Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-11-28
the sand. An offer to raise the weight to
1000 pounds met with no takers.

Inc importation OF silver was started by
I'm. Yost. the leading miller and wheat
buyer Of Hays City, who had quarreled
with the local bank and set about doing
a cash business with his customers. He
secured at the start 10000 silver dollars
from the national treasury at Washington.
mus saving express charges. as the govern
ment pays this expense for anyone who
Will take silver. Very soon he duplicated
this order and at the same time other
wheat buyers in the town ordered silver
from Washington. The precise amount re-
ceived Is not known. but the railroad agent
at Hays City recently informed Topics that
the sum exceeded Sc, 600.
1t readily may be understood that silver
became very plentiful in the business
transactions of Hays City. In fact all
other kinds Of currency practically disap-
peared from circulation. The bank refused
TO exchange gold or g~reenbacks for the
white metal. and. for q time. 1t even re-
fused to receive silver on deposit, claiming
that II 1t did so its vaults would soon be
clogged with the entire 5000 pounds of sill
yer in circulation in the neighhorhood.
AS soon as the threshing season opened
the farmers hurried their wheat into mar
ket to take advantage of the high prices.
1t frequently happened that one man would
market as much as 1900 bushels In one
day, receiving every cent of his pay in
silver. One could stand on the street cor
ners and see dozens of men with sacks
full of silver over their shoulders going
from store to store as they bought goods
or paid their bills. Sometimes these sacks
contained as much as seventy-fve pounds.
The money drawers in the stores would
not begin to hold the white metal. The
town was deluged with it and curses deep
ana long could be heard on every side. Men
who wished to buy a draft to pay off
a mortgage found that they could not do it
with silver dollars. though this condition
was soon changed by the local bank. which
made every effort to relieve the white met
al congestion.
Ellis county is largely peopled by Rus
sian farmers. and it is said that every one
OF them has more or less silver coin bur-
led about his premises. Hon. H.. D. Shaf-
fer. of Hays City, told Topics an amusing
story in this connection. At the election
OF 1896 the Russians voted solidly for free
silver. giving Bryan a majority Of about
500 in the county. One day Shaffer noticed
one OF the Russians coming from an ele-
vator with 15 pounds of silver dollars in
a sack over his shoulder. He placed the
sack in the bottom Of his wagon, and then
made his wife seat herself upon it with an
earnest adJuration to her not to move
while he was away attending to some bus
mess. AS he mopped the sweat from his
brow he turned to Shaffer and said:
"Meester Sha1er, I wish you would dell
me Something's. Last fall We, voted for vree
silver and godt beat, und yet We have vree
silver now. don't it already?"
This experience in Ellis county becomes
Of more than passing interest when it is
remembered that perhaps for fifty years
TO other community in the United States
has had such a practical test of the silver
question and the Gresham law. For two
| ~Nnfho Howe Hity ha1 ef1x,aR ro~r1~nntol
lism. Gold and paper disappeared from
circulation as by magic to give place to
the less desirable currency. 1t was proof
positive not only that gold would not stay
in circulation alongside of silver dollars
standing on their own merits, but also
that gold would not stay in circulation
alongside of silver dollars redeemable in
gold when the silver had been forced into
circulation beyond the ordinary demands
OF trade. Hon. ]. H. Reeder, of Hays City.
informs Topics that he knows of one case
at least where paper and gold went to a
premium, as he saw a farmer pay SO to
have $500 in silver changed into the more
convenient money. incidentally it is re-
lated that a vote on the silver question
in Ellis county at this time would give the
gold standard a rousing majority.
Box-omce Bob.
From the Chicago Post.
Colonel Robert G.. Ingersoll appeared on
the Auditorium stage yesterday to sound
the only harsh and Earring note in the ma
TONS chorus Of thanksgiving. All reports
agree that this lecture was a rehash of all
the old things he has been saying against
Christianity and the spirit of religion since
he discovered that wit at the expense of
truth had power to draw dollars from the
pockets Of irreverence. Fol more than q
quarter Of a century Colonel Bob has been
knocking the crutch Of faith from under
the arms of inquiring humanity. He began
the game when 1t afforded fun for his
genial joviality. though it meant death to
the trust Of thousands. who. once loosed
from their moorings to the Bible. have
drifted helpless and hopeless on the sea
of doubt. He won the titles Of Genial Bob
n the jovial colonel. and continued the
game after the geniality was s~tereotyped
on his face and the joy was gone from his
voice-because 1t paid.
There was q time when the wit was dead
the lecturer ceased to strut the stage. But
America Is large, and thousands of its cit
liens rave not yet learned that the Bob
Ingersoll Of to-day Is but a shadow of his
former self. while what he says is only
the echo Of the ribaldry Of the days when
rejoicing in his own strength he said with
the fool, There is no God" But to-day
he has a god, who sits in the box office
and gloats over the fact that you can fool
lots of the people a long time.
Yesterday Box Office Bob labeled his same
old lecture Whom Shall We Thank? and
answered the in~terrogatory by enumerating
Zeno, Epicurus, Cicero. Lucretius, Bruno,
Spinoza, Voltaire and Tom Paine We adj
init that Colonel Bob should thank these
great sources Of his wit and humOr and
irreverence. All that he has ever thought
or said has been cribbed from their pages.
But, as Colonel Ingersoll processes 10 be
a worshiper at the shrine of material
benefits to mankind. as he glorifies the
d%iscoverer of chloroform, the inventor of
pins and watches above all the founders
of religions and makers of creeds that
ever lived. will he tell us what all the
schoo Of disbelief from Zeno to himself
ever did to advance the material comfort
of the race or to heal "a passion or a pang
entailed on human hearth"
Christianity has opened schools. en-
dowed colleges, established libraries.
built hospitals and filled the world with
the gospel of love and good works where
the school Of unbelief has been digging
pits. It is faith that has led mankind up
all the steps Of civilization and human
progress. 1t Is faith that inspires inven-
ton, and it is faith that guides the eye
of discovery. Show US that man whose
only faith is in himself and We will show
you a man whose vital force Is dead,
whose eyes are on the earth and whose
steps only lead into the valley of despair.
Colonel Ingersolrs whole vision of the
problem. of life and death is bounded by
the little window of the box office II