Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1895-06-27
A PLAN IN FINANCE.
TIE EXPERIMENT OF DEACON GRlGGS
OF SQUANTUM.

OF SQUANTUM.
Main Facts In "a Controversy as Given by
the Local Paper-Griggs' Wife Rudely
.nterfcrcs-The People of the Town Di-
vidcd Into Factions.
Recent issues Of the North Squantum
Gazette indicate an unusual excitement
prevailing among the peaceful villagers
Of Squantum, North Squantum and
Squantum Center. The cause of the COM
motion is an experiment begun by Dea-
con Abner Griggs, and tho people are
pretty evenly divided into two factions,
one holding that the deacon is perse-
cuted martyr in the cause Of financial
reform, the other that he is dod gasted
idiot, whose wife treated him just right.
The main facts in the controversy, as
given in The Gazette, are as follows:
Deacon Griggs had farmed it nigh on
- years. and his fine upland farm, with
IS right considerable stretch of mead
uW, two miles south Of the postoffice,
was one Of the best in tho borough. The
farm was we'll fenced and drained, had
good buildings and stock, and the deacon
was believed to be tolerable "fore hand
cd.
A few months ago Mrs. Griggs no.
ticed that her husband was not attend
ing to his farm work as he formerly
did. A good deal of his time was spent
down at Hopkins grocery store, where
10 %o11 ,,o1;+.o, ! +1,n Go1,r Who1, ot
home, he staid in the house and read a
lot of pamphlets and speeches about the
depressing money power and the neces-
sity Of free silver coinage. He would
get SO wrought up reading about the ter
rible Wall street goldbugs that he would
forget to feed the COWS Or bring in the
firewood, and his wife had to do that
work. AS she afterward said, "Abner
seemed SO solemnlike, a-grieving over
them financial conspiracies, that hadn't
the heart to ask him to do chores"
Along in April Deacon Griggs an
nounced that he lowed he wasn't 60
ing to put in no crops this year. When
crops is good, prices is low, and it don't
pay to raise nothin, and when they're
poor a man has nothin to sell. I've got
something better than raising hay and
wheat and corn for the fellers in New
York to speculate in. "
Instead Of doing his spring blowing
and getting ready for seed time he went
each day out to his back pasture, stony
patch Of ground. There he dug big
hole about 40 foot square and 10 foot
deep. Then he got his oxen and cart and
went to work gathering up little stones,
hauling them down to the brook, wash
ing them and sorting them in piles Of
different sizes, and then dumping them
in the hole.
Last week Mrs. Griggs got worried,
and being curious to know what her
husbands new scheme was, followed
him out to tho pasture. She found him
loading up the cart with washed stones
and asked him what on earth he was
adding A little abashed, as though
doubtful of her approval Of his work, he
said: "See them stones? Well, I'm just
going to keep right along till I get that
hole full of 'em. Guess it'll take me
most all summer. Then I'll cover 'em
up safe. In the fall Pm going to make
out notes O. hand based on them stones
They represent labor-good, honest,
hard work Won't be less than $500
worth Of labor in that hole. Just as good
labor as goes in that silver them western
fellers want the government to take
and store up. Some Of them say they
only want the government to stamp it,
but most on them knows that it's too
bulky for money, and that paper is more
handy. So they want it as basis for
notes. What the matter with my notes,
as long as they've got a labor basis:"
But Mrs. Griggs could listen no lon
ger Grasping her husband by the coat
collar and a convenient part Of his
breeches, she butted his head several
times against the tailboard Of the cart.
Then she said: "Now you come right
down to the barn and start to work get
tin in a crop These fool notions about
putin out money On a lot Of stuff what
nobody don't want, amt goin to fill
your cellar Or granary And with q
twist of the astonished deacon's ear she
left him to drive the oxen down to the
barn.
When Deacon Griggs went over to the
grocery store on the next Saturday even
ing, he found that somehow the story Of
his wife's rude interference with his
great financial experiment had leaked
out. Some of the men in the store SYM
pathized with him, and some Of them
told him he ought to know better. The
controversy waved warm and has grad
ually spread, SO that, as was said above,
the people Of the villages are divided in
to two parties ON the question. At their
Saturday night gatherings in Hopkins
store the whole matter is being talked
over, and in the near future we may
give some accounts Of the discussions as
they are reported in The Gazette.