Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1897-05-28
UNCLE SANS MILK CHECKS.
A story of II Dairy. II Lead Mime Lend
Coins and of some Queer People VINO
Wanted Wages Reduced.

A story of IL Dairy. n Lead Mine, Lead
Coins and of some Queer People Who
Wanted Wages Reduced.
There was once dalryman who did
a large and prosperous business. lie
was known and respected by large
community, and nearly all the people
who knew him did business with him.
I do not know what his real name was,
but they called him Uncle Sam. At the
early day when these things happened
there was very little money, and people
used bar lead, bullets and tobacco for
change. Finally Uncle Sam, who was
rather unusual character, read pas
sa.ge in one of Aristotle's works in re-
gard TO the invention of money, that lit
was aCterward determined in value by
men putting u stamp on it in order
that II may save them the trouble Of
weighing it,"
SO Uncle Sam built a stamping ma
chine which would stamp out an Eng
lish pcnny's worth of lead and was
worth a pint of milk, as lie was then
selling milk. These checks proved TO
be quite convenient. People found
them all full weight, and Uncle Sans
workmen and servants took their pay
in them. People also sold him their
COWS for them. and Uncle Sam sold milk
for them. Sometimes the people used
the lead coins for bullets and for
weights, but Uncle Sam didn care very
much. Although it did cost him some
thing to coin them, he had passed them
at their lead value. In fact, Uncle Sam
would exchange coins for bar lead at
any time, weight for weight as matter
of public convenience. Some other peo-
pie made coins in a mold occasionally,
but people generally weighed them in
order 10 find whether they were as
heavy as Uncle Sans coins. Uncle Sam
said he didn't care how many coins they
made. and he would take them himself
if they were full weight.
A lead mine was discovered not very
far from Uncle Sans, and lead went
down in price TO about half what 1t had
been. \ great many people who had
some OF Uncle Sans lead began TO
wonder what be was going TO do about
the matter. The checks were worth
only halfpenny now. They discovered
that Uncle Sam was still receiving
them for a pennS's worth of milk and
that he was continuing to pay them out
TO his workmen Just as before.
His business was charging, and he
was stamping out these checks in larger
numbers than ever. People sold him
hay and COWS for them at the same rate,
for he had said that he intended TO MAIN
tain the parity Of his checks and the
pennv. People didn't use his checks
for bullets now. for bar lead cost only
half as much. And Uncle Sam request
ed his friends not to make any of these
, checks out of bar lead, for he didn't
like to accept halfpenny checks for a
penny unless he had passed them off on
the public for q penny's worth of labor
The next thing of note that happened
20 Uncle Sam was this: The people who
owned the lead mine heard about his
scheme, and they got up convention
in order 10 see if something couldn't be
done for lead They wanted 20 get the
good old prices. They proposed that
Uncle Sam should coin the whole out
nut Of their mine free and let them cart
away the checks, since they owned the
lead. They tried TO make Uncle sam be-
lieve that this would double the price
of lead and he could go right on doing
business as if nothing had happened
There was also some talk to the effect
that people couldn't pay their debts un
less they could get some cheap money
70 pay with.
The working people were getting
penny a day, and many of them though
these lead pennies they were getting
were too good and would buy too mucl
at the stores. They joined the free
coinage movement in order to get
cheap penny which would buy only hal
as much as the present penny, with
view of restoring lead to its old price
so people could pay their debts in cheal
money. they said they would trust L
luck to get their wages doubled.
Some of the wiser ones shook thet
heads and said Uncle Sam certainl.
couldn't carry the whole lead output a
twice its market value. They wer
confident that if he should attempt +
do so the lead coins would soon pass %
their junk value. This would upse
, credits and business and ruin the Who'll
community.
, When | finish the translation of tbi
story and learn how the tangle was sci
tied. | will write aguin.-Erancis L
l Nipher, in st. Louis Globe Democrat.