The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-10-07

as the wise men at Washington had de-
vised.
When the supervisors of the county
met at Lake Pleasant, the first of Sep
TENDER, everybody had heard and talked
more or less about the old canno that
had been found, but nobody thought
that here was a source of wealth to the
county hat might make the farmers
and lumbermen of the wilderness the
most prosperous community or the face
of the earth, until Jimmy arose and al
dressed the board.
His plan was this:
The seventeen guns weighed, as
nearly as could be figured, about elk
hundred pounds apiece. Now, if the
supervisors would agree and order that
an ounce of brass marked by somebody
whom they should appoint should be
called a dollar, every gun would be
worth $4,000, so that the whole of
Buffers Battery would increase the
wealth of Hamilton County by $4,000,
or $42 per capita. SIT is true," said
Jimmy, "that the guns don't belong TO
the county, but to Andy Dunlap and
his boy and the Sacandaga River Lum-
Der Company of Fort Edward, who
have claimed half the brass because
the guns were found on their land, but
they will spend the money, and there
will be plenty of work for everybody,
Thus shall the infinite of our
glorious county be developed. Thus
shall we cease TO be ground beneath the
iron heel of the oppressor. To-day, if
w borrow a dollar OF a man, we have
TO pay him q dollar back. If we hire a
mar to work for us at twenty dollars a
month there is no way TO get out of it
but by paying him, paying him dollars
which have cost us something. We are
tired of submitting to these burdens
which Cypress us; we beg no more;
we petition no more; we defy them;
we are the hardy pioneers who brave
all the dangers of the wilderness and
make the desert blossom as the rose.
We pioneers away out here, rearing
our children near to Natures heart,
where they can mingle their voices
with the voices of the birds-out here,
where we have erected school-houses
for the education of u young, and
cemeteries where sleep the ashes of our
dead-we deserve to have as cheap and
abundant money as any people in this
State"
Some of the supervisors thought it
might be well TO consult with Fulton
County, where Hamilton County bought
its clothing and sold its venison, but
the Orator scoined him. " Is not"
said Jimmy, in a loud and impressive
tone, lis not this the greatest county,
but one or two, in the State of New
York? WHY should we be slaves to the
greed of B~roadalbin and Batcheller-
vile? | would be presumptuous indeed
to present myself against the distin-
guished gentleman to whom you have
listened if this were but a measuring of
ability, but this ia not a contest among
persons. The humblest citizen in all
the land, when clad in the armor of a
righteous cause, is stronger than all the
whole hosts of error that they can
bring. come to speak to you in de-
fence of a cause as no y as the cause of
liberty the cause of the Sacandaga
River Lumber Company. From In.
dian Lake to Morehouseville let there
rise the glorious response. To such
dastards as dare to lay a limit to the
power of the Hamiltonian people to do
what they please, independently of all
other peoples, / hurl their cowardice
and lack of patriotism back in THEN
faces. You shall not sacrifice Andy
Dunlap and the Sacandaga River Lum'
Der Company on an altar of greer.
backs"
And 80 the supervisors of the seven
towns of Hamilton County voted, with
only one dissenting voice, that William
Peterson, the blacksmith at Wells
should get a die and should coin into
dollar every ounce of brass brought t.
him at the ratio of 16 to 1-sixteer
ounces to one pound-without waiting
for the consent of any other county
and that if the County Judge attempted
to help anybody whose contract called
for other dollars they would fire hin
out and elect a new county judge
The single negative vote was cast by
Lie Benson of Indian Lake.
The wave of prosperity came with {
rush. The Sacandaga River Lumber
Company paid its back taxes for two
years, $7S0-nearly fifty pounds of ole
brass. Andy Dunlap and all hi
friends had a perpetually splendid tim
at Jake Jones' hotel; and the Blacl
River Lumber Company, althou9l
tney naunt FOUND any guns, bought VI
some second. hand brass bedsteads from
an auction and built a new dam on thu
outlet of South Canada Lake. 1t tool
twenty men a month to build the dam
and the company paid good wages
every man had three pounds of brass t.
carry home. The summer boarders a
the large hotels found it out, too, AM
sent for their friends. Soon there wa
such a rush as had never been known
Each boarder would bring an oil,
candlestick or stair-rod in his valise ant
pay his board for a week. The cour
trymen who brought berries and trou
and venison to the hotels got goo,
prices now, and milk was quoted at lei
cents a quart-a whole ounce of bras
! for ten quarts. Levey, the tin peddlel
no longer came up the river with
!, wagon of cotton stuffs and tinware an
went back with his pockets full o
money. He got a load of old casting
7 in the railroad shop, had them minte
on his way, and went back with