The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1868-09-03
The Public Debt:Strlkfng Illus.
trHfiOns


The Public Debt-Strlking Illus.
tratiOns
The statement of the public debt pub.
lished August 1st, 1868, confesses that the
amount Of that great national blessing %
foots up s2,523, ,534, ,4SO! These figures
represent an amount Of indebtedness that
few men can comprehend. Its immensely
is barely within the bounds Of human cal
culation, and would prove appalling to a
nation of Rothchilds, Barinss and Pea
bocys. - 2
1t stands upon the ruin of the coustitu-
ton, amid the crumbling pillars Of the
American republic, monument of radical
nlisrule, inccmpetency, villainy and des-
potism. While it represents the price Of
our national ruin and degradation, it is
eloquent of national bankruptcy, intolera-
BILE and eternal taxation and of selfish sub
jugation of the poor to the rich.
The tax gatherers, of whom it is the
fertile parent, are now busy in every street,
lane. highway, and byway in the land
and are so disastrous to the prosperity Of
the country as the seven plaques were to
which Pharaoh was compelled to succumb,
They pay taxes for
The hat on your head,
The boots on your feet,
The clothes on your person,
The food you eat,
The tea and coffee you drink,
The pot it is cooked in,
The cup you drink it out of,
The implements on your farm,
The tools you work with.
The paper you write on,
The pen and ink you use,
The papers and books you read,
The furniture in your house,
The gas or oil yon burn,
The coal you consume,
The stove you burn it in,
The match you light it with.
The medicine you take,
The tobacco you smoke,
The pipe you smoke it in,
The dishes on your table, and
All you eat off them.
Those of our readers who deal in none,
and who are in the daily habit of inspect
ing piles of greenbacks may be interested
with the following illustrations, which W,
find in the Frankfort Yeoman:
The highest mountain in the world is
peak Of the Himalaya mountains, in India
which reaches the altitude of %, lis feet
or little less than five and half miles.
The public debt of the United States
according to the official statement of th'
secretary Of the treasury, amounted, or
the first of the present month, to the sun
of So. .523, ,234 ,4S0 Now let us, fer illus
tration, suppose this debt to be one dolla
bills, and piled up before us. Do you i'm
agine it would reach mountain hight"
Let us see:
Allow one hundred notes to the inch
and we have its hight to be
To be. .25, ,235 .344 :. inches!
or ........... 2,102 ,945 :. feet
r........ 700,9S1.. yards !! 4!
or .......... $685.. miles /! i! !
or, if the notes were of the denomination
of 800 each, instead Of 81, we shoul
have pyramid of money reaching abou
four miles high whilst the highest noun
tain peak in North America, Mount 81
Elias, in Russian America). is but IL,
900 feet, or less than 81 miles.
Still further: let us suppose the debt t
be in silver instead of notes, and estims
tiog SIG to the round, we have weigh
of debt amounting to just Isl, ,720, go
pounds, or 1857 car loads (at 1000
pounds to the carr, which would make
train Of cars Sc miles in length, allowin
but thirty feet to the car.
But let us illustrate a little further
and suppose it were necessary to take tn
silver dollars from the mint, employin
porters for that purpose. requiring eac
man to carry forty pounds. In that cas-
it would take about 100000 men, VIII
standing three feet apart would max
about 5000 miles long; and marching q
the rate of three miles an hour, it woul
require about forty days for this debt bur
Gened army to pass given point. An
the task of counting the debt, in silver do
lars, would be one of almost endless dura
tion. Let US see A man commencin
August /, 1868, aud wor king ten hour
each day, and counting sixty dollars eac
minute, would accomplish the job A. L
1868.
But there are other illustrations of tn
magnitude of THE great national bles.
;pr - which o,n ,,at fail 20 orrost tbo 49,,