The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-09-05

NASs~Sy NhahbAH5'
Monte Cristo Mountaineer.
Twenty years ago this summer Custer,
Keogh and the greater part of the Sew
enth cavalry
Erode down to death on the field"
at Little Big Horn. Rain-in-the-face,
Gall and Sitting Bull, with the inca
Papa Sioux and Northern Cheyennes. had
doubled on Terry's command north Of the
Canadian line. The daily papers were
wild to get the latest press reports from
the far north, and the writer was sit
ting at the key in the Omaha telegraph
office when the message licked in: "Will
you take position of conductor Omaha to
Ogden and return once a week at SIS
and board? (SignedD Pullman Pacific
Co." We would and did take a train
of five fu.i cars out the next noon.
Shortly before the train started a pleas
ant old lady asked If we would kindly
"get her some silver" We asked her
chow much she would like" Sne took
out her pocket book, handed us $16O ana
pointing to the financial column OF the
Omaha Daily Bee lying on the seat beside
her, said: '1Silver is $1.0i here this morn
ing, and L wish to sell my greenbacks
for al | can get" We had never heard
of such a thing as Selling greenbacks,"
but there was no time for explanations,
SO rushing into Jake Markets. and over
to the emigrant restaurant, we bought
800 in silver halves and quarters, pay.
ing therefor $1Oi in her greenbacKs.
Upon handing her the 800 in silver and
remaining $56 of her S16O in greenbacks
she asked us to keep the $56 until we
reached the Fremont or Grand Island,
Neb., eating houses and "get rid of the
remainder Of her greenbacks at those
places" We told her that Selling" and
getting rid Of greenbacks'' sounded
queeriy and begged her to enighten us.
She said: you've never BEEN in Ne
vada and California or you'd know; we
use gold and silver money there, and OF
course / save money by getting silver"
Now the writer was just as Dundef-
headed then on the subject of money as
a very large proportion of Americans are
today and that gray-haired old lady
actually had to show us gold coin quoted
at $1.2O, silver coin at $104 (at Omaha,
remenIber) and explain that silver coin
and gold coin were interchangeable ex-
actly at par from Ogden. Utah, west
ward, and that by buying her $l0O in sill
yer at Omaha for $l.Ol in greenbacks and
carrying the silver coin until she arrived
in gold standard country she coulu
exchange 1t for five $50 gold pieces and
actually make profit of the difference
between the price of silver $lOi and the
price OF gold, $l2O, or exactly $16 in green
backs, on her S1.O4 investment.
A little reflection convinced us that
every mile we Travelled westward with
greenbacks in our pocket made us poorer
but 1t required three round trips between
Omaha ard Ogden before we mastcref
the situation. Flood Fair, OBrlen ana
Mackay were accommodating their vast
fortune, Haggln e Tevis were a close
second, with Archie Borland, Jack Cash
wller, Hearst, old man Reece and a
dozen others booming the Comstock
mines to the top notch. Everybody had
money and eastbound passengers spent
their silver coin freely at every eating
station and the landlords would hoard ii
because 1t paid to do so.
On our return to Omaha we visited
the two nationa. banks, the state bank
and CALDWELL & Hamllton's, then over to
Council Bluffs to Pusey e Officers and
the two other banks there, buying $lO1
in silver coin for $416 and carrying 1t to
Ogden turned 1t into gold even up and
1t back to Omaha received $3.50
in greenbacks for it, an actual profit of
$6I In six days time. Then the possiblli-
ties at the eating houses and banks along
the line dawned upon us, for the trains
only made about twenty-five miles an
hour with only stops for meals, and
there was ample time for "hustling"
We found the old saying, don't carry
Goals to Newcastle" exactly reversed
when applied to silver coin. Using green
backs as the standard, the prices were
exactly as follows: East of Council
Bluffs, silver coin, $1.03; gold coin, $l20;
Omaha, Fremont and Grand Island, sill
yer coin, $l,Oi; gold coin, $l.2O; Sidney,
Cheyenne and Laramie, silver coin, $.O5
to $1.0S; gold coin, $l20; Rock Creek,
Rawlins and Rock Springs, silver coin,
10 to $1.15; Green River and Evanston,
silver coin, $l,1S; gold coin, st,9O; at Og-
den, silver coin, $l2O; gold coln Sl,2O, or
god or silver at a parity at or near the
silver mines, hut 10 per cent apart 1000
miles east, at Omaha.
And then an exceedingly curious con-
fusion of values would manifest itself.
The Carson mint and Virginia City assay
ers would put their official certlfcations
on each silver brick shipped East to the
mint; these silver bricks
were laid in rows on the floors of the
express cars under the feet of the mes
sengers, and as the exorbitant express
charges cut down the value of the bul-
lion in an ever increasing ratio, the sill
yer coin in our pocket and gripsack 1--WE
bought 1t on the eastward trip quite fire.
quently) was regularly increasing in
value from every mile subtractel from
the total mileage we had to travel to get
back to the locality governed by the
double standard OF gold and silver near
the mines at Ogden and vicinity.
Nov the little history of the writer's |
experience in 1875 Is strictly true. and the
handsome profits and observations we
made firmly convinced us that silver must |
be reckoned with exactly as od-time |
grist millers reckoned with their grists, |
viz; The min boy went after the grain, |
the mixer ground 1t and took toll out OF |
It in payment for transportation ami /
expenses,
MIN NrINrr SINrNLN 1SSn