The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, November 27, 1896 Page: 3 of 8
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Lr. talmage's sermon
WMNIWK KMHMI
aoti
Washington, Nov. 22, 18S6.—A re-
st undlng call goes out in this sermon
c. Dr. Talmage. If heeded it would be
revolutionary for good. His subject 1b,
"Young Men Challenged to Nobility,"
and the text: 2 Kings 8:1": "And the
I.ord opened the eyes of the young
man."
One morning in Dothan, a young
theological student was Beared by find-
ing himself and Elisha tho prophet,
upon whom he waited, surrounded by a
whole army of enemies. But venerable
Elisha was not scared at all, because
he saw the mountains full of defence
for him, in chariots made of fire, drawn
by horses of fire—a supernatural ap-
pearance that could not be Been with
the natural eye. So the old minister
prayed that the young minister might
see them also, and the prayer was an-
^ swered, and the Lord opened the eyes
of the yoiing man, and he also saw the
tiery procession, looking somewhat, I
srppose, like the Adlrondacks or the
Alleghanies in autumnal resplendep
^ Many young men, standing amoiiB
the most tremendous realities, have
their eyes half shut or entirely closed.
May God grant that my sermon may
open wide your eyes to your safety,
. your opportunity, and your destiny!
A mighty defence for a young man is
a good home. Some of my hearers look
back with tender satisfaction to their
early home. It may have been rude
and rustic, hidden among the hills, and
architect or upholsterer never planned
or adorned It. But all the fresco on
princely walls never looked so entic-
ing to you as those rough-hewn raf-
ters. You can think of no park or
arbor of trees planted on fashionable
country-seat so attractive as the plain
brook that ran in front of the old
farm-house and sang under the weep-
ing willows. No barred gateway,
adorned with ntatue of bronze, and
swung open by obsequious porter in
full dress, has half the glory of the
old swing gate. Many of you have a
second dwelling-place, your adopted
home, that also is sacred forever. There
you built the first family altar. There
your children were born. All those
trees you planted. That room is sol-
emn, because once in it, over the hot
pillow, flapped the wing of death.
Under that roof you expect to lie down
and die. You try with many words to
■fell the excellency of the place, but you
fail. There is only one word in the
language that can describe your mean-
ing. It is home.
Another defence for a young man is
industrious habits. Many young men,
in starting upon life in this age, ex-
pect to make their way through the
world by the use of their wits rather
^ than the toil of their hands. A boy
now goes to the city and falls twice
before he is as old as his father was
when he first saw the spires of the
great town. Sitting in some office,
_ rented at a thousand dollars a year, he
is waiting for the bank to declare its
dividend or goes into the market ex-
pecting before night to be made rich
by the rushing up of the stocks. But
luck seemed so dull he resolved on
some other tack. Perhaps he borrowed
from his employer's money drawer, and
forgets to put it back, or for merely
the purpose of improving his penman-
ship, makes a copyplate of a merchant's
signature. Never mind; all Is right in
trade. In some dark night there may
come in his dreads a vision of the
penitentiary; but it soon vanishes. In
a short time he will be ready to retire
from the busy world, and amid his
flocks and herds cultivate the domestic
virtues. Then those young men who
once were his schoolmates, and knew
no better than to engage in honest
work, will come with their ox-teams
to draw him logs, and with hard hands
< to heave up his castle. This is no fancy
picture. It is everyday life. I should
not wonder if there were some rotten
beams In chat beautiful palace. I
should not wonder if dire 3ickness
should smite through the young man, or
if God should pour into his cup of life
a draught that would thrill him with
unbearable agony; if his children
should become to him a living curse,
making his home a pest and a disgrace.
I should not wonder if he goes to a
miserable grave, and beyond it into the
gnashing of teeth. The way of the un-
godly shall perish.
My young friends, there is no way to
genuine success, except through toil,
either of head or hand. At the battle
of Crecy, in 1346, the prince of Wales,
finding himself heavily pressed by the
enemy, sent word to his father for help.
The father, watching the battle from a
windmill, and seeing his son was not
wounded and could gain the day if he
would, sent word, "No, I will not come.
Let the boy win his spurs, for, if God
will, I desire that this day be his with
r all its honors." Young man, fight your
own battle, all through, and you shall
have the victory. Oh, it is a battle
worth fighting! Two monarchs of old
fought a duel, Charles V. and Francis,
and the stakes were kingdoms, Milan
and Burgundy. You fight with sin,
and the stake is heaven or hell.
Do not get the fatal idea that you are
a genius, and that, therefore, there is
no need of close application. It is here
where multitudes fail. The curse of
this age Is the geniuses; men with enor-
mous self-conceit and egotism, and
nothing else. I had rather be an ox
than an eagle; plain and plodding and
useful, rather than high-flying and
good for nothing but to pick out the
eyes of carcasses. Extraordinary ca-
pacity without work is extraordinary
failure. There is no hope for that per-
son who begins life resolved to live by
his wits, for the probability is that he
has not any. It was not safe for Adam,
.even in his unfallen state, to have
nothing to do, and therefore, God com-
manded him to be a farmer and horti-
culturist. He was to dress the gar-
den and keep it, and had he and his
wife obeyed the Divine injunction and
been at work, they would not have
been sauntering under the trees and
hankering after that fruit which de-
troyed them and their posterity; a
proof positive for AH ages to come that
those who do not attend to their busi-
ness are sure to get into mischief.
