The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1866-03-10
Father Perkins and the EEilkcrs.

cans had the decencv to vote with the uehl-
ocrats against it.
Father Perkins and the TEilKers.
We hare been watching, for four or five
weeks past, with some interest. (arising
| chiefly from the amusement II the thing,) a
controversy carried on in the Ottawa Repn6-
lican between a charlottesville" this is the
| classic epiihst the controversalists, by CONS
mon consent have assigned to HIM signing
| himself spectator and. the Miilcrs and
! nominy Grinders Of Ottawa. 1t began N
this way: Fath-r Perkins had been uttering
| big words about railroad monopolies. high
freights, &c. Apro3os of this appears
l"Blather we mean Spectator, and says,
our Millers and hominy grinder are no bet
ter than the railroad monopolists. The mil
| lers buy corn for % cts. bushel, grind it,
and sell the meal for 81 per 100 lbs. and
| they take three bushels Of wheat for "ma,h>
ing" a fourth into four; while the hominy
| grinder pays % cts. bushei for corn, which,
with curious machine, lie converts into
hominy, and sells for So per bushe.
To these rather loose and sweeping chsrges
the miilers and the said ''hominy grinder"
deigned no reply.
| The "Blatherskiie" is determined they
| shall notice him. SO he indites second
article, charging more specifically that the
millers buy wheat fer 20 to 30 cts. per bush>
! ell, and sell the -four made from 1t for $3.50
to So 90 per 100, realizing profit Of 200 to
800 per cent. Also, that flour can be bought
cheaper in Chicago than in Ottawa. lem
reiterates the charge against the hominy
grinder.
This has the desired effect y Miller
replies, and ''Hominy Grinder replies. The
miller says simply, that the -four made from
- to 50 cent wheat is sold by the Ottawa
milers Il s5.00(05.5O per Dbl, while the
-four they sell at s. 00@j.jO per 100 is made
Of Minnesota and Wisconsin wheat. that
costs $3.50 per bushel; ard "Hominy Grind
err shows that the homiuy he makes from 30
(not 25) cent corn he sells at cts. per h..
the former cost having been 10 cts. per b.,
while other hOminy, made from bes: flint
corn--twice as expensive as common-he
sell, for cts. And said Hominy Grinder
thinks (and most justly, too, we should say
that he is entitled 20 credit rather than cen
sure for bringing down hominy from 10 to ,
cts. per ID.
Thus far, it must be admitted, the con:ro-
versy was "smaL, potatoes enough. But
now comes in q new element. One Of the
miIlers, impatient at fighting an object behind
Spectator and succeeding to his entire
satisfaction, is not little surprised TO find
that spectator is Fatter PERKINS himself!
The evidence is quite conclusive. "Specta-
tor himself says he wrote for the R.yHbl.caa
. year ago, and former foreman in the
Republican Office says that Spectator" was
Father Perkins. The evidence is so conclu-
sive, that Father ?. makes no pretcnce of
denying it, but pitches into the miller and
former foreman" for dishouorably disclosing
printing office secrets. That, however, don't
change the fact. Indeed the ''lormer fore
mans statement was unnecessary: there is
enough internal evidence in the communi>
cations to fix their authorship beyond contro-
Yersv.
So it results that Father P. finds himself
in Scrdpe, and his contOrtions in conse-
quence are decidedly amusing. At length
he gets farmer (who signs himself "A,')
to take the controversy off his shoulders.
Still, however, while the hand is Esau's, the
voice is Jacobs.
Spectator makes his FIRST appearance
under his new name in Thursdays ReputtI>
can, and pitches in right and left. He con-
troverts "Milier's" statement that the -four
from La Sale county wheat is not sold here
at s. GOA $50 per hundred, and, if shipped.
wants to know "under what brand,'' nsinu-
ating that, instead of shipped, it is .'m1ed !
also that the mllers toll SO heavily that
for 80 to 55 lbs of wheat the farmer gets
but % lbs. Of -four, the millers having mars
yelous 'fat hogs" and abundant "cow feed
from the stealings.
There the controversy stops for the pres
ens, the millers having the next "put."
Considering the size of the dispute, however,
we judge the millers will hardly continue it.
IF the whole matter were worth a serious
thought, we should say the attempt of
Spectator" to write about something he
evidently knows so little about, only furnish
es another Illustration Of the saving that
whenever 4 talks about thing he
knows nothing about, he is sure TO make an
ass of himself" This much we know to
certainty. that scarcely bushel Of the wheat
of last years crop brought to this market
has been fit TO make decent -four of; and
except to make very poor article for ship
ping at $4.O0G5.50 per Dbl, our miilers
have bought very little Of it. What they get
in the way of ..toll,r from custom work, is
made into this cheap flour and shipped.
Spectator can see five or six hundrsl. bar>
rels of this -four at the depot now, under a
brand however, that will relieve ii from
the suspicion abroad of having come from
Ottawa. As to the heavy ':toll'' A talks
about, let any one look at TIE wheat brought
to our mills. 1t is brought in Just as it
comes from the threshing machine,-the
dirtiest, nastiest stuff tbst ever went by the
name. Very likely, after so lbs. of that
stuff goes through the various ''smut ma
chimes and cleaners of our mills, and is then
tolled and converted into flour, but % or 80
lbs. are lett The truth is, the people Of
Ottawa are asked to eat very little -four
made from home raised wheat. The books
of our millers show that they have not
bought, since navigation closed, on IN ever
age loo bushels month of new home raised
wheat. They have, however, bought thou>
sands Of bushels of Wisconsin, Minnesota,