Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1893 — Page 2

THE REPUBLICAN. Grorx K. Marsha tt, Ei>ito&. RENSSELAER - INDIANA

Fifty-two “favorite sons" of the great Keystone State are members of the present Congress. Six of them are United States Senators. Two Senators and twenty-eight Representatives make up the delegation of Pennsylvania. The others are serving constituencies in twelve States and one Territory. Thi gold fields in the British colonies of South Africa are booming. The reports from the new Eldorado are marvelous. The wealth of the country in diamonds, gold, copper and coal is seemingly inexhaustible. Future developments it is believed will far exceed the products of the past, which have been fabulous. A fortune is said to await the man who will invent a cheap and harmless coloring matter that will give a pink tint to butter. A New York firm now sends butter to a faroff island of the sea, but is compelled to first color it pink, as the natives refuse to buy any other color. The “dyestuff” now used is a French preparation, and is very expensive. A cheap substitute is badly needed in order that the tratfic may be extended and the profits increased. The roof of the new National Library at Washington is to be capped with a dome that will rival the great white dome of the capitol. Unlike that famous structure, however, this dome is to b&gilded. More gold will be used on this dome than on any gilded dome in the world. There are* some 10,000 square feet to be covered. The dome is now covered with a shroud of canvas under which the workmen are carrying on the tedious task of applying the gold leaf. Six weeks of good weather will be needed to complete the work. The gold leaf is being made from pure gold by a Baltimore gold beater especially for this contract. The movement to raise a fund for the Duke of Veragua is said to have been a failure. There does not seem to have been any great and irrepressible desire on the part of the great body of the American people to give away their honest or dishonest dollars to a man who had squandered his ancestral estate in an attempt to popularize the Spanish national pas time of bull-baiting at the French capital. The “Dook" is doubtless a very nice man, but it is highly improbable that he will ever have to saw wood for a living. With our starving thousands of unemployed workingmen, it would seem that the surplus wealth of our great millionaires might be better employed than in helping to swell a gift fund to a titled aristocrat who owes his finan cial emharassments to his own folly and barbarian tastes, and the information that the snobbish attempt to bestow such wealth in that way has failed will be received with gratification by the majority of people. The frantic efforts of tradesmen of all departments of business, as a rule, are considered essential to success, the intense competition of the day having produced a feverish haste and nervous tension which are denominated “business enterprise.” Occasionally, however, we hear of a merchant of the old school who still survives and scorns the aid of modern innovations to hold his trade or attract new traffic. He is generally an “old settler” who “was there first,” and often the the financial and social mogul of the village or town he thrives in. Such men are admirable characters in their way, and though “Young America" denounces them as “old fogy’’ and talks about “first-class funerals” before the town can catch up with the procession, the “old man” moves on in the even tenor of his way, holding his old friends and as a rule gaining the respect of new comers. This peculiarity of character seldom survives in large cities, the rush and drive of the multitude seldom stopping to weigh the merits or pass upon the failings of business men. The New York Sun, however, has discovered such a man in that city. He deals in old furniture. His store is chaos. No pretensions to style or even cleanliness. Prefers to buy rather sell anything that pleases him. Hates to exhibit goods. His prices arc high. Yet he is locally famous, does a large business, and his trade extends to cities hundreds r of miles distant. “Long may he live and prosper.” Columbian concessionaries nearly wrecked the Exposition at its inception by shameless extortion, and much of the uncertainty as to the

