The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-30

to make your bread cheWable.
 So it happened that after bacon | meal a man or mess found no more | bacon fat left than could be scraped off the tin with teaspoon. And at the | same time bacon fat was urgently need ed when anything else but becon was to | be cooked, Fried in 1t hardtaclS became | a delicacy. With it's assistance canned
 beef could be made into a superb entree. Bacon fat was precious, scarce and ed ible. It met to perfection these three | essential qualifications of perfect cur rency, and without any formal agree ment or even discussion of the subject, bacon fat began to become a regular I medium of exchange. It answered un- commonly well for a day or two, but
 then, when some brisk marching had to be done, it began to manifest fatal de- fleets. In a hot climate it was not port able. A man who had amassed con- siderable fortune in bacon grease wrapped 1t carefully up in dollar bills | and other bits of odd paper and slowed
 it carefully in his knapsack. But when, after severe midday march, he next
 went to his hoard to gloat over it. or to dissipate some of it in luxurious cooke ry, or to take away some of it for the purchase of tobacco, he found to his | horror that his wealth, instead of in- | creasing, had wholly or partly melted | away.
 It was there in his knapsack, no | doubt, as the condition of the other | things showed, but instead of being in l one compact, easily handled pile, it was | so thinly spread over large area that | it was hopeless to endeavor to gather it l together again as capital. Moreover bacon fat in a climate so variable as | that of Cuba is perishable, and when there came sudden and great varittions l in the supply it finally dropped out of use as regular medium.
 Bacon fat had failed, but the need for currency remained. Boot laces were l tried with some little success, but there were not enough of them, nor was the | demand universal. Then, quietly and | gradually, but surely and irresistibly, | the commodity which was to take it's proud place as the universal medium began to push itself by the force of it's | undeniable merit to the front. A man | desiring becon offered hardtack, match es or a boot lace. No deal. He was turning away when the man he had ap- | preached said eagerly: Got any chewing?" Yes, the first merchant still possessed the small remnant of bar of chewing tobacco An immediate deal. Then one began to hear men going | round offering all kinds of things in ex- | change for chewing tobacco. The value of the thing as currency began to be | recognized It was the one commodity which every regular soldier desired It small in h111k if yua iut,t nd fly portable. It did not deteriorate in quality, nor decrease on quantity by keeping. Every bar was just like every | other bar, and every bar just the same all through A man having present sufflciency of chewing tobacco was still | willing to acquire more. And above l all. it had an intrinsic value which gold | and silver never had, nor never could have It was edible and wearable, and a substitute for anything and every | thing. If there were no rations, why, 1 then, to the regular soldier a chew of tobacco supplied the deficiency.
 If there was long march, chew of tobacco was stimu1ant and water and comfortable boots, and frightened i pack It was an excellent substitute | for dry clothes. If the shelter tent was drowned out in the night, then chewing | tobacco was just as good as sleep. In world of discomfort it was comfort; in world of glaring sun it was cool 1 shade; in world of tropical rain it was | nice dry bed in a nice dry house. It | was fire when every stick was too wet | to burn; it was horse to ride when you had to tramp impossible roads car- | rying impossible loads; it was trans | port and commissariat and army medi- cal service; it was a cold bath in the
 morning, and fresh eggs and milk; it
 was an antidote to Shafterism, and,
 above all, 1t was tobacco.
 The man who possessed it had every thing within his reach that any one
 else had, and could do without any,
 thing else. So every one who had any,
 thing to sell sold 1t for chewing tobac-
 co. Men who never crewed in their
 lives, and had no notion of chewing now, began to find out that to carry
 chewing tobacco was to have anything
 they reasonably desired.-London Mails Santiago Letter