Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1900 — HUGO DENKENSPRUCT [ARTICLE]

HUGO DENKENSPRUCT

Relates One of His Experiences as Jus* tice of the Peace.

(By William E. Anderson.)

“Yes, you are right, Jonathan, Mr. Bryau will do good to his own party talking about political equality, liberty and the rights of man, for it was always hard for his friends to make such things work in this country among the Ameri-can-born colored citizens. But it is a little late to do any good in those States where Mr. Bryan will get nearly all the votes east. No; you are wrong, Jonathan. The very many kvotations he makes from Washington, Lincoln and others isn't quite a case of the “Devil kvoting scripture.’ Tt goes a long way ahead of that and just fits the case I am about to tell you. “During my term as justice of the peace in this town we had a great deal of trouble with tramps. They used to get into the schobl houses to sleep and at last they got so bold, a school bouse wasn't good enough for them. They began to profane the churches. Big Jo,hannes, neighbor Smith’s son, was constable and he at last arrested a gang in the Methodjst church down there. He had not much experience, you see; and a schmart lawyer from the village was up before me to defend them. That man really was a, fine pleader; and as he knew the Bible kvotations well, he made a good impression on the eourt. He said that his friends, the defendants, went from the school houses to the church to get religion; and that the Lord was where ‘two or three were gathered together in His name,’ and so on. Then he pulled out the notes of a Sermon which he got

The one supreme test of prosperity is the money in the bank. This is a selfevident truth. If a man’s family is well clothed and fed and ip a comfortable home, and besides this he can put money in the bank, it must be admitted that he is prosperous. In the following unparalleled showing of the increase in the number of deposits from the dark days of the Democratic Wilson bill regime in 1894 to the glorious days of McKinley prosperity, the most marvelous of all is the increuse in the number of depositors aud in the amount of deposits in the savings banks of the country. These banks are particularly the ones where the wage earners of the country put their savings. Mr. Bryan says the people are not prosperous. So say all his calamity followers. We commend to them the following official figures from the report of the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States for 1899. They are unanswerable: TOTAL UNITED SPATES. —Total No. depositors.— Bank. 1894 1899. National 1,424,906 1,991,183 StAte and private... 502,766 966,394 Loan and trust companies 205,368 440,321 Savings 3,413,477 4,254,516 .Total 5,545,867 7,655,414 Increase in number of depositors .... 2,109.547

from one of the tramps and arid his clients were In church to have divine worship. I remember the teat. It waa, ‘Go ye into ail the world and preach the gospel to every people.’ Wasn’t that a coincidence to remind me of Bryan’a pioua remarks on the same text? “The lawyer got along so well that I about made up my mind to kvit the prisoners. But the schmart young lawyer didn’t know it so he began to go for big Johannes and cross-kvestion him. Johannes was the only witness, yon see, and didn’t have muoh experience. By and by Johannes coaid not stand so much fun at his expense, so he got mad ■ and yelled out: “That may all be, Mr. Lawyer, what you say. You seem to know that the notes of the sermon you got from that big hobo were his own notes; but I know what you dou’t know, and that is that the gang you say he was preaching to tore out of the pulpit Bible all the book of Genesis and Exodus, including the ten commandments, to light their pipes with while they listened to the sermon.’ Then I reversed my decision, Jonathan, and sent those fellows to the calaboose."