Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-03-27
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.

| an Aggressive Paper.
1t would seem at this time that while
30 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 taking has been done by
those only who have n theoretical knowl-
edge of money and its eccentric habits.
People with Il mere smattcring 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 i'll the history of our
country there seems to be Il general strin-
gcncy, and many are in the stringency
business who were never that way before.
Everything seems to be demonetized.
The decentralization of groceries is doing
as much toward the general wiggly palsy
of trade as anything know Of
But may say, in abiding 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 three-cornered
gloom, make the large, robust dollar
look like an old fashioned hllf-dimc.
l met man the other day, who two
years ago was running paper at LARA
bie's Slough. He was then in his mcri-
dian as a journalist, and his paper was
frequently quoted by such widely -read
publications as the Knights of Labor at
Work, "A humorous semi-monthly journal.
He boldly assaulted 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 l met him on a Milwaukee
and st. Paul train. He was very thin in
flesh, and the fire of defiance was no
longer in his eye. l asked him how he
came on with the paper at Larrabie's
Slough He said it was no more.
1T 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 | began that l
ought to attack almost everything. Make
the paper non IA tisan but aggressive.
that was their idea. Sail into every
thing, and the paper would soon be a
power in the land. So l aggressed.
'Friends came in very kindly and they
would neglect their own business in order
to tell me of corruption in somebody else.
went on that way for some time i'll q
defiant mood, attacking anything that
happened to suggest itself
FINALLY thought would attack the
silver dollar. did so. l thought that
friends woald come to me and praise me
sor my manly words, and that | could at
ford to lose the friendship of the dollar
provided l could win friends.
'In six months | took an uncXpircd
annual pass over our Larrlbie Slough
Narrow Gaguc, or Orphan road and with
nothing else but theclothcs | wore, | told
the plaintiff how to jerk the old Wash
ington press and went away. The dear
Did Washington press that had more
than once squattesl my words into the
pure white Page. The dear old towel on
which l had wiped my soiled
n4nls for years until it had almost
De ,ome part of myself, the dark blue
Gordon press with Its large fly wheel and
ntcrMi. tent chattel mortgage. press, to
which had contributed the first Joint of
my front finger; the editors chair; the
samples of large business cards printed in
green with an inilamnd 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 Mr..
Alonzo g. Pinkham, of Erin Croncr,,
kindly laid on our table-all, all had
to 90.
Il fed out into the great, hollow mock
,ng world of people who had requested
me to aggress. They were people who
had called my attention to various
, things which | ought to attack. had
attacked those things. | La also at
lacked the Larrabee Slough Narrow
ttuagc railroad, but the mara ger did not
; see the attack, and SO my pass was good.
"What could do.
Il had attacked everything, and moro
especially the silver dollar, and now
was homeless. For fourteen weeks
: rode up the narrow gauge road one day
+ and back the next, sub sting solelf or
the sample pecan mat that the news5oy
: puts in each pass myers lap.
You look incrclulous see, but it i,
tru'.
f Il fe differently toward the currency
: now, ard | wish could undo what
have done Were called upon AGAIN t.
: jerk the Archimcdean lever | would no
| be so aggressive, especiallyas regards tho
, currency. Whether it is inflated or not
7 silver dollars, paper certificates of depos
it Or silver bullion, it does not matter to
| he.
. 81 yearn for two or three adult dough
nuts and one of those thick, dapplcC
/ slabs of gingerbread or slat of pie will
2 gcoscb2rlles init. IErc'umc that l could
write Il scathi.lg editorial on the abuses o
| o,r currency yet, but | am not so mucl
in the seattle business as used to be.
II wish you would state, if you will
through some great metropolitan journal
that my views i'll relation to the silvc
coinage and the currency question hav'
undergone a radical change, and that an,
G plan whatever, by which TO make tn
+ American dollar less skittish, will nee
s with my hearty approval.
I ''If have done anything ut all through
= my paper to in urc or represI the flow o
our currency, and | fear | have, | nov
4 take the occasi on to cheerfully regret it.
' He then wrlng my hand and passe from
L my sight. -BW Nye, IN Boston Gtobe.
! Wealth of Principa! Nations.
, The subjoined is the estimate given il
Mulhill's Dictionary of Statistics
is oaly an approximation, of course, bu