final outcome of the enterprise that prevailed in the early summer was due to this cause. These outrages hdppily were to a great extent re- 2 moved, and the public finally became aware that it was within the possibilities to visit Jackson Park without being metaphorically if not actually “held up.” The Columbian Exposition concessionaries have received the magnificent revenue of $4,000,000 from concessions at the Fair —the Ferris wheel, intramural railroad, roller chairs, restaurants, various, villages, pop-corn, soda water, etc. The people having privileges paid from 20 to 50 per cent of their profits into the general fund. Doubtless the management were swindled on the round up to some extent the same as the general public, but reasonable people who visited the Fair during the summer and fall must concede that the prices charged for necessaries were low considering the time and place. Visitors to Chicago from almost any part of Indiana, if they have com fined their expenditures to actual necessities, have made an investment and acquired information and inspiration that would be cheap at ten times the money. This expenditure has not been an extravagance, in the case of the great majority, but rather a solid acquisition that will yield a rich return that should only cease with life itself. Last winter an oyster that had in some unknown manner lost its life in a bowl of church festival oyster soup precipitated a miniature riot in a Hoosier rural community, and the victim (the rioter,, that is.) was landed in jail before he recovered from his “surprise” at the unusual spectacle that temporarily unsettled his reason. Now comes the startling information from Missouri that trouble has been brewing for five years in a church in Callaway county as to the price that should be charged for a dish of ice cream at the festivals and socials given by the ladies of the congregation. The cream question became a leading issue, and involved the entire membership. A serious feud was the result. Three members Tesigned. ' Cne eider was removed. The case was carried to the Presbytery, appealed to the Synod, and further appealed to the General Assembly. In the latter body it was thrown out, 70 to 71. The question was referred back to the Missouri Presbytary, and a committee was appointed to visit the church. The price of ice cream in the meantime has become involved in a dense cloud of uncertainty. Church socials are declared off. The community is at daggers’ points. The outlook for oyster soup, with or without oysters, is bad for the coming winter. The exchequer of the Ladies’ Aid Society is empty. There is a prevailing air of gloom and discontent, and a firm con viction in the minds of saint and sinner that the world is out of joint, and that if we are not “on the stroke of the midnight hour,” and on the brink of everlasting destruction, we ought to be. With questions so vast .and momentous claiming the entire attention of our best citizens, and rending into non-cohesive fragments the very foundations of good morals, and of society itself, the outlook for tariff reform and the growth of an undivided public sentiment in the more trivial issues of free coinage or the repeal of the Sherman bill become more than ever an “ignus fatuous” that will still elude the grasp of political reformers or Papal emissaries, and will make the “star-eyed goddess bow her head in shame and wring her hands in despair. “And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.”

Quaker City Maxims and Jokelets

Philadelphia North American. Never swear at all. Or, if you must swear, swear off. Football maxim: There’s many a kick 'twixt a fight and a l s ck. Many a man can pass a football and yet not be a good quarter-back. Many an unsuccessful dramatist has discovered that the world indeed is one of all work and no play. The people will not have forgotten by 1896 how unwise it is ever to change a certainty for an uncertainty. In the Senate an old maxim ha; been reversed. The Senate is taking care of J. he hours —and the minutes are taking care of themselves. When you see a man constantly in the company of a married woman it is better to ascertain his relationship before making comments. Gear , erally he turns out to be her husband. Philadelphia Times. Maybe the footballer wears his hair that way so his laurels won’t hurt his brow. The chrysanthemum comes late, and even then doesn’t seem to have had time to comb its hair. Penn, being a Quaker, wasn’t a fighter, but once “he landed it wasn’t long before Philadelphia was laid out. ’

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

THE RUSSIAN-FRENCH ALLI- . . ANCE. The most notable event in Europe ’or many months has been the recent sojourn of the officers pf the Russian fleet, which par-1 ticipated in the great naval review at Toulon, at Paris. Festivities of the most extravagant and enthusiastic character continued for many days, and the gay eapital was given over to unrestrained expression of hostility to Germany and effusive friendship for the Czar and his lieutenants of every rank.- The force of public opinion seems to have united France and Russia in indissoluble bonds and the mighty power thus created bodes ill for the Empire welded from non-cohesive fragments by the Iron Prince. With intrusive emphasis the declaration was repeated again and again that the newborn alliance was a guarantee , of European peace, but the rooted determination of the French people to regain the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine give the lie to such protestations and the best authorities agree that the ostentatious friendship of these two powers can mean nothing less than war. In the present temper of France a trifling incident may precipitate hostilities and it is believed they would be hailed with delight by the volatile French as affording an opportunity to wipe out the disgrace of 1871, and also by Russia as affording an opportunity long sought for to extend her borders to the gates of Constantinople. The situation is believed to be critical and a general European war is not by any means an improbable outcome of the joyous fetes and brilliant ceremonies that have prevailed in “labelle Paree.” THE OSCEOLA LADY WHITECAPS. The Indiana White Caps have been outdone by the “shining lights” of the W. C. T. U. of Osceola, Neb., and the good ladies appear to have attained a national, if not a worldwide, reputation for valorous deeds performed “in behalf of moralityJL The story, in brief, is that the leaders in the crusade against the rum power in that locality became impressed with the idea thac they"had a mission from on high or elsewhere to regulate the actions of certain young ladies whom they believed “were no better than they should be.” Accordingly the gentle dames sent loving missives to the unsuspecting maids signed by the names of their own true loves for to meet them in the park in the evenin’. The evenin’ came, no fellows did, but in the shades the dames were hid, and as each maid came to the tryst they bound ’em all fast by the wrist, till all were caught and bid prepare for a lickin’ good right then and there. The feathers flew and the et enin’ air was punched right through to let the screams of the fair maids pass, as now and then they lay on the grass, out into the calm and stilly night as they frantically pulled the pillow shams white from the avenging angel forms divine who long had fought the demon wine. Mother and maid in the dying day joined in the hand-to-hand affray, till ribbons and garters and tresses of hair flew out into the twilight air and settled in showers upon the ground, whence they were gathered as trophies found. But we draw the veil on the painful scene, for the courts will settle the row between the mothers and maids whose valor that eve was displayed in a way to make angels grieve, and we’ll hope that the highly moral test that seems to prevail in the woolly West will not find favor on Hoosier soil and end in an internecine broil. ABOUT SILVER. Silver has been used as a medium of exchange since the time of Abraham. It is still the money of a large part of the world’s population. The history of Greece records the fact that silver was coined for money at a period so remote as to be lost in the shades of antiquity and tradition. The first gold coins to be given the stamp of governmental sanction were put into circulation in the time of Philip, about 360 years B. G. In prehistoric times the precious metals were measured solely by weight, and they were used as mediums of trade and barter because of their convenience and accepted valuation among the primitive merchants and traders of that era. Silver was coined as money by the Roman Empire for the first time at the comparatively modern date of 250 years B. C. and that country established the double standard fifty years later. In England silver was a full legal tender until 1816, when the gold standard was adopted. Previous to 1664 the value of gold, coins was regulated by proclamation. From 1664 until 1717 silver

