The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1895-06-25
A GOOD PLAN IN Finance
The Experiment Of. Deacon Griggs,
ofSquantum.
The Main Facts in a Controversy as
Given by the Local Paper. Griggs'
Wife Rudsly Interferes. The
People ofthe Town Divided
Into Factions.

\ Gazette indicate All unusual excitement
prevailing among the peaceful villagers
of Squaatum, North Squantum and
Eqpantum Confer. The cause of the COM
i motion is an experiment. begun by Den-
con Abner Griggs, and tho people are
pretty evenly divided into two factions,
one holding thst the deacon IL perse-
cuted martyr in the cause Of financial
reform, the other that he is II dod gasted
idiot, whose vito treated him Just right
The main facts In the controversy, as
Siyon in The Gazette, ans as follows:
Deacon Griggs had farmcd it nigh on
do years, and his fine upland farm, with
its right considerable stretch Of mead
ow, two miles south of tho postofiice,
was one Of the best in tho borough. The
farm was we'll fenced and drained, had
coed buildings and stool; and the deacon
was believed to be tolerablu fore hand
ed -
A few months ago Mrs. Griggs no.
ticed that her husband was not attend
ing to his farm work as he formerly
cid A good deal of his time was spent
down at Hopkins grocery store, where
he talked politics by tho hour When Mt
home, he staid III the house and read
lot OF pamphlets and speeches about the
Expressing money power and the neccs-
sity of free silver coinage He would
get so wrought up rending about the ter
rible Wall street goldbugs that ne would
forget to feed the cows or bring in the
firewood, and his wife had to 10 that
work. AS she afterward said, "Abner
seemed SO solemnlil'e, a-grioving over
chem financial conspiracies, that hadn't
the heart to ask him TO do chores. -
Along in April Deacon Griggs an
noanced that he lowed he wasn't 90
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 man has nothin to sell I've got
something better than raising hay and
wheat and corn for tho fellers in New
York to speculate i'll -
Instead of doing his spring plowing
and. getting ready for seed time he went
each day out to his back pasture. stony
patch OF ground, There no dug big
hole about AZ foot square ard o foot
deep. Then he got his oxen and cart and
wont to work gathering up little stones,
siauling them down TO the brook, wash
Ing them and sorting them in piles of
different sizes, and then dumping them
An tho hole
Last week Mrs. Griggs got worried,
md being curious to know whit her
husbands new scheme was, followed
him out to the pasture. She found him
3oading up the cart with washed stones
IL, ,,-l,, l..
ADDING. A little abashed, as though
doubtful Of her approval of his work. he
said: ''Seo them stones? Well, I'm just
going to keep right along till get that
hole full of 'em. Guess it'll tal,e me
most all summer. Then I'll cover 'em
up safe. In the fall I'm going to make
ont notes o. hand based on them stones
Nhey 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,
hut most on thom knows that it's too
bulky for money, and that paper is more
handy. So they want it us u basis for
notes. What's the matter with my notes
. as long as they got labor basisf"
But Mrs. Griggs could listen no lon
ger. GraspiEg her husband by the coat
collar aud convenient part OF his
breaches, abe 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 crop. These fool notions about
putin ont money on lot of stuff what
nobody don't want, amt goin TO fill
your cellar or granary." And with a
twist of the astonished deacon's ear she
Jeff him to drive the oxen down to the
barn.
When Deacon Griggs went over to the
grocery store on the next Saturday even
{Dg, he found that somehow the story OF
his wlfe's rude interference with his
great financial experiment had leaked
ont Some of the men il the store sym
pathized with him, and some of them
told him he ought to know better. The
controversy waxed warm and has grad
tally spread, SO that, as was said above,
3 the people of the villages are divided in
40 two parties on the question AT their
Saturday night gatherings iii 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 III The Gazette,
For Melon Lovern.