The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-05-03

And some, when "thls cruel war was
over" come back. had q farm. sold it
and put my money in bonds. Bonds beat
farms ten to nothing! And speculated in
"things," And | sold stuff to the soldiers.
And got their bounty money on shares
And filled town quotas, and made nice
little haul by that. And put my cash in
bonds.
Bonds are just old rosewood with gilt edge
Let me see. l have now one hundred thous-
and dollars In government bonds. How
love my government 1t Is the best the sun
ever shone on These bonds average me
eight per cent, interest in gold. Eight per
cent. on one hundred thousand dollars is Just
eight thousand. And get it in gold. worth
thirty-fve to forty FIVE per cent. premium
This makes, In greenbaoks, the snug little
| sum of eleven thousand dollars-round num-
bers.
And the beauty of it is 1 DONE have one
cent of taxes to pay.
Isn't 1t nice?
This is the best government the world ever
saw. Rich men hold bonds-poor u.en paw
them. Tho tax-gatherer DON'T bother me-
Ii don't cost me one red cent to-let me see ::
To pay state expenses!
To pay government expenses
To pay county taxes
To pay city taxes
To pay village taxes!
To pay town taxes!
To pay school taxes!
To pay road taxes
To pay poor taxes
To pay for building churches, school-hous-
| er, bridges, railroads, Improvements, or even
interest!
l am one of the supporters of this govern
| ment. Good thing. Ii it had not been for
| such loud-mouthed s,ay-at-home guards, the
war never would have been ended. And the
| joke OF the season.
You see we raised them by taxation, of
course. And we taxed the property-the
| real estate of the town. And we issued
! town bonds, city bonds, county bonds, state
bonds and every other kind of bonds. And
we sold 'em dog cheap to get the money to
| pay bounties And US fellows bought the
! bonds at a discount. And we gave the ''vol-
| unseers" money to 20 to war. And while
they were gone we had good time. And
we sold our farms cheap to the wives of the
soldiers. And we got our bounty money all
| back.
And better still ! The soldiers come back
| from the war and now are working TO pay
taxes to pay interest on my bonds
Isn't it nice.
The id fools went to war, and now
come back and work like dogs to pay US the
interest on the bonds we sold to give them
money. They are paying themselves for
getting shot at! Bully for us bondholders
And now they work to pay the interest
When they get used to it we'll make 'em
pay the principal too! What good govern
ment this ia.
This war didn't cost me one cent. I didn'.
| spill drop of my blood-but key-rhist, how
| I bawl out against the democrats.
| And now | sit in my parlor-I smoke my
cigars-I drink my wine-I enjoy myself,
| and have no taxes to pay. Look at that poor
! cuss across the creek. He amt worth a
thousand dollars, yet he, poor dog, is In debt,
| and pays half his earnings IN taxes. lie
| paws all the taxes, and then his wife sells
| butter, eggs, wooden yarn, milk, vegetables
| and such little things to get the mon
| ey to put in the bank to pay me the In
! terest on my one hundred thousand dollare,
| as II falls due every three months.
| You see this is financial science. Poor
| men support the government, pay all the
| taxes, make US richer, do all the fighting
! Us bondhoIders, ofhceholders and such pat
riots, do the figuring, get the Offices the
! money and have good time of it.
| Now / eat fine food while that poor cuss
over the way eats coarse. And l wear
br0adcoth, he wears patches. And my
wife faunts hsr silk and swings her bslmor
al skirts under the nose of that poor man
/ wife, for | am rich, taxless bondholder, and
be is poor cuss who supports the govern
! ment and me too.
Work away, you poor fools. Toll ycar
| fingers to the bone, and die poor men for my
sake The war was god send to thieves,
swindlers, towards, stay-at-home patriots,
abolition agitators, republican ofhceholders,
robbers and, in fact. all of our crowd of I'm
ion voters Damn the Union, if we can only
hold bonds and Offices, and keep the people in
poverty.
! Guess this wasn't a rich mans war-guess
not And I guess you folks don't 60 fol
equal taxation or repudiation-for it is wrong
to i9jure us chaps who support the govern
ment.
A Significant Change.
l Ot,vr he nnt.aa nf r