The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-05-14
"The Best in the WOrll.v

simply beautiful. Fresh from the press, with
the promise to pay unbroken by a crease, its
picture unsoiled and unwrinkled, and its
crinky sound as significant of wealth as was
the Jingle of coin in the barbarous times when
promise had contingent relations with per-
ormance, the dollar bill is an object of admi
ration and delight. Few things are superior
to it in nature or in art On the upper lett
hand corner Christopher Columbus is discov-
ering the land of promise; in the centre is the
promise to pay of the land he discovered, and
on the lower right hand corner the signature
of Treasurer Spinner, a gentlemen whose in
tegrity is as Roman as the nose of the Father
of His Country, whose portrait adorns the
middle Of the bill, because he never told lie.
There may be citizens who have never seen
this work of art and symbol of wealth in its
crisp condition. Possibly to those to whom
the dollar bill has come limp, creased, and
measly, the statement that the portrait which
adorns it is of the Father Of His Country, and
that he wore Roman nose when in life and is
so represented in the engraving, and that he
never told a lie, may seem incredible. 1t is
not impossible that it may be doubted, and
that men-mere men-of whom the poet beau
tifully says, "Men may come and men may 60,
but the one dollar bill flows on forever"-may
assert that this is not the portrait OF any man
who never told lie, and that he does not
wear Roman nose either. 1t is the misfor-
tune of such persons not to have seen the dol
lar bill when it was fresh and crisp, when the
promise and the Roman nose were both un-
broken by repeated foIdings and wrinklings,
and the face of the Father of His Country had
not been pinched and punched and "wuzzled
up'' into counterfeit presentment OF Judas
Iscariot.
But the one dollar bill is not only beautiful
as a work of art it is an emblem of democracy
a medium of exchange a vehicle of contagion
and it "moycs the crops" 1t passes from high
to low, from rich to poor. from the Pharlsee to
the publican, from the weak to the wicked. 1t
traverses all the strata of society, levels all
distinctions and difilses all manner of conta-
gous diseases. Consider for moment what a
great work the one dollar bill-and, for that
NATTER any other dollar bill, or the half dollar
stamp, or the new and beautiful ten cent piece
does in dlfusing those blessed diseases, the
small pox, the mumps and the measles. Every
other species of portable property that goes
into the pest-housc is destroyed; the currency
of the realm comes out and passes from hand
to hand, bearing contagion in its folds and the
aroma of the hospital in its creases. What a
boon in such a currency. Witness the flight
of the Auttcring ten cent piece, gathering up
the measles on its wings and carrying them to
the fireside that might otherwise have never
rcioiccd in them; or behold the swift course OF
that Joy of the countcrleiter and terror of the
apple woman, the fifty cent piece as it carries
the small poX from city to city, and keeps up
the demand in all well regulated municipali-
tics for pure vaccine natter or reflects upon
the wide diffusion through the medium of the
one dollar bill of that cxhilarating epidemic of
which the Duke of Argyle is the patron saint
and the Scotch fiddle the accompaniment.
There was never a medium of exchange that
went abroad on so many crrands, and per.
formed them all so we'll. 1t is we'll named
"the best currency in the world" Mr.. Morton
sings IFS praises, Mr.. Logan chants its wonder
full works, a thousand Tyres reverbrate in the
chorus, and Mr.. Carpenter sheds it on the Just
and the unjust. Whoever undertakes to handle
it without gloves gets the worst OF it.
And yet there are people who go about
making fuss because this, the best currency
in the world bears the promise OF the United
States to pay dollar, and the United States
never pay dollar, and will not say when or if
ever they will pay the dollar. How unreason-
able to stop the diffusion of democratic dis
eases in this way. 1t is neat and pretty cur
rencv, and by the time it gets to the Mississippi
river is as sweet and pure rs the politics OF the
country of which it is an emblem. What a
pity it would be to substitute coin for it, or DO
ANYTHING to interfere with its mission.-New
York Tribune.