Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1895-06-06
ness in teaching.

ness in teaching.
"In order To carry out this idea / con-
cluded To take boy for my principal char
acter aud let him voice my sentiments. A
proposition that could be stated or an ar
gument that could be made by "A 12-year-
III boy ought to be understood by the
m ssses Having decided to make the boy
schoolteacher, my next question was,
Where will he hold SCHOOL, At the Art
institute on the lake front, which at that
time was being used for the sessions of the
Worlds fair religious congress. /.
who will be tho scholarss The men
who are opposed To my views, the fnanciers
and wealthy men of Chicago. / will take
their arguments In favor of single stand
ard, and out OF the mouth of child
will confound them. So 1 selected the
wealthiest and best known men in Chicago
as scholars and took the 12-year-old boy,
whom l called Coin, for a teacher. Coin
would deliver lecture on money, and
these men would ask him questions with
a view TO overthrowing his arguments.
"Did you invent the questions and the
remarks of the scholars?'
"No. / read the daily papers carefully
and searched their files for years past. l
copied and clipped the interviews and com
munications of these men on financial sub
iects and embodied them In my book as
their side of the case.
"Some rather humorous incidents grew
out of this. / knew that the masses of the
people had never studied the money ques-
ton and were therefore ignorant on that
subject, but il never occurred to me that
any one would think these lectures actu-
ally took place, and that the scholars
whose names appear in the book were ac-
tually present. Thousands, however, be-
lieved that such was the case, and men
like Lyman j. Gage, Marshall Field and
| John II. Walsh were deluged with letters
| asking them If they had attended thedec-
lures and were correctly reported.
"Mr. Gage received the greatest number
| of letters, and his mail from Coin readers
became so large that he was Obliged to
have circular printed which he sent as a
reply. He solemnly denied having attend
ed any such lectures and said therefore he
could not have asked the questions or made
| the statements attributed to him.
after the book was written had 8, 600
copies printed and awaited results. They
sold slowly. i said to myself, If the peo-
| pie knew what is in this book, they would
| buy it by the Wholesale succeeded i'm
same ideas as myself on the money ques-
| ton to offer the book to their readers on
the coupon plan. This quickened the sales,
| but the advertising was not extensive
enough to suit me.
81 then devised what i thought was
great advertising plan. Carter Harrison's
| sons were the owners of the Chicago Times,
which was advocating the free coinage of
silver. / made them this propositions
81 was to hire special train to visit ev
| cry state capital and principal city in the
| United States. Upon the arrival of the
| train my representative accompanied by
| a representative of the paper, was to Off
cially present the governor of the state
| with copy Of Coins Financial School.
While the train remained in city employ
| ees were TO sell copies of the book and take
subscriptions TO the paper. The represent
| alive of the paper was to telegraph full
| account of each days trip to The Times
| and give the itinerary week in advance.
/ was pleased when the Harrison boys,
| as they We're called, accepted my PROPOSE
| tion which also included an offer on my
| part to bear the expenses of the special
| train
II went TO Colorado, secured certificates
| from bankers TO the effect that one piece
of my property there was worth $40, 900
and then tried to mortgage it for SO, 900,
| which thought would be sufficient to get
my scheme under way. Did those silver
| bullion owners and millionaires we read
so much about jump at my propositions
| No. sir. They coldly said that my proper
| ty did not have the rental value sufficient
| to pay the interest on the loan, and there
fore they could not let me have the money.
81 went to Dennis Sheedy, president Of
the Globe Smelling company and vice pres
ident of the Colorado National bank at
| Denver, who is also a large owner of silver
mines. He would not let me have the
money. l went from bank to bank con-
trolled by the owners of silver mines, and
they all gave me the marble heart. / tell
you this because / have been accused of
having the silver mine owners behind me
in these publications. 4"
"What was the secret of the books sue
cess-that Is, what gave 1t it's first impe-
tusY'
"Just this: The farmers began to buy it
through the country papers coupon
scheme; the drummers bought 1t from the
train boy to kill time. 1 owe great deal
to the farmers and drummers, for as soon
as they had read the book they bought an
extra copy and sent 1t to some banker,
senator, congressman or federal official.
| Hundreds Of copies were in this way sent
| to President Cleveland, Secretary Carlisle
and Senator Sherman. The daily papers
began TO notice the book editorially and to
deny its arguments Then they began to
cartoon 1t, and the book was made.
lit took its first big jump in February
Since then my printer has been taxed to
supply the demand. When he began to
print my book, he had ten employees work
ing on the book; now he has more than
| 100. During April and so far this month
the presses have been run night and day to
keep up with the orders"
"In what states has the book had the
greatest calculations"
"In the west and south, but 1t is now
reaching the east. New York, New Jer-
sey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Vir-
ginia are receiving large daily shipments
One man in Huntington, w. Va, my ma
4 fyoo fo IN antt In, an ..r.ia for