The San Francisco call., 1896-10-12
HELEN COUGARS
SUNDAY SPEECH
Answers Gold Arguments
Advanced by Chicago
Preachers.
Considerable Abuse Injected Into
Her Harangue for Free
Silver.
HAD TO BREAK INTO THE HALL
Vituperative Language That Suited
Those Who Forced an Entrance
Into the Place.

CHICAGO. ILL.,, Oct. 11.-Mrs. Helen
Cougar OF Indiana spoke at the Peoples
Institute this afternoon In answer to SER
mons recently delivered by local preach
ers in advocacy of the gold standard. The
meeting was called for o'clock, but at
that hour the hall was still locked, and
the trustees announced that they had
rented the hall for church purposes, and
refused to allow it to be used for political
purposes ON Sunday. The announcement.
in view of the fact that the committee in
charge of Mrs. Cougars meeting had paid
rental charges and had receipt for the
same, caused much excitement. Many
ladies' were in the crowd crushed against
the inner doors, and they were hurried TO
the rear and preparations made for testing
the question by force. Just at that mo-
ment young man in front forced the
doors, and the crowd, with cheer, rushed
in. 1t was reported that the police had
been sent for, but there was no attempt to
oust the audience.
Before beginning her address Mrs.
Cougar requested the assem- blage to sing
America" which was done with will.
She then referred to the sacredness of the
day, and said it was time the people OBJ
jected to combining politics to the saloon
and the devil and took it into the church
and the home. She had no apology TO
make for speaking on this great question
on the Sabbath: the preachers themselves
had set the example.
Mrs. Cougar drew picture of an imag-
mary town where no money was used, but
in it's stead black and white horses, and
drew parallel between the demonetiza-
tion OF silver and the ''de-horse-ilation" of
the white horses by the owners of the
black animals, and the train of evils that
followed the sending of these black horses
out OF the country and thus compelling
the payment of taxes and all other charges
in white horses at valuation arbitrarily
fixed by the "black-horse trust"
Mrs. Cougar carried her parallel even to
the issue of bonds and the attacks of the
fnanciers and preachers upon those who
wished to ''undehorseatize'' the white
horses, who were termed anarchists"
''repudiationists," +" "hobos," etc. The APP
plication OF the story was readily made by
the audience and heartily applauded.
The speaker then turned her attention
| to Bishop Newman and Rev. DR.. Hills,
| who had spoken from their pulpits in
| favor of the gold standard, and paid her
| respects to Rev. O. III. Wolston, Phila-
| delphie Baptist preacher, who recently
wrote letter demanding that the de BITS of
his church and his own salary be paid in
| gold, in the event of the adoption OF free
silver, which he stigmatized as s'the
devils dollar" The clergy, she declared,
were, as rule, the best paid workers in
the cities, and are not In a position to
know the wants of the poor laboring
classes; they belonged to the same class
who crucitied Christ and who supported
! slavery, claiming it was sanctioned by
divine injunction and precept. There is
not an argument now used by the gold
standard people, she declared, that was
not used by the advocates of human
slavery.
Taking up DR.. Hills sermon, she de-
clared that if as he claimed there could be
| no such thing as a double standard, then
the gold men were the guilty innovators,
as the original money metal was silver
and was recognized by the American con-
sttution as such. Forty trainioads of
people had in one day recently been taken
to Canton to witness a porch dance"
Presidents elected by running free rail-
road trains will not oppose legislation
favorable to corporations and trusts. Her
understanding of the reproduction"
theory of the Republicans was that "the
harder we work and tine more we produce
the poorer we get" Yet statistics show
York City of starvation. She said it was
shame and disgrace to the Christian
church that any minister of the gospel
should assist the money power in its ne
farous work, and said they were doing
more harm than their efforts tor good
could overcome among the people.
Quoting Senator Sherman, she charac-
terlzed him as one of the three great
traitors in American history, Benedict
Arnold and Jefferson Davis being the
others, and asserted that no man could
have acquired his great wealth while serv-
ing the people in Congress at salary of
5000 year and living at an expense of
$40. 900.
Blaine, had he lived, would be con-
sldered an anarchist and repudiationist of
the worst kind, and McKinley's speeches,
before Mark Hanna took hold of the
string" showed him to be one of the lead
ing repudiatonists of the world. In
answer to suggestion that Mckinley had
been converted, Mrs. Cougar said: "Yes,
he's been converted, because he would
rather be President than be right"
Mckinley and Cleveland were pro-
nounced ''tina ncial twins; the banks
were denounced for their exercise of
tyrannlcal power; the gold papers of Chi.
cago were declared to be owned by English
syndicates and the rum power; Colonel
w. c. z. Breckinridge, candidate for Con-
gress on gold platform, was bitterly as
sailed as the prince of immortality;
Mckinley was said to be supported by the
English brewers and the American whisky
ring, with whom the gold preachers had
allied themselvesin his support, and the
St. Louis Convention was said to have
been marked by more drunkenness, de-
bauchery and licentiousness than any
previous convention ever held in America.
Mrs. Cougar was frequently interrupted
by bursts OF applause and was given quite
an ovation at the conclusion of her speech.