Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-05-02
WAR TIME GET RICH
QUICK SCHEME

hoAN , % IIe OlneF gay Tor a shin
plaster OF a face value OF Is cents."
said an old-time printer, accordfp9 to
the New York Sun, which was one Of
an issue of war time emergency small
change currency out OF which. il I had
even an mixing OF present day financial
ablilty and q corresponding genius for
applying it, l might have accumulated
q comfortable Wad. This particular
relic and reminder OF those days Of
small currency scarcity had in some
way come into the possession of a COL
lector of odds n ends of similar GU
rioslties. l accidentally cam face to
face with 1t, and as I recognized 1t as
one among thousands of others had
myself printed nearly SO years ago.
with the possibility OF it's being one
that l had put into circulation myself.
1 did not hesitate to pay the collectors
price for it.
I'm 1862 l was working in a weekly
newspaper office in a Pennsylvania coal
region village. Twas a youngster OF IL.
Besides myself. the office force was the
editor. who was mo- Il practical printer.
n an apprentice boy. The small
change famine had begun to be felt in
that town early in the fall. The place
was of considerable business impor-
tance on account of the coal trade, and
as the scarcity of currency increased
the situation became a matter of deem
concern to every one. IL / may except
the printing office In which l worked.
During the three months had
worked there l had received 81 in cash.
In sums ranging from Cd to Is, that
being the style OF denominating small
money In those days in that l~ocality.
To be- sure, l had traded out orders on
q grocery for crackers and cheese. on
a for oysters. on a bakery
for pie and cake. on Il tavern for one
weeks board. SO: on a clothier's for a
linen buster and a. 1O-cent straw lint.
and on various other tradesmen who
had advertised with us. but these did
not relieve my financial embarra.s-
ment.
The small change famine came to
such a serious condition that business
men had to do something to relieve the
stress. Postage stamps were the only
the way of small currency, but they
had a fatal drawback to efficiency
owing to their disposition to stick to-
gether, so that while a person might
have a lola in postage stamps the
available value of it as a circulating
medium would not be more than :
cents: and as far as postage stamps at
forded any relief to me personally they
were nil, for to get postage stamps to
circulate one had to AVE money to put
down for EN-. SO business men began
to issue individual notes in denomina-
tons of D. 10, 20 and so cents, redeema-
BILE I'm bank notes when presented to
the makers in sums of So or over.
several of the prominent local bust
ness men had their notes printed at our
office. 1 did the work myself. There
were 10 notes of each denomination
made up in a form for the press and
printed ON one sheet. The Impressions
were delivered in that way TO the per-
sons issuing the notes according to the
size of their order for sheets and were
cut on by the makers as they wanted
!.hem Tor use. AS these shinplasters were
issued In large number and the sign
ing of them would nave been an ar
duous task, the signatures of the maxi
ers We're engraved in facsimile and
printed With the notes. The notes We're
printed on bank note paper, some in
green Ink, some in blue. solne in red.
according to the choice oe the person
shlnplasters and printed them on the
Old hand press. They were as good as
gold In that place and its vicinity, and
relieved the financial distress onder
fully, except as it affected that printing
Office as a printing office.
Il had been instructed by the editor
mat after printing an order for shin
plasters, all of the forms being kept
standing. / was to loci the forms in \
closet, which I did. / had no i%nstruc-
lions though not to unlock the closet
and take them out again. and 1 could,
see no reason why 1 shouldn't be enjoy
ing luxurious times as we'll as any one
else. So one evening 1 took a form OF
HoteS out OF the closet, put 1T on the
press. pulled off a sheet, and had 50 in,
just as good money for that bailiwick
and adjacent country as the United
States government could have issued
to me.
II made no undue display of my
wealth, but I think that the Improve
ment In my financial affairs was no.
ticed. and IL the editor had heard of 1t
l believe he could have gone out and
go some credit somewhere. for the
people thought he was paying cash. I
continued to make issue of funds to
myself In this way as circumstances
prompted. II I ran q little short Of
money I took out tho form of notes that
was handiest and simply pulled off a
rev sheets. Then I was heeled again.
IL ! had been a real hnancier I
might have left that town with q bum
Gle simply by presenting now and then
~ worth or 80 Of ~shinplasters to their
makers and getting bank notes for
them. But / didn't think OF that. and
altnough " months passed before the
issuing of those individual shinplasters
became no longer q necessity, 1 was
soon In such financial straits again that
! was Obliged to and my way out OF
town On q canal boat. dire misfortune
having overtaken that printing office"
Shoeins horses.
From H0rper'o Weekly.
Certain naturalists have ventured the
opinion that horses do not need shoe.
ing under any circumstances. This.
seems reasonable when we refect that.
y 10 only within q few centuries that
me Practice OF shoeing has been fol-