Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 243, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1917 — Rensselaer Is Facing A Penny Famine. [ARTICLE]

Rensselaer Is Facing A Penny Famine.

Penny, penny, whose got the penny? Just when we are assured that Rensselaer is moderately safe from a coal famine and that a sugar ration is not yet our portion, we are smitten by a penny shortage. Since the price of cigarettes has gone up one or two cents on the package the merchants have needed a larger supply of one cent pieces than usual. Of course cigarettes have gone up all over the country, but those most interested here suspect that the conservation fever has gone to somebody’s head. They have a hunch that there is some one in our midst who thinks they have the ' soaring propensities of potatoes or leather and is consequently hoarding them waiting the rise. The authorities issue a warning to any potential Silas Marner, reminding him that war prices won’t last and that he had just as well shake loose' and spend the coppers for they won’t grow into dollars hoarded in the family napkin. Even in the days of the most frenzied finance the penny has not been the object of such concern as now. But after the manner of Marie Antoinette, when she suggested that the breadless revolutionists eat cake, the Opulent Optimist chortled today, “Thank God, we’ve still got dollars.”