The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1917-06-21
OUR VARIED MONEY
No Two Classes Have Exactly the
Same Quality or Value.
4 GOLD AND SILVER COMEDY

TrihuIations OF More or Less Honest
Citizen Who Was Stuck With Six
Trace Dollars and Who Wanted to
Exchange Them For Gold Coin.
When IL new treasurer of the United
States takes Office his predecessor
hands over to him assets to the value
Of billions. But it 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, 10 two exactly the same value, In
trinsic Or otherwise. Yet people are so
eager to get anything with the stamp
of Uncle Sam that they accept it any.
where at its face value unless it Is re-
puired for some purpose which calls
fer the peculiar quality of certain
kind OF money.
1t is mark Of confidence in Uncle
Sam that his beautiful silver certifi-
Gates are taken at their face value.
when in reality they bear about the
same relation to gold dollars as adul-
terated food does to pure food-only.
like the adulterated foods. certain
artificial val,e must be given to them.
~ <i,,Jt k<,. fprpr
out his product. the government. in
just horror. says it is wrong to tam
Fer with food. and the person who
does it must go to Jail. When Uncle
Sam sends out silver disk stamped
With his mark he has made very
good business stroke. for he has
placed in circulation as a dollar sc
cents worth Of silver and put "A
cents worth of bullion into his treas
urer's charge and, like the adulterated
food dealer. has made good trans
action
\ poor wreck Of humanity with a
grateful streak in his heart not long
since found himself in possession Of
six trade dollars. His first inclina-
lion after the shock was to buy a
a fishing trip. but remembrance Of his
mother came over him, and, like a good
fellow. he resolved to send her a Eve
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 as bullion
and his whole Sc was worth only
$3.50. 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 Sc what his Uncle
Samuel had done-he went through
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
lie tried to induce the treasury de-
nartment to take them in exchange for
the gold piece intended for his mother
out the treasury department politely
told him that, while the law provided
that the secretary of the treasury
should maintain gold and silver on n
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.
cecded after u time in exchanging his
silver certificates for legal tender note
for s., and. although such notes are
protected by gold reserve equal to
only about third Of the issue. the de
pa:tment without hesitation gave him
the gold coin.
Tho narrator of the tale could not re-
member whether the gold piece ever
reached the mother or was spent to
celebrate the modern method OF the
.ranslnutation of Washington
Post