The record-union., 1898-11-13
He STOPPED A CARD GAME.
HOW A PIONEER BROUGHT A
PoPULIsT TO TIME.
An Abraham Lincoln Republican
With a Head Full of Stub
born Facts.

There is an old and well-known hotel
in Sacramento, where pioneers and pol
| lt1cians meet at stated intervals to
while away their evenings over the
green cloth. Sometimes they will sit
for hours, hardly speaking, save IN
| language that would be purely sym
bolic to the Puritanical. A rap. or a
grunt, or simply, Pass" will often be
all that breaks the silence for hours.
But there are exceptions to all rules
and there are times when mems pas
sions and prejudices in politics flame
SO high that they depart from their
usual habits. 1t is so at the Sacra-
mento hotel just described-and the
late campaign proved an innovation
that broke up many a game
One night just before the free men
of California voted down a yellow
Journals candidate for Governor. there
was so much confusion that the Oldest
devotee abandoned the game. the deck
was put away, and there was a sort
of free for all political discussion. You
are not to suppose it was a noisy, rat
tle-headed barroom talk Though that
| ragged everywhere at times), but this
particular talk was among the old men
-,
to speak. There was so much human
nature in the discussion that a report
of it may please those who were not
there.
The poor are getting poorer and the
rich are getting richer, said a cham
pion of fusion, 'fand there can be no
salvation until the country is under
single tax, and finally pure socialism"
FTbic 1,a
eral old fellows to thinking. One in
particular scratched his head and
watched the speaker with a burning
eye, until he could hear no longer with
patience, but it was hard for him TO
get the fusionist to sand the track and
give anybody else chance in the dis
cussion.
"Oh, the referendum is the thing FOR
u.s.! exclaimed the man who insisted
on monopolizing the conversation.
What has it ever produced?" asked
the pioneer, when there was a lull in
the talk; but he answered the ques-
ton before the Populist had a chance
to interrupt. "Go to Switzerland" he
said, "and you will find a country not
as big as some of our California coun-
ties, and what has the referendum
produced? Coats milk and women field
hands. Go there and see"
Then the old card player wound up
the fusionist good and tight on the
wages question, as follows;
you are as full of wind as a bar
ber's cat said he ''for wages have
increased 1S0 per cent. since 1852. and
300 per cent. more people are employed
now than were employed then. though
the population has increased only 10
per cent. More than that. every dollar
now buys more than it did then-more
of nearly everything that Americans
eat and drink and wear"
But capitalists don't pay workmen a
fair part of the gains," said the fu-
sionist
You are dreaming strange dreams" I"
said the old man, "and your doctrines
have b. c. written all over them You
are ringing in Coxey's figures on me-
and the Coxey crowd couldn't tell the
truth if they'd sleep on George Wash
ington's breast for a thousand years.
Now the truth is that the competition
of capital with capital has cut down
capitals earnings, so that interest is
lower than in the good old days that
you speak of-which never existed
but lney ought TO pay nlgnSf
wages chirped the fusionist
There you go again with your
kindergarten political notions" re-
torted the old man. for you don't seem
to understand that wages do not de-
pend on the caDrices of employers.
Wages are part of the sum left over
after the sale of the product and unless
there is large market at a fair mar
gin of profit there is no great gain for
either capital or labor
The crowd laughed. the game was
opened again, and the fusionist walked
away, saying to himself Who IN
thunder was that old guy. I wonder?"
1t was an Abraham Lincoln Repub
lican who has q home up in the hills.
He has q mania for fiss1:-es and the
census of the United States is his Bi-
BILE. For twenty years he has studied
every report of the United States La
Dor Commissioner. every Congressional
report on trade relations and wages
and he might do we'll if he would start
training school for stump speak srs.
Over his desk at home are the follow
ing words:
CURE FOR SOCIALISM
Give every socialist house
and lot
TRY NrA0rrvsS go "a. -o1 nj