Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-05-27

Oathaftic pill what thought thQy needed
was siisplicity combined with attractive.
moss In teaching.
In order 10 carry out this idea oon.
cluded ~ take boy for my principal char
acter and lot him voice my sentiments. A
proposition that could be stated or an ar.
gurnent that could bo made by l2-year.
old boy ought 10 bc understood by the
misses. Having decided To make tho boy
a schooltcachcr, my next question was,
where will he hold schoolf' At the Art
institute Oh tho lake front, which mt that
timc was being used for the sessions OF the
Worlds fair religious congress.
"'Who will be the scholarsr The mon
who arc opposed 10 my views, the financiers
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 I selected the
wealthiest and best known men In Chicago
as scholars and took the 12-year-old boy
whom called Coin, for a teacher. Coin
would deliver lecture on money and
these men would ask him questions with
view to overthrowing his arguments.
"Did you invent the questions and the
remarks Of the scholarsf"
"No. read the daily papers carefully
and searched their files for years past.
copied and clipped the Interviews and com
munications Of these men on financial sub
jects and embodied them In my book AS
their side of tho case.
Some rather humorous incidents grew
out of this. knew that the masses Of the
people had never studied tho money ques-
ton and were therefore ignorant on that
subject, but 1t 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 nc.
tually present. Thousands, however, be.
lieycd 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 the Ice.
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 u circular printed which he sent as q
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, 000
copies printed and awaited results. They
sold slowly. said to myself, If the peo-
pie knew what IL In this book, they would
buy it by the Wholesale / succeeded In
getting few papers that entertained the
same ideas as myself on tho money ques.
tion to offer tho book to their readers on
the coupon plan. This quickened the sales,
but tho advertising was not extensive
enough to suit me.
II then devised what I thought was n
great advertising plan. Carter Harrison
sons were the owners OF tho Chicago Times,
which was advocating the free coinage OF
silver. made them this proposition:
II was to hire a 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
q representative of the paper, was to Off
cially present the governor of the state
with a copy Of Coins Financial School.
While the train remained I'm n city employ
ees were to sell copies Of the book and take
subscriptions to the paper. The represent
ative Of the paper was to telegraph full
account Of each days trip to The Times
and give the itinerary n week in advance
1 was pleased when tho Harrison boys,
as they were called, accepted my PROPOSE
tion, which also included an offer on my
part to bear the expenses of the special
train.
81 went to Colorado, secured certificates
from bankers to tho effect that one piece
of my property there was worth 500 C0(
and then tried to mortgage 1t for $40, O00
which thought would be sufficient to get
my scheme under way. Did those silver
bullion owners and millionaircs we read
so much about jump at my proposition!
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.
II went to Dennis Sheedy, president OF
tho Globe Smelling company and vice pres
ident of the Colorado National bank al
Denver, who Is also large owner of silver
mines. He would not let me have the
money. i went from bank to bank con.
trollcd by the owners of silver mines, and
they all gave me tho marble heart. / tell
you this because 1 havo been accused OF
having the silver mine owners behind me
in these publications"
"What was the secret Of tho book 8 sue.
ccss-that is, what gave 1t it's first impe.
tus?"
"Just this The farmers began to buy II
through the country papers coupon
scheme; the drummers bought it from the
train boy to kill time. / owe great deal
to tho farmers and drummers, for as soon
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 II, and the book was made.
'..It took its first big jump in February.
Since then my printer has been taxed to
supply tho demand. When ho began to
print my book he had ten employees work
ing on tho book; now he has moro than
100. During April, and so far this month,
the presses have been run night and day to
keep up with tho orders. "
"In what states has the book had tho
greatest circulationp'
"In tho west and south, but IL is now
reaching the east. New York, New Jcr-
sey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Nir-