was the only legal tender and gold fluctuated according to its market value. In 1717 the relation of the coins of the two metals was fixed at 21 shillings for a guinea. By this Jaw gold was overrated and it .became the principal currency of England. In America a few small silver coins were struck in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. During the colonial period the metallic money in circulation consisted entirely of foreign coins, and the Spanish milled dollar was recognized as the standard of value in all the colonies, and was so recognized by the Articles of Confederation. Under the Constitution the right is reserved to the Government “to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin ” The Act of April 2, 1792, established a mint, and fixed the weight and fineness of the various coins, and also provided that any person might take either gold or silver to the mint and have it coined ■‘'free of expense,” the said coins to be equally legal tender for all debts. In 1837 the mint laws were revised and the standard for gold and silver made nine-tenths fine —and they have remained at that ever since. The weight of pure silver in the standard doller has never been changed. It is the same unit and the same standard as the first coin minted in the United States, although the alloy in the silver dollar was reduced in 1837 from 44.75 grains to 41.25 grains, so as to make it nine-ten ths fine. The foregoing statements are gleaned from “Facts About Silver," a brochure issued by the National Silver Committee, and are intended solely for the unprejudiced and non-partisan information of our readers, being in no particular intended as an argument for or against the unlimited coinage or restricted powers of the “dollars of our dads.” BOLIVIAN SILVER MINES. The silver mines of Potosi, in Bolivia, have produced nearly $4,000,000,000 worth of silver and are apparently inexhaustible, Ten thousand mines are known to exist in the district, which is 300 leagues long by 70 leagues wide. They have been abandoned because of the extinction of slave labor, unstable governments, lack of highways, etc. Capital is now rapidly being invested in these abandoned workings, and the outlook is that all these abandoned mines will soon be operated with improved machinery and modern milling plants, and that new ledges will undoubtedly be discovered that may increase the annual out-put of silver in the world to an unheard of figure. Expert silver authorities predict that the price of silver will yet fall to 20 or 25 cents an ounce. Prospects certainly indicate that the price will fall far below the present market rate.

INDIANA QUAKERS.

