The Van Buren press., 1875-09-21
INFLA ION.
A Man Who Knows What It Means.

A dilapidated specimen Of travelling
printer---it would be libellous to call him
a tramp from which class in general he
differs in that he lives by levying contri-
buttons only on the fellow lem bers Of
his craft--yesterday told reporter of the
Times that he was opposed to rag money
and intlation,' as he termed them. be.
cause he had suffered personally from the
employment of soft currency and too
mnch of it. 1t was before the war said
he, down in Georgia. am great
traveller, am. aud have worked in every
state in the Uniaa---footlng it all the
way, too. had just got back fromTexas
where Lad worked in a printing Office
with dirt floor, with the cases chalked
on it, and where oyster shells and old tin
cans wereIused for the type boxes. am
a great traveller, | am, tell YOU said
the veteran, as he changed the position
of the tobacco in his mouth; | have
been on the road--or as we call it, ear.
rying the banner--tliesc twenty years.
Why, I've been so reduced. that | had to
live on land turtles that found in the
road, and have hung up every tavern
Keeper from the great lakes Of the North
10 the mouth of the mighty Mississippi in
the South, and would like to hang up
another one just now,' he added, setto
poce. The reporter saw to It that no one
should be hung up, and requested the
man TO explain his opposition to paper
money was coming to that, said he
1t was IN Georgia that 1 strnaly town,
which had newspaper, Well, called
on the editor, and asked him if he didu't
want hand. AS he hadn't got out
paper for four or five weeks, and his sub
,cribers had begun to call on him with
shot-guns, aud complain, he aged me.
went to work for that man, aud worked
hard. ! set up the whole paper, and ex-
haustsd every EN- of plea he had in the
shop. | worked his edition of sixty
three copies off on his Internal, old. bro
ken down Franklin press, and then con
cluaed had had enough aad went to
him for my pay The old man was pleased
with the idea of getting out number,
and full of good nature aud corn whis-
| key, which helped him to drink. and
then he went down into his safe, which
was the back loom, and came out carrying
big armful of coon skins. You work
ed ten days, didn you? 2 said he, and
said yes and then he went to work and
counted out twenty of them burned old
skins and handed them over to me. When
| | asked him what he meant, Nc said /:
Thcm's your pay, and very we'll you
have been pad, too. amt no million
naire, but cant help being liberal; il 5
my nature!a Well, then, that old man
told me that the only money they used,
in that country, was coon skins, and that,
as all his subscribers paid him in it, he
had no other. 1t was good enough, he
said when you got used to it, Coons
were the wealth and resources Of that
country, and their CURRENCY was based
upon it, Well, | had to take thcm and
tramped off to the next town, where
thought I'd rest awhile i stopped at the
best hotel, and stayed there a week. liv
ing on the fat of the lana--which was
baeon-and consuming SO much corn
whiskey that the people rad to take me
by the ears two or three tines Then
went up to the landlord aud asked him
;! for my bill. He told ms what it was and
Il, is laid lheg skins down % tke, lar, aud
. Id MN to take his pay out. He wasen' t
a bit surprised, but scooped them right
over, and, reaching behind the counter,
pulled cut a bundle Of squirrel skins,
counted out five or SIX, aud said they
were my change. Yes, sir, that was a pos
tive fact. Squirrels were the wealth and
resources OF that country, and they based
/ their currency on them. You see where
the thing takes you to. Why, down there
IL thai cpnatry they got to initiating and
expanding their currency SO, it was so
easy to make it, that, after a whie--the
second time | passed through there-it
took two coon skins to buy drink, while
squirrels bad deprecated so much in val
ue, that an OK team load wouldn't buy
the drivers dluner, when he came to the
town No, sir; don't take any water
in mine; nothing soft for me; | like it
straight and stroug ] am Bourbon, in
my tendencies, am, said the wandering
political economist as the bar tender
produced his glasses; | don't want no
Kelly cocktails