New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-30


dition. Possibly to those to whom the dollar
bill has come limp creased, and measy, the
statement that the portrait which adorns it is
Of the Father Of His Country, and that he
wofe Roman nose when in life and Is
so represented in the engraving, and that
he never told 0 lie, may seem incredible.
1t is not impossible that it may be
doubted, and that men--mere men-Of whom
the poet beautifully says, " Men may come and
"men may go, but the one dollar bill flows
con forever"-may assert that this is not the
portrait of any man who never told o lie, and
that he does not wear Roman nose either
1t is tho misfortune of such persons not to
have seen the dollar bill when it was fresh
and crisp; when the promise and the Roman
nose were both unbroken by repeated foldings
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, vehicle of contagion,
and it "mOves the crops" 1t passes from high
to low, from rich to poor, from the Pharisee to
the publican, from the weak to the wicked. IL
traverses all the strata of society, levels ell dis
tinctions, and dIfuses all manner of contagious
diseases Consider for moment what great
work the one dollar bill-and, for that matter,
the any other dollar bill, or tho half-doliar
STAMP, or the new and beautiful ten cent piece
does in di1using those blessed diseases. the
smallpox, the mumps, and the measles.
Every other species of portable property thas
goes into the pest-house 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 q boon is such currency.
Witness the flight of tho futtering ten-cent
piece, gathering up the measles on Its wings
and carrying them to tiresdes that might other
wise never have rejoiced in them; or behold
the swift course of that JOY OF the counter
feitcr and terror of the apple-woman, the fifty
cent piece, as it carries the smallpox from
city to city and keeps up tho demand
in all well regulated municipalities for
pure vaccine matter; or reflect upon the VIDE
diffusion through the medium of the one dollar
bill of that exhilarating epidemic OF when
the Duke of Argyle is the patron SAINT ana
the Scotch fiddle the accompaniment. Ihere
was never medium of exchange that went
abroad on so many errands and performed
them all so well. 1t is we'll named 4" the best
currency in the world" Mr.. Morton sings
its praises, Mr. Logan chants it's wonderful
works, thousand Tyres reverberate in the
chorus, and Mr. Carpenter sheds it on the just
and on the unjust. Whoever undertakes to
handle it without gloves gets the worst OF 1t.
And yet there are people who go about
making fuss because this, the best currency
in the world, bears the promise OF the Unlted
States to pay a dollar, and the United states
never pay dollar. and Will not say "hen'
or if ever they will pay the dollar. How I'M
reasonable to stop the diffusion of democratic
diseases in this way. 1t is neat and pretty
currency, and by the time it gets to the Mis-
sissippi River is as sweet and pure as the politics
of the country of which it is the emblem.
What a pity 1t would be to substitute coin for
it, or do anything to interfere with It's MISSION