Th “Yearly Meeting” at Richmond —A Model Legislative Body. Chicago Inter-Ocean. The Indiana yearly meeting of the Society of Friends (orthodox) lately in session at Richmond, has held a position in the society second only to the great yearly meeting of London, England. During late years however it has not covered as wide a district as formerly. It has established a second yearly meeting at Plainfield, Ind., and the yearly meeting of lowa and Kansas are both offshoots of this original Indiana yearly meeting. It still, however, represents a large constituency, and the annual gatherings are looked to with marked interest by members of the society everywhere. The transaction of business by thi« great organization is somewhat novel] Henry Clay, who visited this meeting in 1844,said it was the most wonderful legislative body he ever saw. “The clerk of the meeting’’ and “the messengers” are the only officials. The clerk has almost autocratic power. For nearly forty years this position was by unanimous consent held by the members of one family,that of Elijah Coffin. First he for many years occupied the position, and he was succeeded by his son, Charles F. Coffin, now of Chicago. During that period the gravest questions came before the society for decision. The discussions are always free and open to every member in the audience of from 4,000 to 7,000 people. As “the spirit moves” one and another arises and concisely states his views. A leading man will m ake a poin t clearly, and likel y a score of others will arise and simply say “That is my view,” or “I agree with the brother.” There is seldom a speech of over five minutes. There is no“moving the previous question," such a thing as filibustering wasnevei known in a Quaker meeting. After due time has been given, the clerk, having taken notes as the discussion was going on, arises anc reads "a minute,"giving “the weight yof testimony” for or against the measure. An appeal from his judgment and final summing up is some thing very rare indeed. When aques tion has been thus passed upon the utterance is law, as binding upon the church as a law of Congress is bindin; |o the people of the Nation. If sonn of our great legislative bodies had t little of the Quaker methods injectec into them it would be greatly to th< advantage of the country

TALMAGIAN POLITICO.

The Brooklyn Divine Again Ta lks About the Campaign. Denunciation of Political Falsehoods and Condemnation of Political Dissipations. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn, last Sunday. Text — Acts xix. 32: “Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. And they therefore drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand and would have made his defense unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians!’ ” Ephesus was upside pown. It was about the silver question. A manufacturer of silver boxes for holding heathen images had called his laborers together to discuss the behavior of one Paul, who had been in public places assaulting image worship, and consequently very much damaging that particular business. There was great excitement in the city. People stood in knots along the streets, violently gesticulating and calling each other hard names. Some of the people favored the policy of the silversmith. Other people favored the policy of Paul. There were great moral questions involved, but these did not bother them at all. Having there assembled, they all want to get the floor, and they all want to talk at once. You know what excitement that always makes in a convention, where a great many people want to talk at once. Some cried one thing, some another. Some wanted to denounce, some wanted to resolve. After awhile a prominent man gets the floor, andhe begins to speak, but they very soon hiss him down, and then the confusion rises into worse uproar, and they begin to shout, all of them together, and they keep on until they are red in the faee and hoarse in the throat, for two long hours crying out, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians! Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” While there are honest men, true men, Christian men, who stand forth in both political parties, and who come into the autumnal elections resolving to serve their city or their State or the Nation in the best possible way, I have also noticed that with many it is a mere contest between the ins and the outs —those who are trying to stay in and keep the outs out, and those who 1 are trying to get in and thrust the ins out. And one party cries, “Great is Diana of the Epheseans!” and the other party cries, “Great is Diana of the Epheseans!” neither of them honest enough to say, ‘ ‘Great is my pocketbook!” The Rev. Dr. Emmons, in the early history of our country, in Massachusetts, preached about the election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency. The Rev. Dr. Mayhew, of Boston, in the early days of our republic, preached about the repeal of the stamp act. There are times when ministers of Christ must look off upon public affairs and discuss them. We need go back to no example. Every man is, before God, responsible for his own duty. First, set yourself against all political falsehood. The most monstrous lies ever told in this country • are during the elections. I stop at the door of a Republican meeting and listen and hear the Democrats are scoundrels. Our public men microscopized, and the truth distorted. Who believes a tenth part of what he reads or hears in the autumnal elections? Men who at other seasons of the year are very careful in their speech become peddlers of scandal. The trouble is that we have in this country two great manufactories—manufactories of lies —the Republican manufactory of lies and the Democratic rrtanufactory of lies — and they are run day and night, and they turn out half a dozen a day all equipped and ready for full sailing. Large lies and small lies. Lies private and lies public and lies prurient. Lies cut bias and lies cut diagonal. Long-limbed lies and lies with double back action. Lies complimentary and lies defamatory. Lies that some people believe, and lies that all the people believe, and lies that nobody believes. Lies with humps like camels, and scales like crocodiles, and necks as long as storks, and feet as swift as an antelope’s, and stings like adders. Lies raw and scalloped and panned and stewed. Crawling lies and jumping lies atid soaring lies. Lies with attachment screws and rufflers and braiders and ready wound bobbins. Lies by Christian people, who never lie except during elections, and lies by people who always lie, but beat themselves in a political campaign. Nothing but Christianity will ever stop such a flood of indecency. The Christian religion will speak after awhile. The billingsgate and low scandal through which we wade plmost every autumn must be rebuked by that religion which speaks from its two great mountains, from the one mountain intoning the command, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,” and from the other mount making plea for kindness and love and blessing rather than cursing. Again, I counsel you as Christian men to set yourselves against the

