The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-10-07
out, and it's worth less and less every

Kidney Complaints in either sex.
out, and it's worth less and less every
day."
The old mans hand shook. Hank"
said he, q" if my money amt good, you
know my name is good. Won't you
trust me for a suit of clothes and my
winter provisions?"
Hank hesitated a moment. "No,
Bill" he answered, +" l can't. l know
you're honest, but what property have
you got? I've got every cent trusted
out that l can stand in that county of
yours, where a man can pay his debts
with an Old lamp"
The old woodsman sat down on a
wash-tub and his face quivered.
I" Hank" said he, "this morning L
thought l was rich. | owed no man
a cent, and l had 10000 county dollars
hid in my potato. cellar, but if what
you say is true l haven't got a cent.
I've got no provisions in the house. l
sold my team last month to Hen Cole,
and my very house and farm are sold,
and I've got to give them up on the
first of March,"
Meadows took a quick stride up and
down the store. "Bill," said he, it's
a hard case, a hard case, but you're no
worse off than half the people up your
way. I've had 'em here every day
this week. Put what will keep you a
week or two in the wagon and pay me
when you can"
Burton drove home very slowly, very
t~houghttully, and although Life Ben
son lived a dozen miles from the Bur-
ton farm Bill went straight to the
point.
ellie" said he, 81 thought l was
rich, but I'm ruined; l want you should
help me. I've got nothing in the world
but a wagon load of old brass. My
farm is gone. I've got no team to
work with, and nothin' to eat. But
you're rich. You've got a farm, you've
got horses, you've got provisions, and
I've only the clothes | stand ill.,"
81 won't go back on ye, Bill"
answered Lie Benson. i've seen
this comm, and I've got ready so far as
| could to help my friends. Come up
in the garrett and l guess we can find a
suit of good warm clothes that'll just
about fit ye, and there's a wagon and a
pair of horses in the barn that you can
take home with a load of stuff, and if
yell come back next week 1ll give ye
a job to draw bark thatll help We to pay
for the things. l don't calc'late to
make any money on this bust-up, and
what you get from me will cost you
just what they cost me-"
The next week the supervisors met
again. The Orator explained that if they
would change the weight of the dollar
from an ounce to half an ounce every
body would have twice as much money
as before, and another wave of pros
perity would strike the county. Hen
Cole and Levey, the peddler, who now
wore a big diamond in his shirt front,
and the agents of lumber companies
also expressed themselves as thinking
that the reduction in wages and the rise
in prices was a good thing, and would
enable them to compete with Japan.
Yet the repeal of the free. coinage act
passed the supervisors unanimously.
OF course they could not put things
quite back where they were. Most OF
the property in the county had passed
into the hands of spectators or had
gone out O. its borders to pay for the
brass that had come in. But A1dy
Dunlap was the richest man in the
county, though he hadn't done a stroke
of work in years; the S%acandaga River
Lumber Company had never paid such
big dividends, and the Black River
Lumber Company had q very fine dam
The years have rolled by in Hamilton
County on the standard on which
they roll by elsewhere. Many years Of
hard work have effaced the scars of that
brief fever of prosperity. But the aged
men still remember, and when orators
invent new means of sudden wealth, tC
be gained by calling fifty cents dollar
some venerable woodsman will take hi'
pipe from his mouth and tell the events
of the summer of 1S-, and especially
and many times over, will he, and hi
hearers who remember those days
mention, with great fervency, the dan
which cost the Black River Lumbe
Company sixty pounds weight of OLE
brass. Indeed, the word is frequently
spoken throughout Hamilton County
Long has Lie Benson slept,
And Jimmy Tryon silent sleeps;
And time the ruined dam has swept
Down the clear stream that leaps
But in the forests shadow cool
Still warns the old abutment stone;
No more the trick the sons shall fool
: Which fooled the sires in years agone.
> Evening Post.