Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-08-09
"A PLAN IN FIN AIN CE.
THE EXPERIMENT. OF DEACON GRicGs
,' OF SQUANTUM.

Main Facts In q Controversy - Given BY
the Local Paper riggs' wife Rutiey
Interferes-The People Of the Town Di-
vitled Into Factions. m. h
Recent issues of the North Squantu,n
Gazette indicate an unusual excitement
prevailing among the peaceful villagers
Of Squantnm, North Squantum and
Squantum Center The cause Of the com
motion is an experiment begun by Dea-
con Abner Griggs, and the people arc
pretty evenly divided into two factions,
one holding that the deacon is q 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
IS years, and his fine upland farm, with
it's right considerable stretch Of mead
ow, two miles south Of the postefice,
was one of the best in the borough. The
farm was we'll fenced and drained, had
good buildings and stock, and the deacon
was believed to be tolerable ''fore hand
ed" .g@a
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
he talked politics by the hour. When at
home, he staid in the house and read
lot Of pamphlets and speeches about the
Expressing money. power and the neces-
sity Of FREQ silver coinage. He would
get SO wrought up reading about the ter
rible Wall street goldbags that he would
forget to feed the cows or bring in the
firewood, and his wife had to do that
work. Az she afterward said, 'tAbner
seemed 80 solemnlike, a-grieving over
them financial conspiracles, that hadn't
the heart to ask him tc do chores..'''
Along in April Deacon Griggs an
1lonnced that he lowed he "wasn t 20
ing to put il, no crops this year. When
crops is good, prices is low, and it don't
pay to raise noth1n, and when they're
poor man has notiin to sell. I've got
EOu1CGI1lAS USltCl GAluA ILISAIAS3 1by dlNl
wheat and corn for the fellers in New
York to speculate in $
Instead of doing his spring blowing
and getting ready for seed time hewent
each day out to his back pasture, a stony
patch Of ground There he dug a big
hole about 40 foot square and 10 foot
deep. Then he got his oxen and cart and
Went to work gathering mp little stones,
hauling them down to the brook, wash
ing them and sorting them in pilesof
different sizes, and then dumping them
III the hole. 4$&
Last week Mrs. Griggs got worried,
aud being curious to know what her
husbands new scheme was FOLLOWED
Z him out to the 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 ] get that
hole full of 'em. Guess it'll take me.
most all summer. Then I'll cover 'ems
up safe. In the fall I'm 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's the matter with my notes,
as long as they've got labor basis?" /
But Mrs. Griggs could listen no lon
ger. Grasping her husband by the coat
collar and a convenient part Of his
brooches, she butted his head several
times against the tailboard Of the cart
"',,hen she said: CHOW you come right
Town to the barn and start to work get
tin in 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 a
twist of the astonished deacon's ear she
left him to drive the oxen down to the.
barn. = 49, NJ
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 waxed 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.
Sound Currency Literature.
The demand for all kinds Of literature
upon the currency question has become
80 great that the Sound Currency Com
mittee Of the Reform club has decided
to establish currency bureau. By the
middle Of June it will be prepared to
supply any standard books, any popular
pamphlet or essay ON either side Of the
currency question. The bureau will at