Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1892 — “GOOD OLD TIMES” FORSOOTH. [ARTICLE]

“GOOD OLD TIMES” FORSOOTH.

number, maintained halan of one of these insti tntiona. Yet tiie Democracy is waging a war of extirmioation against the thft rotten and worth- , Cass county (Dem.) has raised 90 cents is 1891 to 38 cents in 1892, Carroll county (Dem.) from 37 cento in 1831 to 44 cents in 1892 Dearbornoounty (Dem.) from 30 cento in 1891 to 40 cents in 1892. DeKalb county (Dem.) from 40 cento In 1301 to 60 cents in 1892. Tiptoe county (Dem.) from 39 Wltitocounty (Dem.) from 35 cento in 1891 to 45 cents in 1892 Wells county, (Dem.) 1891 the levy was 18 cento, 1892 it was 18 cento but 990,000 was borrowed to THUw ftp mfl aaiKaenc) • ty orders hawked about the streets, and 90 cento in 1892 with a $50,tias, which Idee Cass, under instruction from tiie Democratic the levy lower than the county expe&ferai require, that the taxpayers might not know the real effect of the new tax law until after the It most be, indeed, an odiuue law that compels men, elected to . business-like way, to resort to each schemes as this to conceal The Journal will give figures Compere the above sample Democratic counties with our own .•I liOik; kjf'li arm# 4l lA 4 iIOSuB county,

such as the new iron fence, the cement walks, n<*r vault, new conit house windows Ac -

Those woed -irful “good old dtoiOcratio free trade and vild-oat money times’’ir-m 1850.aU8Ul, about which c> How young sjouters like Jesse Kobe its talk so much and know go tittle, ar vividly remembered by thousai ds of Jasper county people, and i ot one of them re men *bere them as other than times of general distress aud adversity. As one instance: Ezra L. Clark, of Rensselaer, than whom no more honorable nor deservedly respected man lives in this community, remembers those times well. He remembers, as a young man, how he worked out at farm work, with 12 hours solid hard labor every day, for from 65 to 76 cents a day. He remembers, f nrthermore, that he received bis pay in state bank money, and when he came to Rensselaer to buy needed articles with hiß hard-earned cash, he went to Ezra Wright’s store and after stating that he wanted to make some purchases, Mr. Wright took down his Bank Note Reporter, and after consulting it, told Mr. Clark what he could allow him for his money. The value of the bills ranged from 65 cents to 85 cents on the dollar. Nearly everything he had to buy averaged at least twice as high then as now. Calico, for instance, being 12 cents a yard. A better quality can now be bought for 6 cents. Mr. Clark remembers, too, the first crop of corn he raised, “on his own hook.” The beet offer he ever got for it was 22 cents a bushel. He held on in hopes of a rise, however, and ultimately sold it for 17 cents. In those days a bushel of corn wonid bny two pounds of nails now it will bny 10 pounds. Two dozen eggs, at the average price, would buy one pound of sugar; now one dozen will bny three pounds. Batter was enormously high when it was 10 cents a pound Dressed pork high at $1.50 a hundred, now live hogs frequently touch $5 per 100 lbs. People in those days, especially farmers and mechanics, had to be content if they could obtain for themselves and their families a sufficiency of the barest necessaries of life. None of them had fine clothing or nice furniture. Carpets, musical instruments, books and magazines were unknown. School privileges were of the poorest and most meager character. , Fine baggies, fine carriages and fine harness, now so common among our farmers were in those days undjeampt ot “Good old Democratic times!” They never had an existence. Dem-jcratie free trade timee Tiave always been hard times, and they will be so long as free trade will expose the American farmer aud workingman to the competition of the pauper labor of Europe and Asia.