The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-03-17
BILL n YE
WRITES A LITTLE SCREED ON
FINANCIAL MATTERS.
The Currency Question and the Sill
YER Dollar-Unhappy Lot Of
Luckless Editor-Making
an Aggressive Paper.

It would seem at this time, that while
80 little is being said on the currency
question, and especially by the men who
really control the currency, that word
from me would not be out of place.
Too much talking has been done by
those only who have theoretical knowl-
edge of money and its eccentric habits.
People with a mere smattering of knowl-
edge regarding national currency have
been loquacious, while those who have
made the matter study have been kept
in the background.
At this period in the history of our
country there seems to be a general strln-
gency, and many are in the stringency
business who were never that way before.
Everything seems to be demonetlzed.
The demonetization of groceries is doing
as much toward the general wiggly palsy
of trade as anything I know Of.
But may say, in alluding briefly to
the silver dollar, that there are worse
calamities than the silver dollar. Other
things may occur in our lives which, in
the way of sadness and -cornered
gloom, make the large, robust dollar
look like an old fashioned half-dime.
met man the other day, who two
years ago was running paper at LARA
bie's Slough. He was then in his meri-
dian as journalist, and his paper was
frequently quoted by such widely-read
publications as the Knights of Labor at
Work, humorous semi-monthly journal.
He boldly assailed the silver dollar, and
with his trenchant pen he wrote such
burning words of denunciation that the
printer had to set them on ice before he
could use the copy.
Last week I met him on Milwaukee
and St. Paul train. He was very thin in
flesh, and the fire of defiance was no
longer in his eye. asked him how he
came on with the paper at Larrabie's
Slough. He said it was no more.
''It started OUT" said he, lin fear
less way, but it was not sustained"
He then paused in low tone of voice,
gulped, and proceeded:
''Folks told me when I began that l
ought to attack almost everything. Make
the paper non-partisan but aggressive.
that was their idea. Sail into every
thing and the paper would soon be
power in the land. So I aggressed. ,
"Friends came in very kindly and they
would neglect their own business in order
to tell me of corruption in somebody else
I'went on that way for some time IN
defiant mood, attacking anything that
happened to suggest itself.
:'Finally thought would attack the
silver dollar. I did so. I thought that
friends would come to me and praise me
for my manly words, and that could af-
ford to lose the friendship Of the dollar
provided could win friends.
.'In six months I took an unexplred
annual pass over our Larrabie Slough
Narrow Gague, or Orphan road, and with
nothing else but the clothes l wore, told
the plaintiff how to jerk the old Wash
ington press and went away. The dear
old Washington press that had more
than once squatted my words into the
pure white page. The dear old towel on
which I had wiped my soiled
hands for years until it had almost
become part of myself, the dark blue
Gordon press with its large fly wheel and
intermittent chattel mortgage, press, to
which had contributed the first joint of
nv front finger; the editors chair; the
samples of large business cards printed in
green with an infamed red border, which
showed that we could do colored work at
Larrabie's Slough just as well as they
could in the large cities; the files of our
paper; the large wilted potato that MIR.
Alonzo G.. Pinkham, of Erin Croners,
kindly laid on our table-all, ALL had
to g, y, ,.oo+ ,o,,o,,, ,oo..
ing world of people who had requested
me to aggress. They were people who
had called my attention to various
things which I ought to attack. l had
attacked those things. I had also at
tackled the Larrabee Slough Narrow
Guage railroad, but the manager did not
see the attack, and so my pass was good.
"What could do!
'T had attacked everything, and more
especially the silver dollar, and now l
was homeless. For fourteen weeks l
rode up the narrow gauge road one day
and back the next, subsisting solely on
the sample pecan meat that the newsboy
puts in each passengers lap.
"You look incredulous, sec, but it IS
true.
II feel differently toward the currency
now, and wish could undo what l
have done. Were I called upon again to
Jerk the Archimedean lever I would not
be so aggressive, especially as regards the
currencY. Whether it is inflated or not,
silver dollars, paper certificates of depos-
it or silver bullion, it does not matter to
me.
IT yearn for two or three adult dough
nuts and one of those thick, dappled
slabs of gingerbread or slat OF pie with
gooseberr1es in it. I presume that l could
write scathing editorial on the abuses OF
our currency yet, but 1 am not so much
in the seattle business rs I used to be.
81 wish you would state, if you will,
through some great metropolitan journal,
that my views in relation to the silver
coinage and the currency question have
undergone radical change, and that any
plan whatever, by which to make the
American dollar less skittish, will meet
with my hearty approval.
IF have done anything at all through
my paper to injure or repress the flow of
our currency, and fear have, l now
take the occasion to cheerfully regret it. "
He then wrung my hand and passed from
my sight.-BW Nye, IN Boston Globe.
Wealth of Principal Nations.
The subjoined is the estimate given in
o.