Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1904-05-25
THE SAD LOT OF A CERTAIN
Mr.. PILFBRED PUBLIC.

the following from the pen of MIR.
Arthur Winslow Tarbell, of the
Brown Book:
odd, isn't it. what a deal we
hear nowadays Of such gentlemen
as Mr.. Rockefeller, Mr.. Morgan.
Mr.. Carnegie and Mr..
Vanderbilt. If one Of them so
much a. buys dog, Immediately
all the world Is told of il: whereas
any attempt to keep track of the
establishments they own. the costly
toys they played with, or the mill
lions they are constantly making
ON some nice little turns of the
market. Is wcll-nigh hopeless.
They are the heroes of the day and
the hour. Everybody knows them.
Great is the shadow they cast in
the lime-light of current fame.
but who. pray. is Mr.. Pilfercd
Public. You never heard of himl
Alas. thought so. Nobody knows
him; nobody cares anything about
him. How does that happen. YOU
ask Well, 10y some unkind over
sight of fate. YOU see. he Just
doesn't chance 10 bc one of the
big men He isn't an oil mag
nate. or a coal baron. or 4 steel
king. or a railroad grandee. or a
prince of high finance. He hash Z
got an automobile To his name. or
a safe full of securities. or a brown
stone mansion on the hilltop, or a
little pull" on the quiet Indeed,
I'm quite willing 10 believe that
there isn't more than a hundred or
two TO his credit i'm the bank. and
that his last tax bin has yet to be
paid. He's just 4 common nobody.
like you and me, that's who Mr.
Pilfered Public is. \ decent, hon
est, respectable chap, who goes
plodding along through life, mind
ing his own business. and doing his
little best 10 obey the laws of God
and man.
And because Mr.. Pilfered Pub
lie is so patient and so uncomplain-
ingly an individual, and because
nobody cares anything about him,
the world does It's cruel utmost Ia
impose upon him all it can. And
IT succeeds, most cXcellently well.
Not many years ago Mr.. Pill
fered Public read in his paper one
evening that the price of beef was
going up. 4 hard winter in the
west. 50 the report went, cattle
didn't pull through, supply scarce,
and all that sort of thing. Mr..
Public smiled. 1t occurred To him
that they were having a good many
hard winters in the west. and that
ii was bit strange they didn't
know enough about their business
out there TO plan for so seemingly
regular calamity aS a hard win
ter. He was no fool, was Mr..
Public. He knew thing or two.
So he read between the lines that
probably IL wasn't so much the
weather aS it was the beef trust
that had been getting in its work.
He was not unduly amazed there
fore when beef went up. way up.
Only the sad part of it Is that it
has forgotten to come down again.
although, if Mr.. Public's memory
serves him correctly, there has
been mild winter or two since
then.
What about coal. Yes. Mr..
Pilfered Public wants to know
what about coalI He was looking
over his bills the other day. and
the only lesson they taught him
was the melancholy one that the
cost of this very essential house
hold commodity has been bounding
beautifully upwards for the past
decade. This, mind YOU, i'm the
face and eyes of the assertion we
hear so much of nowadays that
improved machinery is everywhere
lcSSening the cost of production
In 1897 they were so good a. tC
shovel anthracite into Mr.. Public.
cellar for the comparatively modest
price of 50 a ton: in 1899 for So. a
ton; in 1900 for So; and in 1901
they squeezed him a little more Il
the tune of 1925. Winter befor,
last, in 1902, the powers that pre-,
ran the price up TO SO a ton OF
him. An outrageous figure, as al
the world knew, but what coul,
our poor friend Public dol
"Of course the BIC strike tina