Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-07
FIFTY YEARS Ago
IN THE STAR

LII KID OxaXN
Toward the close of the war a swim
die was practiced in this city upon ig-
norant C o l.
Seller of "Spiel Munze" ored people
Caught at Last. a SUM ,o
real money. In The Star of October
81, 1865. is a paragraph telling Of the
arrest of John Reed, a negro, for whom
detectives had been looking for nearly
a year, against whom were many
charges of exchanging these pieces,
which were known as spiel munze,"
for greenbacks:
The game Is generally played upon
ignorant contraband. The seller is al
ways supplied with genuine gold
pieces, and If the victim doubts the
genuineness the seller calls any passer-
by and exhibits the good gold and asks
If 1t Is genuine. The third party, Of
course, will answer affirmatively. and
the victim will give all his greenbacks
for the spiel munze, the seller slipping
the genuine out when the sale Is made.
Reed, when taken, had on him S3.S5 In
silver, $3.50 in gold, $14.46 in currency.
S. coppers. pawn tickets for watches.
one gold slide and purse full of spiel
munze. The detectives say they know
where the spiel munze is sold by
wholesale in this city, the $40 for 40
cents each. the tens at 20 cents and
the flves at Is cents But they say
Va
are sold simply as medals and the in
scription upon them is 'Compos Spiel
On the night of November 1, 1866.
the worhngmen of Washington held
a parade and mass
Eight-Hour Day meeting in the in
Demonstration. t tsn1isbn oe the Of s an
efght-hour day in this city. All the
trades were represented in the parade,
which marched through the streets with
torches, lanterns and transparencies
and assembled at the city hall. where
a stand had been erected, with il
Illuminated arches and notices urging
the reduction of the working day. The
Star said Of this demonstration Novem-
Der 2:
THE parade and demonstration of the
workingmen last night. in furtherance
of the eight-hour movement, was GER
tainly very large, imposing. orderly
and well conducted affair. An effect
i've feature of the procession was the
working representations Of the differ
ent trades, carried out with great sue
cess, with printing presses, FORCES, an
wills, ruling machines. paint brushes
planes, AIDES, trowels, sail needles
boiler hammers, etc, etc, in full op-
Grafton. At the city hall, where the
speaking took place, the crowd was one
of the largest we ever saw assembled
the wives and families of the work
ingmen in the demonstration and the
eight-hour movement was shown by
the fact that not only the spacious
steps and landings Of the city hall
were almost entirely occupied by them
but numbers were also seen standing
patiently in the muddy streets for
hours to witness the procession or tc
listen to the addresses at the stand"
A serious problem confronting the
government after the war was the es-
Establishment upon self
Establishing supporting basis Of the
Ere.a, emancipated slaves. This
work was under the SUI
pervision of the Freedman's bureau
Around Washington it was attended
with success as rule. In The Star OF
November 2. 1865, is this paragraph
'The Freedman's bureau has received
from the superintendent in charge of
the fifth district of Virginia his report
for the month of October, from which
1t appears that all of the freedmen and
refugees in Fairfax county are self
supporting. There are no camps in the
county where freedmen are congre-
gated. There are 1876 colored people al
Fairfax Court House, 80 at Fairfax
station and about the same number al
Lewinsville. Employment has been
obtained for the freedmen. and there is
not now one in the county who is de-
department Of the colored people in
the county has been very satisfactory
they appearing to appreciate the bless
ings of freedmen. and no cases are re-
ported where the former owners OF
slaves have attempted to Cypress the
freedmen in any way"
X X
The keenest anxiety prevailed in this
sibility of the cholera
Cholera In then raging in Europe
New York. a appeafins on these
November 3, 1865, is an article which
discusses this question seriously and
gives suggestions for the treatment OF
the disease in its early stage. The Star
said:
The cholera is still advancing in
Europe and there is very little ground
for the hope that it will not enter this
continent"
In the same issue of The Star a dis
patch from New York stated that the
steamship Atlanta had arrived from
London and been sent to the lower
quarantine in consequence of sickness
among passengers, rumors prevailing
that eight deaths had occurred during
the voyage from cholera. The next
days Star printed details of the quar-
antining Of the Atlanta, on which there
were eleven cases Of cholera, several
of the passengers having died and
been buried at sea. A memorial was
sent to President Johnson, signed by
the New York health commission, ask
ing that Sandy Hook be transferred by
the government to the commission for
the purpose of erecting hospitals for
the treatment of the disease The next