Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-08-19
nARTN AT VALLEY.
One OF his Audience Reviews His Speech.-fie
is Challenged to Meet Citizen of VAL
ley Township but becomes fright
ened and backs down.

| ciup ABOUT 10 DE uSlefeu INTO existence
on Wednesday night August u, 1896:
He began by saying that he came there
! TO talk about the silver question, that
he had studied it. that he. in fact.
| knew all about it. He said that he
was ia favor OF the present gold STAN
dard and so on. He also wanted to
know if there was anyone present who
| desired TO divide the time with him.
No one picking up the gauntlet so
bravely thrown down. be, instead of ad-
dressing himself TO his audience, adj
dressed himself to an individual and
tried to provoke him into an acceptance
of his challenge. Said Individual de-
| cllned on account of want of previous
notice and because he had no authori-
ties at hand to which he could refer for
statistics and other proofs of what he
might wish to sUbstantiate, especially
as Mr.. Martin seemed to be loaded with
/ a whole armful OF documentary evil
dence to prove his side.
He then went on and read a number
OF laws concerning coinage and [ will
do him the justice to say that he read
them correctly, but the same cannot be
said in reference to some of the con-
structlons he put mon their.
lie left the impression, On The audi
ence that silver Vas demonetized in
1884, also in 1887, and especially in 1853,
but he forgot to read the act that did
really demonetize silver passed in
1873. He tried to lay great stress on
the fact that there were but eight mil
| lions OF silver coined into dollars but
admitted that there were 1877 millions
coined into smaller pieces, making a
total of las millions III round numbers.
He also forgot to state that previous to
1858 the q. S. produced no silver, and
that the total production of silver from
1858 to 1878, inclusive, was in round
numbers 1S9 millions. So during all
this time all but A millions of silver
went to the mint, the balance being
either used in the arts or exported. He
then asserted with great emphasis that
400 millions of SILVER had been produced
| since 1878, and that is was impossible
| to get it into circulation among the
people; that only about 60 millions of it
was in circulation and tterated and re-
iterated this statement until he was
| asked the question whether it was not
a fact that the government refused to
put 1t into circulation by not paying out
silver when the obligation was payable
in coin which means either silver or
gold. This got the gentleman on his
ear and he cavorted around like a
'buckin" pony that had lain down on a
nest of humble bees and did not know
how to get away from what was tor
menting him. He held up his hands in
holy ~ horror and said that the good
Mr.. Carlisle could not do that. That
would not be upholding the honor of
the government. And in turn he asked
the interrogation that if he had cou-
tracted for valuable consideration
would he take "cow skim" and re.
ceived the reply that if the contract
called for "cow skin" he certainly
would. Then he read from report of
the director of the mint and tried to
palm it off as haylng authority of law
Then he jumped on Tom Jefferson
and said that Tom had demonetized
silver in that he suggested that silver
at that time would serve the wants OF
the people better if coined only into
smaller pieces. He then got off from
| SILVER onto the greenback and when his
attention was called to the fact of its
depreciation on account of the excep-
tion clause, he struck an attitude
raised his eyes to the ceiling, spread out
his arms and in tones meant to be both
awe-inspiring and pathetic declared
that the good Abraham Lincoln and
Thad Stevens had fathered the green.
back. He then went on and fought the
war of the rebellion over again and
made appeals to the old war-scarre6
veterans, and said the question OF
States rights and not silver was the is.
sue and then went on to denict the hor.
rors of another war il the silver forces
under the leadership Of Bryan should
succeed.
He would shake his name and dare
anybody from anywhere to meet him in
debate; said he had met and vanquished
his opposers at every turn and said he
was especially anxious to meet Jerry
Simpson. He kept up this kind of har
angue until after midnight and one ole
republican got Up and left. Whether
tired out or Disguised is not known.
He also spoke of the fall of prices an6
ascribed them to the improvements il
machinery, mentioning the McCor
mick reapers of 1915 and comparing il
with the present harvester as a factor
in reducing cost of raising wheat; sale
he was raised farmer and knew al
about it; said we used to thresh wheat
with Is inch cylinder and twelve
horse power, and now he said we die
not use horses at all and threshed 25Ot
bushels day on a machine having 8
Sc inch cylinder and dared anybody tt
deny it.
And lastly he tried to make his aud i
ence believe that they were the mos
enlightened, most prosperous and tn,
happiest people on earth, and to d,
this he compared them with the breech
clout wearing sayages OF the tropics
and by trying to slur the people of GU
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