My hotel-keeper, a bright sociable man, was induced to give me his own
opinions on the depression. He acknowledged that his own hotel was
doing fairly well, but the other hotels were mostly empty. Tradesmen he
knew were bitterly lamenting the want of custom, buildings in course of
erection were stopped because the owners did not think themselves
justified in proceeding with the structures, rents were hard to collect
from tenants, the upper storeys were already empty, reductions had been
made on the lower floors, and still there were no permanent tenants;
goods stored in bonded warehouses had to be auctioned, as the
proprietors had not the means to take them away, etc., etc.