misuse cd money in political campaigns. Of the thousands of dollars already spent this autumn, how much of the amount do you suppose has been properly used. You have a right to spend modey for the publishing of political tracts, for the establishment of organizations for the carrying out of what you consider to be the best; you have a right to appeal to the reason of men by argument and statistics and by facts. Printing and renting of public halls and political meetings cost money, but he who puts a bribe into the hand of a voter or plies weak men with mercenary and corrupt motives commits a sin against God and the Nation. ‘ : Joseph was a politician, but he maintained his integrity. Daniel was a politician, but he was a teetotaler to the last. Abraham was a politician, but he was always characterized as the father of the faithful. Moses was a politician, the grandest of them all, but he honored God more than he did the Pharaohs, and there are hundreds of Christian men now in the political parties maintaining their integrity, even where they are obliged to stand amid the blasted, lecherous and loathsome crew that sometimes surrounds the ballot box —these Christian men now doing their political duty and then coming back to the prayer meetings and Christian circles as pure as when they went out. But that is not the ordinary circumstance—that is the exception. --- How often you see men coming back from the political conflict, and their eye is glazed, and their cheek has an unnatural flush, and they talk louder than they usually do, and at the .least provocation they will bet, and you say they are con vivial, or they are exceeding vivacious, or you apply some other sweet name to them, but God knows they are drunk! Some of you, a month or six weeks ago, had no more religion than you ought to have, and after the elections are over to calculate how much religion you have left will be a sum in vulgar fractions. Oh, the pressure is tremendous! How many mighty intellects have gone under the dissipation of politics! 1 think of one who came from the West. He was able to stand out against the whole American Senate. God had given him faculties enough to govern a kingdom, or to frame a constitution. His voice was terrible to his country’s enemies and a mighty inspiration in the day of national peril. Rut twenty glasses of strong drink every day were his usual allowance, and he went down into the habits of a confirmed inebriate. Alas for him! Though a costly monument has. been reared over his resting place, the young men of this country shall not be denied the awful lesson that the agency by which the world was robbed of one of its mightiest intellects, and our country of one of its ablest constitutional defenders, was the dissipation of political life. You want to know who I mean? Young man, ask your father when you get home* The adverse tide is "fearful, and I warn you against it. Again, I counsel you that when you go to the ballot-box at the city, or the State, or the national elections, you recognise God and appeal to Him for His blessing. There is a higher power than the ballot-box, than the gubernatorial chair, than the presidential white house. It is high time that we put less confidence in political platforms and more confidence, in God. See what a weak thing is human foresight! How little our wise men seem to know,! See how, every .autumn, thousands. of men who are ' clambering up for . higher positions are turned under! God upsets them. Every man, every party, every nation, has a mission to perform. Failing to perform it, f down he goes. If God could spare Luther before the Reformation was done and if He could spare Washington before free government had been fully tested and if He could spare Howard before more than one out of- a thousand dungeons had been alleviated, and if He could spare Robert McCheyne fust as Scotland was gathering to tis burning utterances, and if He could spare Thomas Clarkson while yet miilions of his fellow men had chains rusting to the bone—then He can spare any man, and He can spare any party. That man who through cowardice or blind idolatry of party forsakes the cause of righteousness goes down, and the armed battailions of God march over him. O Christian man, take out your Bible this afternoon, and in the light of that word make up your mind as to what is your duty as a citizen. Remember that the highest kind of a patriot is a Christian patriot. Consecrate yourselves first to God, then you will know how to consecrate- yourselves to vour country. Next Tuesday questions of state will be settled* but there eomes' a day when the questions of eternity will be decided. You may vote right and get the victory at the ballot-box and yet suffer eternal defeat. After you have cast your last vote, where will you go to? In this country there are two parties. You belong to the one or the other of them. Likewise in eternity there will be . two parties and only two- “These shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal.” To which party will you belong? God grant that, while you look after the welfare of the land in which God has graciously cast your lot, you may not forget to look after your soul—blood bought, judgement bound immortal! God save the people! • „ The man who continues to back racehorses seldom gets to the front •»