The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-21
LAY R ON HARD TIMES.

10 they are no narder IMAM common. The
Oldest living inhabitant cannot recall the
day that somebody was not bemoanlng
hard times. Some people are built tnar
way. or take to IL early in life. There f. a
legend that Adam. the father OF us all. was
n the habit of complaining OF hard times
after he left Eden, where there was much
gold and many precious stones. and plenty
Of good fruit. all TO be had without work.
ing for 1t; that he particularly objected to
working for a living, but he had been
raised as a horticulturist. and he could not
take kindly TO tussling with thorns and
thistles or get no bread.
The other day, at the old settlers meet
ing, / met a very pretty girl. twenty to
twenty-five years old. She was bewailing
the hard times. She was driven to the
meeting in a beautiful phaeton, behind a
fire horse. by a well-dressed young man.
presumably her sweetheart. and she was
as well dressed as could be; yet times are
hard with her. Her grandmother, a little
over fifty years ago. rode TO singing schools
and meetings behind her beau on a farm
horse which had been broken to carry
double for just such service as this. and
every article of clothing she had on
was the product of her own loom and spin
ming wheel. OF course. she talked OF hard
tines. for everybody did. Yet she enjoyed
life all the same. Twenty-Five years later
her daughter rode TO meeting in the farm
wagon. sitting on a splint-bottomed chair.
holding the baby in her arms and keeping
an eye on two or three others in the straw
at her feet. OF course, she caught UP the
refrain, hard times, but she could not help
contrasting her means OF transportation
with that OF her mother. and be glad. not
withstanding hard times. just as this young
lady must certainly contrast hers with her
mothers when she thinks soberly.
One farmer was almost heartbroken be-
cause he can get only So cents for his
wheat. His grandfather hauled wheat from
the same farm TO Lawrenceburg. fifty
three years ago. and got So cents for it-in
GalliDolis (O.) money. He spent 50 of ii
for eight yards Of calico for his wife and So
for a barrel Of Kanawha salt. and brought
the balance home TO pay taxes with, bring
ing about 1000 pounds OF dry goods and
groceries for an Indianapolis merchant,
getting more for that than his wheat
brought When he went TO pay his taxes.
ten days. later. his Gallipolis money was
worth only 40 cents on the dollar. and a
month later it was worth nothing. OF
course. he said hard times. but he sowed
more acres that fall and fed his family.
WIN -NaAo ~ ttt otllt VI tilA6 VIII
planning farmer enlisted and went to the
war, never to return. leaving six children.
the oldest this man. then about thirteen
years old. The heroic mother kept the
children together by her strong will, with
the little remittance from her husband
while he lived and some help from the sol
diers' relief fund, and later from a pen
sion, so that she managed TO save the farm
and educate the children in the public
school. OF course, she said hard times, but
she never gave up.
Not long ago 1 sent for a iaboring man to
do a little job. He came on a Wheel,
worked three hours, charged me 50 cents,
and rode away on his wheel, but he could
talk of nothing but hard -times-never saw
the times so hard-never, never. He was
born a slave, but he has caught on to the
white mans lamentation and repeats IL
glibly.
In looking around for the immediate
cause of the present hard times it is easy
enough to tell what is not the cause. A
scarcity of good money cannot be the
cause. for money never was as abundant
as now, and no money in the world was
ever 5etter-no Gallipolis shin-plasters now
to play the role of, money. The Official re-
port. made less than six weeks ago. gives
~SA"ac PtA lAAa WAhtt ~ was OAt< &41-Vt
in 1860 before the Republicans took matters
in hand, and such money as some OF il
was. But We need not resort to official
statistics to prove that there is no lack of
money. What man, woman or child stays
away from the baseball or the races or the
Park Theater or the big circus for want
of money? Who refrains from a Sunday
street-car ride because he or she has no
money? Or who walks on week days be-
cause he or she has no nickel? Both sta
tistics and observation show that nobody
abstains from his beer or tobacco for want
of money. That saloon keepers conven-
tion is not to devise ways and means for
making money more abundant, but simply
to ~contrive how TO repeal or emasculate
the Nicholson law. The 1900 wheels that
spin through our streets tell us there is no
/ lack of money, and that what We have IL
remarkably evenly distributed. Even the
dollar tax would have been an impossible
ity with the fathers and mothers of most
of those riders before the Republicans took
charge of the money. There may be here
and there a lack of bread and Ike Injuries.
but the substantials. such as / have enum-
Grated. never were more within the, reach
of everybody than now. Some men do not
work, that is true. but their wives do.
while they cry hard times on the street
corners.
The remedy for this is not wholly or
even chiefly in legislation. True. wise.
economic measures will promote the gen.
eral welfare. but that sentiment which lays
blame upon the State for every failure in
life is more at the bottom Of the unrest
which makes life a burden than any or all
other things. The taoroot OF this condi-
ton of unhappiness finds its chief nourish-
ment in that abominable teaching OF pulpit
and press and schoolhouse which makes
work during life. and ultimately death.
alike the penalty for somebody's transgres-
sion. The Bible and common sense re-
pudiate all such notions and teach that
labor is that which most of all diferen-
tiates man from the lower animals, and
that death, instead Of being that grim
monster which some preachers make II.
Is only the termination Of this period OF
a continuous existence and the introduce
ton to the next. Every man resents being
held for another mans misdeeds; he will
avoid the penalty IL he can. and this abb
horrence. more than constitutional laz.ness
or Unborn hatred of work. Is at the bottom
of that disquietude which finds its utter
ances I'm the universal cry Of hard times.
When that good time comes. and IL viii
come. when preachers and teachers. and