Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1881 — The Food of Gold. [ARTICLE]

The Food of Gold.

Since Aug. 1, 1879, about $200,000,000 of foreiga gold Has been imported iuto the United States, and our own mines have produced fully $05,900 00d more. Tbe addition of the great amount of $205,000,090 in . gold to the national wealth is significant of our ehansed fiuancial relations to the test of the world, and the disposition made of is equally significant of the changed financial relations of this country. Two years ago the banks of New York city held $20,0(10,000 in gold, and there was in the United States Treasury, say, $150,000,900. According to the latest returns our banks now hold SOipDO.Wßpand flSb' 1 Treasury $17(1,000, *• 000. Thiaebafitt what has become of $85,000,000 of the $205,000 000 j where is the remaining $200,OOfyOOO? The moet plausible answer to the quWtlbn is*that the mettl has' been absorbed by the inhabitants of the great West and Southwest, who have taken iton payment for-Utah- surplus wheat, feortfc ooUon. andother products, After years of patient toil and wfptipg,. their farm? and- plantations havcP Become profitable} they have, paid oil their debts to Eastern capitaletetumptatt and other trashy currency With goTdTp well m with' greenbacks alto naliontt bank notes, • \. ft HForCmStbemmarked: that whila tmr-New have in two years added $45,000,000 to their stock Of alktbsr' have also parted with $27 jXs/i|oo of legal tenders, much of which mm been sent West. Furthermore, the currency of tbe country has teen swelled bv the addition of $46,rcertlnca tea represen ting silver dgtlars, of whieh the-West has taken theljreMer portion. This, however, b* Seaßlttlewm’ no, effect upon the cott * e of U l ® flood of gold, "tin moving !*; the samedU sJ* looks, now, as though the United Btates, in the lame way that Asia used td be‘the sink of silver, will, for some time at least, be the jink of gold. It jehtoh .to its adverse 15"IImate, is sfmattled tor. buy from us, Ladtyet thg out; consumption | ropean mAufa|tored gopdsta not large jwcongh to Jfcy ft.. ike in. The differlatterly,been liquidated ip

gold fcmCb, or until, b# tbs transfer of her population to tbis side of the M»M»! w|dch “PW going on at the r»to pfW,9oQ»yuMg an equilibrium is JsrsMl'msffcfntwtoß - u (Captain H. W. flownte fstf* th# Washington correspondent qf the Boston Herald/ to tm Englishman bv UW .who went to the war frottf Michigan,and got to be a Captain In the volildwhere he never bataatfy higher ran £ than that of Hirst Usuteunant. Ha Bt himself detailed unde* Qeneral ver vert «tr»T In the bfttory of the

weather science, and WaS never a©nr back to his regiment—the Twentieth! Intontry.lt was known for years that he was amsisftsg jwopartyat a yely ip tbe trtct of Columbia. It Is ssttmated by the pftftsfrt officer oUbe signal servicw that he stole about fW, GW * *•*£.-* i suppose the amount qf hie plufitKv many people will ffc*. The.explanatlsn is easy. The late General flytt did not desire that any person should obi 1

tain either rank or repute ootty nection with the signal service. Hie subordinates, who did ail the work,, were nobodiee. One of his last »fltt before his death was to lobby thropgh Congress a provision in on# of the appropriation bills to make hfm a Brigadier Generic. Under bhsysteM he needed subservient mento bis office —“men who would not get, in his way or claim any public merit for the useful and popular work which the weather service was doing. Howgate waanLa read v-made tool. He did everything that Myer Wanted—never crossed him

in anything; acted as a spy on tlu> other officers in the pprps, and made himself the favprfte ~ subordinateNaturally < be obtained the responsible position ot disbursing officer, and onoe n tbis place, he kept it, Myer did not wish to remove him. Howgate wished to keep the place. Myer wanted tbe poll Teal influenbewhlchithefiigpal Service Sergeants stauoned.ln all parts of the oountry were able to wield. How gate drilled these men in their political duties, and taught them how to cultivate the memoers or Congress. This made him doubly dear to Myer. Howgate .ound himself ere long one of the most influential men in -Washington. He bad ways of reaching almost every Senator and member in Congress.. The General of the Army blnri'elf did did hot fMj&Stes Co muen political influence. Thds ffltfeflch-

ed, it is not . wonderftfl that he began to steal. It teof-Mttle inilwrtance bow the money was tak6n. Part of it aC a partner in furnishing the for the service; part of It by, dotibffng the leirgraph Jills and pocketing hair the, amount paid out: part of it by eburging mon--y f<>r salaries, supplies, etc , which he quietly pocketed,, One of his peccadilloes was to maJnta|n a , number of lady friends in luxurious idleness out of the funds of the offlqß. A Miss lurrill, daughter of. a former postmaster at Chelsea, was maintained fora loflg time in this manner. I will not go over his hlStofy. Government money furnished him with <1 steam yacht on the Potomac, and a “ahootIng box” in Vlrglr.ia. This latter was a structure built on the pretense that t vat needed as a station for some of he observers dnvn on the North Carolina shore. It was then conveyed to tilt iflteridr of Virginiu.and furnished oom for table quarters tor Howgste and his friends when they wanted some shooting in the Virginia woods. There was oniy one flaw in the fellow’s calcnlaticps. He did not expect that Inver would <f te: But Myer suddenly' fcdwti out * year »ko, end liitfSte Was uncovered He had long Uiulgiit lie would make himself so s rung that When My#f (lid go out he would be dW* to njalte .hi/nselfThe successor. But the Office tretfttwto tbeJempprary charge of one of the Ciearesl'hsaded business mei, and one of the best soldiers of the United Slates, Adjutant General W. F. Drum. The tirst thing

he did wa» to relieve Howgate as disbursing officer. Soon afterward Howgate prCiged tbe . payment of certain telegraph whfCTi were submitted in gtosl. ,'Tbe originals of tUfe tele, sHjfi dbbatches cm led for, atJff Captain Howgattr m.igimI tion agan offl^r r in the aftSj., JSuflta wm now known to .warrant a thorough investigation of liia method Jt doing to require i with a view to his trial, and at bjgst to be dismissed f.om tbe service. But soon the Captain’s tremendous political Influence was brought to bear, and Becret*ryßamsey yielded to his demands and accepted bis resignation. Senators from Michigan and **ther States were glad to urge the acceptance of Gaptain Howgate’s resignation upon the Secretary, aud it is not strange that the Secretary allowed it to be done. When the whole story is told, it will probably appear that the pocalled Arctic -expedition of which he was the sponsor was as much of a ad anything he undertook