Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1892-05-12

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than there was before the war. Blu
reader, did you ever hear of a non
taxable United States Government
Bond before that war? Did you ev
er hear of a Tariff for Revenue, or 6
Tariff for Protection, or Tariff fol
anything else or on anything nova
BILE Or immovable, on land or on sea
whether manufactured in Maine ol
Missouri, or grown in Alabama ol
Alaska, Cuba, Canada or the canni
bal isles? No, you never did. You
did not know what tariff meant un.
til taught by that party in power
who rivited the first shackles upon
American freeman in the shape of g
non-taxable government bond. You
have been slave to that party ever
since, whether willing or not. You
pay daily tribute to its despotic sway.
and a royalty to its pampered pow.
er, though you do not manufacture
a dollars worth of machinery OIL
merchandise for use in your homes
in the city or for use ON your farms
in the country. But you do pay q
terrible tax on every cog wheel, coat
or counterpane, machine or imple.
ment on your farms and every yard
and piece of woven goods on you,
body or on your bed. You pay il
for their protection to enable them to
cover you a little deeper each yeal
with mortgages. You groan and
writhe and call for help and in your
agony you sometimes accuse youl
fellow sufferers (for all have felt the
iron hand with velvet palm as il
clutches and closes tighter and tight.
er) Of causing your calamity and
laughing at your despair. But, per-
haps, you say it is your local tax.
Will you believe your tax books?
Back in this same time of your pros,
perity and contentment, when be-
meath your own humble roof you
were a king compared with what
you are to-day-back in the same
fifties Joel Guthrie, who was then
known all overAudrain county, own
ed land in section 2, township 50
range 8, valued then as shown by
the tax book (Which favors Or abuses
no one, impartial alike to ally at
1925 per acre and taxed as follows :
State tax, 20 cents on 800; county
and road tax, 26 cents on 500.
That same land is now owned by
Isaac Miller and is valued at 1925
per acre, and the taxes are as fol-
lows: State tax, 25 cents on $1OO; !;
county tax, 80 cents and road tax,
10 cents. That land, when Guthrie
owned it, could have been bought
for 81 an acre. To-day it will bring
$25 an acre. Then it cannot be the
local tax or the local merchant that
has dealt destruction to our pros
perity or covered our lands with
mortgages to secure the payment Of
eastern money borrowed from these
same "bond barons' in place of our
own school money (if you must bor-
row. Then let us hear the conclu-
sion of the whole matter, for you are
tired and so am 1. Old gentleman
or lady so years old, do you remem-
Der ever having a pair of shoes On
your little feet in any summer before
you were 10 to Is years old, and of.
ten none while in the house in win.
ter? Do you remember that little
tow-linen gown, as big at the bot.
tom as it was at the top, which fol
p years was your only covering
waist-futed skirt, Queen Anne col
lar, polonaise, box-pleated, train,
trimmed, feather-edged, the whole
cabooile in one combination? Dc
you remember those whole stocked
heel-plated, double-soled, two-rows
of-pegs shoes that you creased every
week with tallow and bees-wax- and
always made them last year? Dc
you remember those yarn "galluses'
your ma or your sister knit around the
hearth-stone while big shell-barE
hickory log furnished the light, ol
else tallow dip or tin lamp with
rag wick? Do you remember tha
clumsy old loom with its big beams
and everlasting rattle-de-bang shut
tie showing and the stripes that ms
made in the linsey? The figures
she wove in the table cloths, towel:
and counterpanes, that steel mixee
jeans? Oh, lordy! that takes me
baek-(will my wife please excuse
me if | tell IT'D well, j can talk about
myself anyhow-that steel-mixed
jeans was the finest and best suit
had when | first held her hant
to WOO and win her from her coun.
try home, and my heart acted like :
buzz-wheel in a wheat-fan. Do yot
recall that little fax-wheel, thar
whose hum the voice of the prims
donna or orchestra OF Gilmore,
most proficient performers was mo-
sweeter? Did you ever stand around
and blow the bellows while the vii
| lage blacksmith made the nails ant
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