wonder is, that in all these great en- 

 terprises the concern had not, in the course of the 

 last thirty years, failed many times. None other 

 than such as the indefatigable, laborious, system- 

 atic Carey, or liis advice and resources of mind, 

 could have carried through so great a weight. 



Matthew Carey was a native of Ireland, and 

 probably came to this country poor ; he and his 

 family are Roman Catholics. He was among the 

 early opponents of John Adams' administration, 

 and, we believe, at one time published a political 

 newspaper ; during the last war with Great Brit- 

 ain he wrote a political book called the " Olive 

 Branch" which had a great effect on public opin- 

 ion. He changed his political couise, and early 

 became a zealous advocate tor the tariff and the 

 "American Sy.stem" as it has been styled, and has 

 written and published more on that subject than a- 

 ny other man. His course for j'cars, since he re- 

 tired from active business, was to write and first 

 print in pamphlet form, and send his printed es- 

 says to the various editors. This was done gratu- 

 itously, and must have been no inconsiderable per- 

 sonal expense in addition to the severe mental la- 

 bor which he encountered. On the tariff he was 

 over-zealous ; but no man in the country was more 

 honest. His zeal in all matters which he under- 

 took to discuss had no bounds : he was irritable and 

 impa'ient towards those who did not conform to 

 liis opinions. In matters of business he was rigid 

 in the exaction and exi'cution of every obligation. 

 His living in his family might not be considered 

 extravagant for a man of fortune in a city so pol- 

 ished as that of Philadelphia. He was attentive 

 and liberal to strangers : on our first visit to Phila- 

 delphia more than twenty years ago, he was almost 

 the only acquaintance we made, and we was in- 

 vited to dine on fish in the time of Lent, cooked in 

 different ways, and was treated with sparkling 

 Madeira and with two hours conversation at his ta- 

 ble. 



We had no idea, until we find the confession from 

 under his own hand, that he kept up his great book 

 establishment in the manner he has described ; that 

 in consequence of extending business too far he 

 "was laid under contribution for interest to usurers 

 which not only swallowed up his profits, but kept 

 him in a constant state of penury." Nowhere but 

 in Philadelphia, where has always been abundance 

 of capital, could he hav-e succeeded in such a state 

 of things for a single year. His enjoyment must 



have been marred — his mind must have been kept 

 in a constant perturbation,by his pecuniary respon- 

 sibilities. 



The lesson of this great man ought not to be lost 

 on others, and especially on young men, nine out 

 of ten of whom who do business with the cities, read- 

 ily venture far, very far beyond their depth; and of 

 consequence nine outof ten ofthem fail of success. 

 They seldom find that "profitable business" which 

 can survive the close sliaving which Mr. Carey de- 

 nominates "almost skinning alive." 



This gentleman is only one instance of thou- 

 sands wliose misfortune has been the facility of 

 loaning money at banks. The editor of the Visitor, 

 from the same cause, has suffered in a pecuniary 

 point of view what he never could have suffered 

 if there never had been a bank. In his earlier bu- 

 siness he first started with a loan of four hundred 

 dollars, being a part of what was promised him 

 with which to begin a political newspaper, which 

 was not then on the popular side or the side of lib- 

 eral patronage : instead of giving us the money on 

 a long loan, it was obtained on our own name and 

 those of two friends who volunteered to aid us, 

 who was then not worth a dollar, at a bank ; and 

 six months did not pass over our treads before all 

 the names on the note were sued. When and how 

 we obtained the money to pay the loan before 

 court, any more than we obtained it to pay debts 

 in hundreds of cases, we cannot now tell ; but tlie 

 burnt fingers then kept us out of the bank for at 

 least half a dozen years. We did not, to pay great 

 cash expenses in a publishing office wheie cash 

 was not easily obtained in return either for news- 

 paper subscriptions or for the books which we print- 

 ed, submit to shaving to a very great extent. Our 

 paper makers furnished their paper at a fair cash 

 price, except for the newspaper on which they gave 

 us a longer credit at a higher price ; and we gave 

 them our notes generally at three or four months 

 grace. These notes were in nine cases out of ten 

 taken at a great shave by the great shaver who for- 

 merly resided here and made his cool hundred 

 thousand : as he is not known at the present time 

 to have a residence any where, it may be no viola- 

 tion of propriety to speak of him. He treated us 

 honorably and fairly. Our notes which he pur- 

 chased bore no interest until they were due. He 

 always waited our convenient time for payment. — 

 His first offer was to exact no more than six per 

 cent, for delay until ho notified us that he wanted 

 the money — after that payment might be delayed, 

 but he was to receive twelve per cent, interest as 

 long as the indulgence continued. This last con- 

 dition was afterwards altered to nine per cent, 

 where it stood at the time of our last dealing. Some 

 how or other we did an expensive business on a 

 very long credit generally to our subscribers and 

 patrons ; and all the time we never asked any usur- 

 er to shave notes on our account; but those who 

 dealt with us were prodigiously skinned on notes 

 of our signing to the amount of many thousands 

 of dollars, and have long since gone with others to 

 the "tomb of the Capulets." 



