San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-07-17
EroNIAH SCRUB ON FREE TRADE.
The Old Florida Cracker Sound on
the Goose Question. .r

my son, I do know something about
free trade. / never got much larnin',
as we had no painted school-houses in
those free-trade times to rub my know
ledge-box against, so what wisdom 1
got I had to take it endwise-by ex-
perience. But, Emanuel, L will wager
you a gopher to salamander thatl
know more about free trade than half
the larks that's talkin' and talkin'
up in Washington at the peoples ex-
pense. Pm an old man, Emanuel,
and lived before the war, and had ex-
perience with the business end of the
free-trade doctrine when you was a
Young man. You are talkin' about
free trade making blankets cheaper.
Who in thunder eats blankets? Why,
half of the fellows what are talkin'
about blankets and free trade never
seed either one. Besides, how many
blankets does fellow want anyway?
The way you talk, Emanuel, one
would think that when q fellow was
not hoeing his later crop he was buy
ing blankets. we'll tell you all about
blankets and free trade, Emanuel, be-
cause 1 done had experience with that
pernicious doctrine. When we had free
trade how much did your respected
father get for days task, Ell, Eman-
uel? The old man is gone. He did not
live to see prosperous times. Yes, he
was q good old man, good neighbor, a
pious man, but he was just like you
in politics, everlasting blatting about
free trade. "Free trade and sailors
rights" he would cry, when he had
nothing to trade but his hands, and
he wasn't sailor either. Good man,
say, Emanuel, but just like you in
politics, just like you. You go to a
democratic meeting, throw your head
back, pin your ears, open your mouth,
and fill up like pig. You take it all
in, every blessed word, as gospel
truth, whether it is SO or not. 1 ask
you, Emanuel, what did your daddy
get during free-trade times for days
task, eh? What did he get, Emanuel?
"You don't know" you will say. OF
course you don't. You was too young.
Well, I can tell you, Emanuel, cause
we worked side by side many task
together. He got just 40 cents day.
Yes sir, just 40 cents, "and rations."
You will say, just 40 cents day and
fonnd his own rations. No sir, not a
blessed ration. And work and cash
was mighty onsartin in this neck of
woods. Yes, Emanuel, 1 tell you work
was mighty onsartin and money
alfred scarce, as greenbacks wasn't
invented then. I say 1 amt got no
larnin' and don't know much,
but what I know, Emanuel,
I know cause I done learned
it myself. You say in those free-trade
days you could buy $40 blanket for
S.. You are right, Emanuel; you are
mighty right, my son. But look here;
who had the S., Ell? Emanuel, that's
the milk in your cocoanut. Emanuel,
who had the S.? Your daddy didn't.
I never saw so much at one time in
cash money. When we worked for
free trade we had to take free trade
prices and free trade pay, which was
POI bacon, POI corn, and mighty thin
molasses. Mighty POI bacon, now, 1
tell you, Emanuel. No such middlin's
as you buy at the store. What's the
good of a S. blanket when you amt
got money to buy the tag. The per-
simmons were there, but you
done throwed away your pole
when you vote for free trade.
Don't you see, Emanuel, that rs
yosted-"I's been thar all the same.n
Now, work was mighty scare in those
days, but If you had worked every
day in the year it would only amount
to $120, most of it in POI bacon. Sup
pose and you bought pair of free
trade blankets, you would have $1l5
left for your years work. How Is 1t
now, Emanuel, Ell, my boy? How
much do you get day? Zone dollar"
Won saw. Much work, Emanuel?
''Plenty," you say. Well, see the
difference between your pay and
what your daddy got-two and half
times as much, and you amt as good
as the old man was. He was prime
hand. Younguns amt as good as
the oldnus, onaway. Now, if you
worked every day you would have
$500 in a year. This is $3.50 more than
your daddy got under free trade.
Cyn't you afford to pay $40 for blan-
ket once in ten years, EmanueP l tell
you, son, it is easier to pay $40
when you have the money than
S. when you amt got any. Your
uncle is talkin' facts, Emanuel.
Your father was mighty industrious
person, but he never wore such
clothes as you had on last Sunday.
Homemade butternut was the best he
had, and mighty glad he was to have
that. 1 seed your children had nice
shoes ON when they went to Sunday
school. You didn't have either shoes
or Sunday school in free-trade times,
did. YOU, Emanuel? No, of course, you
didn't. Your children go to painted
school house, and your boy knows
moro than any schoolmaster we had