A KEVULSION AND ITS CAUSE. 
133 
erected and immediately occupied. A season of prosperity had 
been experienced without a parallel. Men were not confined 
in their operations to their legitimate business, but would in¬ 
vest in anything that presented itself, and everything had been 
turned to advantage. But as soon as the rainy season cut off 
communication with the interior, a depression was felt, and soon 
-an entire stagnation in all departments of business. This was 
not a time when the current of business could be safely checked; 
people had been borne to their present positions by one of the 
most buoyant seas; and should this pass from beneath them, 
the other extreme must as inevitabty follow as the ebb follows 
the flood. This extreme was soon reached. Men found them¬ 
selves with heavy stocks on hand that would not command one- 
half their cost. City lots that had cost them thousands, would 
not now command as many hundreds. Many found it impossi¬ 
ble to pay their enormous rents, even with their gross amount 
of sales. A crash was inevitable, and it came; and all were 
buried beneath the ruins of their own structures. The elements 
seemed destined to complete the devastation, and on the 10th 
of December the city was inundated, the deluge running riot 
through the streets, carrying houses from their foundations, and 
causing the inhabitants to flee to the shipping for safety. 