Business went on in this way until about the 

 year 18J9, when a friend now deceased persuaded 

 us to assist two young men to start in business by 

 procuring a discount at the United States Branch 

 bank at Portsmouth, which might be had at a little 

 better rate than at other banks. This note was dis- 

 charged by our payment in ten per cent, checks on 

 the principal and a renewal every four months. — 

 The young men wanting more aid, we procured 

 for them another thousand dollars, from the same 

 bank, which was paid in the same way. Theirbu- 

 siness did not well succeed ; — we waited for our 

 advance to be refunded until they had settled and 

 paid every other demand, and the last payment 

 was made' to us more than twelve years after the 

 advance was made. Our credit however soon be- 

 came "too much" with the Oirectors of the Branch 

 at Portsmouth : we never took out of that bank a 

 dollar for our own proper business ; but the direc- 

 tors referred many men of this vicinity to our name 

 as their most satisfactory security. We gave it in 

 several instances on security which we supposed 

 ample. For this we paid only one thousand dollars 

 smart money, the principal on the note failing and 

 our sureties covering their property. While in bu- 

 siness we believe the Casliier of the Branch will 

 do us the justice to affirm that application to the 

 Bank was never made in our name that was denied 

 by the directors; and no note of ours ever laid 

 over a day for protest except by accident or neg- 

 lect of the carrier between this town and Ports- 

 mouth. 



Here was a fascinating introduction to the bene- 

 fits of bank credit up to the year 1825, when the 

 charter of the old Concord Bank having expired— - 

 a charter under which two banks with the same 



name had operated for the previous twenty years 

 — the stockholders of both applied to the Legisla- 

 ture for renewal; and two charters were granted 

 under the regulations of a general law on banking 

 requiring that there should be no bank with a cap- 

 ital less than one hundred thousand dollars. We 

 had no stock in either bank, and had no interest in 

 the application for renewal ; but we had an inter- 

 est in the charter for a fire insurance ofnce, there 

 not being an institution of the kind in the State ; 

 and the want of such an institution was seriously 

 felt by almost every loss from fire that occurred. 

 The charter of the insurance required that the cap- 

 ital should be in bank stock, as the most conven- 

 ient for its operations and for payment of losses. 

 We had a considerable interest in the insurance 

 company : the stockholders of the Merrimack 

 County Bank were obliged to put in operation 

 move stock than they could conveniently fill up. — 

 These two events brought us at once into the bank, 

 of which the stockholders elected us a director. 

 From 1825 to 1829 we remained in the officeof di- 

 rector of the Bank : this place gave us, as it did 

 the venerable Carey, opportunity for obtaining at 

 any time all the money we wanted. We not only 

 helped ourselves, but we assisted otliers in obtain- 

 ing loans at this bank. Up to the time of our leav- 

 ing the business of a publisher, all our bankingbu- 

 siness was conducted as nil customers should con- 

 duct in a bank — there was no instance of a note of 

 ours laying over unpaid. This gave us too much 

 credit: it gave too great facilities for obtaining 

 money to those who succeeded us. The conse- 

 quence was, the business was spread beyond what 

 it should be. In.3tead of discharging existing debts, 

 new business was undertaken and additional debts 

 contracted, so that the termination of six years 

 found the book and newspaper establishment in the 

 hands of our successors much involved, and the 

 weight of our old debts still existing in the bank. 

 The business, from its expansion, had not sustained 

 itself— much less returned any portion of the orig- 

 inal capital invested. If the facilities for bank ac- 

 commodations had not existed all this time, a safe 

 and a very profitable business might have been pur- 

 sued, instead of which, all the parties were for the 

 moment seemingly Involved in ruin. To settle and 

 adjust the responsibilities in which this state of 

 things placed us, our condition, amidst the honors 

 of office and the confidence of our fellow citizens, 

 has been all the time nearly or quite as unpleasant 

 as that of the excellent philanthropist described in 

 his own language. With him we might say, that 

 our difficulties during the last ten years were near- 

 ly altogether owing to "too great a facility in pro- 

 curing the loan of" money ; " although, unlike his 

 case, our difficulty has resulted from the use which 

 others made of our credit, not the voluntary use 

 we have made of it ourselves. 



Hon. I. Hill,— Sii- .—Should you deem the fol- 

 ing recipes worthy a place in your valuable paper, 

 you are at liberty to insert them. 



TO MAKE VEAST CAKF.S, OF PORTABLE VEAST. 



Prepare one quart of strong hop water, nicely 

 strained. When boiling hot, stir into it one quart 

 of rye or wheat flour. After doing this, add about 

 one teacup full of cold water. When it is as warm 

 as new milk, ad'J three gills of good yeast. Let it 

 stand ten or twelve hours. Then stir and knead 

 into it, as much Indian meal as possible. Roll it 

 out thin, and cut It In cakes three inches square. 

 Dry them on aboard, inany airy place in the shade. 

 When thoroughly dried, tie them closely in a bag. 



Two or three hours before wetting your bread, 

 break three or four cakes into just water enough to 

 moisten them, and you will have very good yeast. 

 These cakes arc very convenient, and will retam 

 their goodness si.x months. 



TO THAW mOZEN EGGS. 



Put your eggs (even when the shell is cracked) 

 into cold wate", and place it where the water will 

 warm very gradually. When it is a little warmer 

 than new mTlk, place it where it will remain about 

 the same temperature for an hour or two. On break- 

 ino- your eggs, you will find them as good as fresh 

 ones, which never have been frozen. 



TO MAKE PCMPKI.N SAUfE. 



Boil your cider as you would do to make apple. 

 sauce. Cut your pumpkin in pieces about as large 

 as a quarter of an apple, and stew it as you would 

 apples. This has much the same flavor as apple 

 sauce, and is quite convenient where pumpkins 

 are more plenty than good apples. 



REMEDV rOK BURNS. 



Steep the bark of Sumach root, and boil it away 

 until it is very strong. Then add hog's lard, aud 



