The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1916-09-01
OUR VARIED MONEY
No Two Classes Have Exactly the
Same Quality or Value.
A GOLD AND SILVER COMEDY
Tribulations of q More or Less Honest
Citizen Who Was Stuck With Six
Trade Dollars and Who Wanted to
Exchange Thorn For Gold Coin.


When a new treasurer OF the United
States takes Office his predecessor
hands over to him assets to the value
Of billions. But II Is a varied lot OF
securities that come into his possession
bonds. securities OF all kinds, gold
bars and silver coin, base metals, gold
notes, silver notes, gold In the reserve
fund, governmental legal tender notes
national bank notes, fractional cur
rency and subsidiary coin.
No two classes have the same quail.
ties, no two exactly the same value, III
trinsic or otherwise. Yet people are SC
eager to get anything with the stamp
Of Uncle Sam that they accept 1t any
where Mt It's face value unless 1t Is re
quired for some purpose which calls
for the peculiar quality of certain
kind OF money.
1t is n mark Of confidence I'm Uncle
Sam that his beautiful silver certlfi-
Gates are taken at their face value
when I'm reality they bear about the
same relation to gold dollars rs adul-
terated food does to pure food-only
like the adulterated foods, certain
artificial value must be given to them.
When the food adulterater turns
out his product, the government, IN
just horror, says It Is wrong to tam
per with food, and the person who
does It must go to JAIL When Uncle
Sam sends out a silver disk stamped
with his mark he has made a very
good business stroke, for he has
placed In circulation as n dollar 5d
cents worth Of silver and put Al
cents worth of bullion into his treas
urer's charge and, like the adulterated
food dealer, has made good trans
action.
A poor wreck OF humanity with q
grateful streak In his heart not long
since found himself I'm possession OF
six trade dollars. His first inclina-
ton after the shock was to buy a
whole lot OF bait and go away Off on
q fishing trip but remembrance Of his
mother came over him, and, like good
fellow, he resolved to send her five
dollar gold piece.
His first surprise came when he
found that his trade dollars, which con-
tanned more silver than do the silver
dollars, were valued only rs bullion
and his whole SO was worth only
$336. He had overlooked the fact
that when those dollars were issued,
back in 1873, Uncle Sam had omitted
to indorse them or to give them any
monetary value other than their silver
content.
So he did with his SO what his Uncle
Samuel had done-he went through
a little transaction in high finance
which makes one blush for him. He
mixed his dollars up with some stand
ard" silver dollars and persuaded a
small storekeeper to give him bills for
them. 1t happened that these bills
were silver certificates.
He tried to induce the treasury de
partment to take them In exchange for
the gold piece intended for his mother,
but the treasury department politely
told him that, while the law provided
that the secretary OF the treasury
should maintain gold and silver on a
parity, the section had been construed
to mean that silver certificates could
not produce gold coin.
Thereupon wild thoughts of the bait
and the fishing trip rushed upon him
again. but his blood was now up, and
he determined somehow to secure that
gold piece for the mother, who was be.
coming momentarily dearer. He sue
ceeded after time In exchanging his
silver certificates for legal tender note
for $5, and, although such notes are
protected by gold reserve equal to
only about n third Of the issue. the de
partment without hesitation gave him
the gold coin.
The narrator Of the tale could not re
member whether the gold piece ever
reached the mother or was spent "a
celebrate the modern method OF the
transmutation OF Notwithstanding
Post.