Mexico weekly ledger., 1899-01-05

stand us d BY grnf old On. johnson
when be WAS writing bic great diction-
ary. or BY Oliver Goldsmith when pen
ming '.The Traveller and The Desert
ed Village, " OF BY John Milton while
composing Paradise Lost. which he
sold for a few Ehiliings or BY Henry
Fielding while be was creating tom
jones' aud lodging his landlady, tailor
and washerwoman. We are told that
Alexandeg Pope wrote "'The Essay on
Man, . "The Rape Of the Lock- and
1.-THE Dunciad" On the backs Of old let
sarA He could not afford the luxury Of
clean white paper and never dreamed
Of such 4 thing q q 81, 600 inksiand-
Edgar Allan Foe frequently had not the
wherewithai 10 appeass his hunger
while writing "The Raven, " "Annabel'
Lee, " 1.-THE Black Cat" THE Gold
Bng" and his other immortal produo-
tions but il never entered bis poetic
mind 10 conceive any tale . incredible
a $ to the story Of Mr.. Hobart's ink
stand. Thare was a vice president once
- redheaded yirginian-who in his
early years wrote a certain document
whose arguments have revolutionized
ths world. but the chances are that hia
inkhorn didn't cost two bits. 10 the
days Of John Adams. the first vice presi-
dent the entire furniture and pazapher-
MALTA Of the senate would not have
brought q, 900 under the ~auotioneer'a
hammer at public vendue, and now the
latest Of his Successors dips his pen into
an inkstand which cost a thousand good
dollars Of the realm-paid for ont Ct
the contingent fund Of the senate-the
peoples money! At present prices that
means 500 hogs Of 500 pounds weight
or FIVE pairs Of the best Missouri mules
or so bales Of cotton or 500 bushels Of
wheat OF 4, coo bushels Of corn And
yet people wonder that there are Popu-
lists in the iandl Nero stabbed his horse
in n marble manger and fed him out OF
a golden trough, and there were Popu-
lists in his day, though they were called
by some other name perhaps. and they
arose one day in their wrath and when
they sat down again there was 10 Nero.
That was in the declining days Of Rome,
which declined 50 fasi and % far that
Lord Byron dubbed her the "Niobe Of
Nations.
Peoples Money sauandered.
Now, this is not Rome, though we
appear TO have struck her rapid gait,
and Mr.. Hobart is not Nero; far from
il. On the contrary, he appears to be
an amiable Me-a man Of kind heart.
He deserves TO have such a bauble as a
81, 900 inkstand as much as any man In
public life-proyided be pays for il
himself or his friends pay for 1t out Of
their own funds. Under those condi.
tons nobody would envy him his hand.
some work Of art. II the 30 senators Of
the United States had Clipped in 81 is
each and presented him with q 81, 000
inkstand. nobody could or would have
complained, for il would have been no.
body's business; but it is somebody's
business-everybody's business-when
81, 600 Of che hard earned money Of the
people is subtracted on distracted from
1.-THE contingent fund Of the senate
and squandered in such preposterous,
wasteful and criminal fashion. II can.
not be defended on grounds of either
good sense or sound morals. They might
as well have presented him with q fine
horse, or a fine painting, or a small
farm and paid for it out Of the public
funds.
Every man-big, little, old or young
that had any hand in the performance
ought to be compelled to commit Il
memory and reoite in open senate this
whole Of Thomas Jefferson's first in
augural address, in which he declares
In favor OF economy in the public ex.
pense that labor may be lightly bur.
dened." II would be refreshing TO heal
his opinion Of this $1,000 inkstand
transaction.
The International Bank nlIl.
The vote in the house on the interna-
tional bank bill was a great surprise ID
It's managers. They had no doubt what.
ever-not even the shadow Of a doubt
of passing il triumphantly, but 1t wal
not only defeated, but was defeated
overwhelmingly, the vote standing los
yeas 10 las nays That was a very thin
house. Evidently q great many lodged,
but the secret Of its defeat was that the
many western Republicans were afraid
to vote for it and either voted against II
or were conveniently absent from the
hall. Possibly the slaughter Of that bill
Is a happy augury Of what viii happer
to the Gage or McCleary bill.
The truth is that the effort to pass
this international bank bill was an ef.
fort to make a sneak on the house and
to pass the Gage bill piecemeal. Thii
effort failed largely by reason of the
speech Of Judge John @. Bell of Colo
RADIO, who always speaks in a clear and
vigorous style. / wish l had room fol
his entire argument, but must content
myself with q few extracts. Among
other things he said:
"The bill pending before the house il
more than it pretends to be. 1t is not
only q bill for international banks, bu.
it is q general banking law for the PEG
pie of the United States. l take ID that
il Is doubtful whether the principal rea-
son for this bill Is Tor a general banking
law for the people Of the United States
and the foreign provision q mere Incl
dent or the reverse. We find that this
bill has every provision necessary for q
general banking law. The bank can
take deposits, make d~iscounts, do bank
ing in every conceivable way, and not
only that, but this institution has the
right to establish eight branches. Under
this general banking act the original
corporation may have eight branches.
That will make nine gigantic institu-
tons in the United States.
I'VE will take the bank that they
propose to organize as the mother insti-
tuition. 1t cannot have less than s., 000,.
900 capital. 1t can have eight branches,
and Of those eight branches there will
probably be one in Boston, one in Phil.
adelphia, one in Chicago, one in st.
Louis, n in San Francisco, n In
New Orleans, ETC., throwing in direct
composition with the national banks Of
the country the power Of this gigantic
institution. Not only this, but any 9th.
er great combination Of capitalists can
| Ruvfn0 = pieno-sAn IN S1oK gsvaa.