Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-20

To the L3ifOr Of the DtSDGtch:
Will you allow me, farmer and regular
reader of the Dispatch, n short space IN
which to help "Rusticus" break down the
"legalized robbery under which Virgil
MIA farmers are so grievously oppressed {?
Brilliant generalities of the character
used 10y Rusticus' almost invariably
fail of the effect intended. He should
have itemized the count so as to have
contrasted the figures prevalent during
his farmers millennium with those now
current under his "legalized robbery. "
Allow me TO DO so for him:
/ have before me now the~bill OF q
merchant of Richmond dated October
3. 1853. The first item is three sacks
salt at 81 each. The same article now,
under this system of " legalized rob
berry" can he bought anywhere in Rich
mend at Sl.25. The next item on the
same bill is two loaves sugar ut II cents
per pound. Can be had to-day for &
cents per pound under the same op-
pressiye system.
Under date of April 4, 1855, Fir.
Charles T. Workman writes: Il have
shipped you two kegs nails (l0s and Gs)
at 6 cents per pound as favor. They
retail here by single key higher" Tn
der the oppressive working OF the " le-
Called robbery" the same or a better
article can be bought in Richmond to-
day for q cents per pound.
A bill OF Mr.. William Palmer's for 100
pounds plow-castings at &c. per pound
came next under date Of April 1, 1854.
The same can be bought to-day under
negalizod robbery " for - or &c. per
pound.
All of these articles were bought for cash
when the farmers millennium was BOOM
ing under a tariff for revenue only, y
and furnish "Rusticus " with all the
sledge-h hammer logic necessary to induce
Virginia farmers TO help to smash the
cussed thing
ANY merchant Of Richmond will help
him extend the comparison until it runs
into the whole schedule Of Injuries, and
il he isn't satisfied | would suggest an
interview with some farmer whose
miserable fate has cast him in the sha-
dow of one Of those cities or towns in
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or South
west Virginia which are the stronghOlds
Of this monster Of Ubiquitous oppression.
1 hope he will not be too thoroughly
disgusted at learning that having tasted
of the thing, the farmer in his innocent
simplicity will insist that it is good, and
like a contemplate serf cry for more.
Perhaps the sweet-potato raiser Of
Hanover can assist Rusticus III his
unselfsh philanthrophy by informing
him that the demand from Roanoke
Pocahontas, Elkhorn, Bramble, and
other pets of "legalized robbery" in
Southwest Virginia enabled him to add
several acres TO his money crop.
This "legalized robbery has worked
the financial affairs of northern farmers
down to such low ebb that they have
not only found themselves able to buy
and pay for the heavily-taxed "paper Of
pins" but the "piano also, aud are
doubtless Mortified to find themselves
still in the possession Of some surplus
cash.
"Rusticus" will doubtless find it an
easy task to persuade the farmers around
Roanoke to help him smash the big
rolling in the young city Just as this
"legalized robbery is about to warm it
into life, and 90 back with him to Big
Lick and the farmers millennium, with
all its attendant blessings. Surely he
must be voting for General Andrew
Jackson still if he supposes that he can
gull the readers OF such live newspaper
as the Dispatch with his array OF mil
lenium figures near the close of his
valuable contribution to the antiquarian
literature of the day. ANY decade of
the cOuntry's history since 1860 will
double his figures on every count, ex-
cept in the acquisition of territory and
the formation Of new States, and leave
an overplus of figures large enough to
adde the brain of a mediocre arithmeti-
clan.
As facile as is his pen, | am inclined to
doubt if he can persuade any of these
prospective members of the coming serf-
dom that either "tarlf for revenue
only" or the "legalized robbery" con-
tributed even in an infnitessimal degree
TO the formation of States or acquisition
of new territory.
am still fossil enough to cling to that
plank in the Roanoke platform which
endorses SO unequivocally the "legalized
robbery" under which we poor farmers
are 50 heavily oppressed, and like my
friend the Judge about his "good, easy
conscience, only ask to have enough Of
If. NJ.