The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-08-12
ITS ALL ONEBIG FORUM.
Kansas Avenue as Seen By a
Journal Reporter,
When a Dozen Financial Debates
Are Going On.
One on Each of the Shady Corners
and Others Indoors and Out

The plaintive howl of the silverite
| Disturbs the peace of day and night,
And the first thing heard at come OF
Is the tearing sheer of the gold bugs
scorn,
And busy men who work, or try,
| Must take to the street, or not get by.
| How long, oh, pray, win this thing last
/ How long, oh, pray, till the time is past
/ And Wen hear, perchance, tWixt sun
| and sun,
Some words besides sixteen to one?''
Some years ago when Mr.. Diogenes
spent time and patience and a tallOw
| dip,poking with his cane among the re
fuse of the Athens alleys for truthful
/ man, and caught him not, he found a
pace at which humanity has since been
trotting without a change of saddles or
| a rub down.
And stiu Diogenes was coping with a
foe unworthy of his steel for had he
lived today and sprung his lantern on
the money question in hope to find a
man who strOve to save himself and
not his country, who spent his time at
work and not in argument, who spoke
the truth and knew 1t was the truth,
or really knew the principles of which
he argued, his unrequited chase had
brought him greater nOtOrIety as
foolish innocent than he has enjoyed in
the years gone by.
In these hot times of heated argu-
ment stirred we'll and constantly with
full length arms a search for silence
would have won him greater fame, for
every one is talking.
The pillow. the lister and the drill lie
rusty in the farmers field, the saw and
hammer and the square hang long IN
touched upon the mechanics walls,
the brush of artists and the tools of ar
tisans grow rotten from disuse, the
warriors sword and bIackSmith'S
sIedge have been replaced in present
use by the pencil and the fOrefnger,
and every man who thinks he knows a
crown of silver from a cross of gold,
fiaUnts high his explanation in the air
that all who come and stop or pass,
may see and hear and smell and go
away and know no more than had they
never seen nor heard nor smelt-
This is the story Of the day in Tope-
ka:
On every corner and in every store,
in the middle of the block and in the al
leys, in shops and offices and every
where that shade is, and often where it
isn't, arms, legs and voices swing in
wild upheaval with the money ques-
ton.
Men argue. women argue. children
argue.
If effort counts this is indeed an edu-
catiOnal campaign
If Topeka is no more addicted to the
money question than is the rest of the
country. who, pray tell, is doing the
Fifteen times a day is the money
question settled and our cOuntry's fire
sides and honor saved in each of fully
10 different places in one-fOurth as
many blocks on Kansas avenue.
At least two corners of Sixth
street, generally the shady ones, there
is continuous debate. There are at
least two others at Fifth street. At
Seventh street it is the same. At Eighth
street, at Fourth street, Ninth street,
Third street and a dozen other places
betwixt and between, ditto.
There is the cry from the house top
and from the basement. Everywhere
you gear the talk of money, "16 to l.,
gold standard, p" free coinage crime
of '73,'' etc, and nothing but cyclone
can stop it.
This morning on an early down town
car a labOring man stepped in. In his
hand was a dinner bucket and in his
mouth was a pipe. Everything was
quiet until he stepped On-On that plat
form. There was no one there but the
mOtOrneer and he couldn't well argue
with himself
The laboring man had hardly got
braced before he was assaulted by a
man inside the window hanging on to
a strap who asked him how he stood on
the silver question.
The laboring man was a silver Re
publican. The man inside who seemed
to be a lawyer, was a gold Republican.
They began with the condition of
things at the present time. They COM
pared them with those of 20 years ago.
Then somebody said something about
the crime of '73. 1t was the silver man
of course. Mexico and India, who really
hadn't done anything at all were drag
ged into the war.
Then they started over again with
the monetary clause of the cOnstitu-
ton and had almost got back to '"73,'
when they reached the place where the
labOring man wanted to get off.
Just as the labOring man stepped on
the ground the lawyer made a state
ment about supply and demand. This
touched the pet theory of the man with
the bucket and he stopped to reply.
The mOtOrman had his hand on the
levers, but he was interested and held
the car. The conductor, who was on
the back end, rang the bell. Then the
gold man "came back and the silver
man started to reply again. The con-
ductOr on the rear platform rang the
bell again. Reluctantly the mOtOrman
started the car just as the conductor
was selecting his choicest swear words.
This didn't end the argument, how
ever, for the gold man came out and
hung off the platform. The silver man
trotted along till the car went too fast
and then he dropped behind and three
OF four parting shots were yelled
back and forth until they were no long
er possible. The incident is representa-
tive.
Yesterday afternoon when it was
pretty warm two men, a fat one and a
lean one, met in the middle of the
street. Each wiped his face in a pre-
paratOry manner and then the arms
began to fly like pump handles They
began with HamiltOn's report in 1892.
Their collars began to wilt along about
the passage of the coinage laws in 1884
and 1887 BY 1854 their handkerchiefs
were soaked. The year 1873 saw two
limp shirt fronts. The colors began to
run out of their ties in 1890 and just
at 1898 a street car came along
The gathered crowd stepped respect
fully aside.
But the two pairs of arms still waved
and the two pairs of lungs still sent
forth war. The motorman rang his
bell; he rang it vigorously. The men
talked on right in the middle of
the track.
Now, now, now, that's where you're
off. said one of the men and the other