every one who signed it, bound himself not to receive or pay a piece of cut money after a certain day; and behold, the sharp-shins disappeared at the appointed time, as their successors, of somewhat similar name, the small-fry currency of shinplasters have since vanished at two or three successive periods; some some by redemption and some by repudiation, when the community refused to submit longer to the evil-and thus endeth the chapter of sharp-shins, shin-plasters and sharpers.

While on the subject of currency, it may not be amiss to notice a species of paper money issued on State authority soon after the Revolutionary war, of which, that issued by North Carolina survived all other, and was current to some extent in Petersburg and Southern Virginia, until absorbed some thirty or forty years ago by the Bank of North Carolina. This money was called proc. (i. e., proclamation money,) and was issued on bits of thick paper, about about the size of a playing card, and for various sums, from sixpence up to forty shillings. It was receivable for taxes, and circulated currently in North Carolina and on her borders, at the rate of ten shillings to the dollar; and at that rate the State redeemed all that appeared-a rare instance.

As to the old continental paper money and other

paper representatives, it was no uncommon thing to find a box or drawer full of it in the garret, or some other obscure part of an old store-house, and utterly worthless.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE FLUSH TIMES IN RICHMOND.

AFTER the war of 1812-14 with Great Britain, when specie payments were suspended, or rather some time after peace was restored, but before specie payments were resumed, when bank credits were as unlimited as was the issue of irredeemable bank notes, the spirit of speculation, like the great comet that preceded it, shed its influence over the land.

I will borrow from Washington Irving his description of the speculative mania a century before:

"Every body trusts every body. A bad debt is a thing unheard of. The way to certain and sudden wealth lies plain and open, and men are tempted to dash forward boldly from the facility of borrowing. Negotiable notes interchanged between

scheming individuals are liberally discounted by the banks, which become so many mints to coin promises into cash, and as the supply of promises is inexhaustible, it may readily be supposed what a vast amount of promissory capital is now in circulation.

'Every one talks in thousands; nothing is heard but gigantic operations in trade, great purchases and sales of real estate, and increased prices at every transfer. All, to be sure, as yet exists in promise, but the believer in promises calculates the aggregate as solid capital and is amazed at the amount of public wealth and the unexampled state of public prosperity.

"Now is the time for speculative and dreaming or designing men. They relate their dreams and projects to the ignorant and credulous, dazzle them with golden visions and set them crazed after shadows. The example of one stimulates another; speculation rises on speculation-bubble rises on bubble—every one helps with his breath to swell the windy superstructure, and admires and wonders at the magnitude of the inflation he has contributed to produce."

This is a true picture of the state of things in Richmond about the years 1816-17. Real estate in and around the city, soon to rival New York, rose in value (or price) from day to day. Steep hills and profound gullies were leveled or graded— on plats of surveys-and some work was commenced in reality, as scarified hill-sides attest at the present day-their green slopes changed to bare and inaccessible precipices; the debris washed by rains from the unprotected surface, serving to increase the bars and diminish the depth of water in the river.

The limits of Richmond were too contracted for

the imaginary population which was soon to overflow the city, and new towns or extensions of the old were tacked on in every direction. Cornfields, slashes and piney thickets were laid out into streets and squares.

City lots proper advanced in price, two, three, five, aye, ten fold, and those in the suburban towns, displayed on a highly colored plot-but not so highly colored as the descriptions of those who plotted to catch purchasers-instead of being sold by the acre at ten to fifty dollars, were retailed by the foot at ten to fifty times their former value.

There were not days enough in the week, nor hours enough in the day, for the rival auction sales. of real estate-so called. Red flags waved in every street, or where a street was in embryo. They flaunted in many a corn-field, where they served as scare-crows, aided by the ringing of the vendue bells, which resounded throughout the land, and attracted crowds, as the dinging on a tin-pan collects a hive of bees; but there was a larger proportion of drones among the bipeds than among the insects.

As buyers and sellers had not time to go to their meals, cold meats, mint juleps, toddy and punch were plentifully provided at the place of sale, and these attractions drew a crowd of idlers as well as bidders; and the former could not do

less in return for the viands, than to act as puffers; as stool-pigeons minister to faro-banks, where they enjoy canvas-backs, oysters and champagne gratis, with the victims they entice to partake. The concourse of bidders, puffers and lookers-on formed quite an animated scene. The auctioneer in the blandest tones, assured the bidders in words the most persuasive, and with a countenance the very picture of candor, that the purchasers would double their money before they would be called on to pay more than the first or second instalment. Long credits were usually given, dividing the payments into four, five or six instalments-the last extending, perhaps, to two or three years.

It may be presumed that there were by-bidders to set the ball in motion, or to give it an impulse when retarded. The excitement of bidding was also aided by the stimulating influence of the viands, and it did sometimes happen that he who drank the most liquor became the most spirited bidder. But the auctioneer kept a sharp look out. for the main chance, and would knock down a bargain to a substantial bidder, rather than hazard obtaining a higher bid from an unsubstantial one.

Not one buyer in twenty purchased with the intention of building, or even of holding longer than till the second or third instalment should fall due, when, according to the auctioneer's assurance, he would double his money.