I do not know that the prodigal in
Scripture would ever have been re-
claimed had he not given up bis Idle
habits and gone to feeding swine for
a living. The devil does not so often
attack the man who is busy with the
pen, and the book, and the trowel, and
the sa v, and the hammer. He is afraid
of those weapons. But woe to the
man whom this roaring lion meets
with his hands in his pockets'.
This is the statement of a man who
has broken this Divine enactment: "I
was engaged in manufacturing on the
Lehigh river. On the Sabbath I used
to rest, but never regarded God In it.
One beautiful Sabbath when the noise
was all hushed, and the day was all
that loveliness could make it, I sat
down on my piazza, and went to work
inventing a new shuttle. I neither
stopped to eat nor drink till the sun
went down. By that time I had the
invention completed. The next morn-
ing I exhibited It, and boasted of my
day's work, and was applauded. The
shuttle was tried, and worked well,
but that Sabbath day's work cost me
thirty thousand dollars. We branch-
ed out and enlarged, and the curse of
heaven was upon me from that day on-
ward."
While the Divine frown must rest
upon him who tramples upon this
statute, God's special favor will be
upon that young man who scrupulously
observes it. This day, properly ob-
served, will throw a hallowed influence
over all the week. The song and ser-
mon and sanctuary will hold back from
presumptuous sins. That young man
who begins the duties of life with
either secret or open disrespect to the
holy day, I venture to prophesy, will
meet with no permanent successes.
God's curse will fall upon his ship, his
store, his office, his studio, his body,
and his soul. The way of the wicked
he turneth upside down. In one of the
old fables it was said that a wonder-
ful child was born in Bagdad, and a
magician could hear his footsteps six
thousand miles away. But I can hear
in the footstep of that young man on
his way to the house of worship to-day
the step not only of a lifetime of use-
fulness, but the oncoming step of
eternal ages of happiness yet millions
of years away.
A noble ideal and confident expec-
tation of approximating to it are an in-
fallible defense. The artist completes
in his mind the great thought that he
wishes to transfer to the canvas or the
marble before he takes up the crayon
or the chisel. The architect plans out .
the entire structure before he orders |
the workmen to begin, and though
there may for a long while seem to be
nothing but blundering and rudeness,
he has in his mind every Corinthian
wreath and Gothic arch and Byzantine
capital. The poet arranges the entire
plot before he begins to chime the first
canto of tingling rhythms. And yet,
strange to say, there are men who at-
tempt to build their character without
knowing whether in the end it shall
be a rude Tartar's tent or a St. Mark's
of Venice—men who begin to write the
intricate poem of their lives without
knowing whsther it shall be a Homer's
"Odyssey" or a rhymester's botch.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine men
out of a thousand are living without
any great life-plot Booted and
spurred and plumed, and urging their
swift courser in the hottest haste, I
ask: "Hello, man, whither away?" His
response is, "Nowhere." Rush into the
busy shop or store of many a one, and
taking the plane out of the man's hand
or laying down the yardstick, say,
"What, man, is all this about, so much
stir and sweat?" The reply will stum-
ble and break down between teeth and
lips. Every one's duty ought only to
be the filling np of the main plan of
existence. Let men be consistent. If
they prefer misdeeds to correct courses
of action, then let them draw out the
design of knavery and cruelty and
plunder. Let every day's falsehood
and wrongdoing be added as coloring
to the picture. Let bloody deeds red-
stripe the picture, and the clouds of a
wrathful God hang down heavily over
the canvas, ready to break out in clam-
orous tempest. Let the waters be
chafed and froth-tangled, and green
with Immeasurable depths. Then take
a torch of burning pitch and scorch in-
to the frame the right name of it—the
soul's suicide. If one entering upon
sinful directions would only in his
mind or on paper, draw out in awful
reality this dreadful picture, he would
recoil from it and say: "Am I a Dante,
that by my own life I should write an-
other 'Inferno'?" But if you are re-
solved to live a life such as God and
good men will approve, do not let it
be a vague dream, an indefinite deter-
mination. but, in your mind, or upon
paper, sketch it in all its minutiae.
You cannot know the changes to which
you may be subject, but you may know
what always will be right and always
will be wrong. Let gentleness and
charity and veracity and faith stand in
the heart of the sketch. On some
still brook's bank make a lamb and
lion lie down together. Draw two or
three of the trees of life, not frost-
stricken, nor ice-glazed, nor wind-
stripped, but with thick verdure wav-
ing like the palms of heaven. On the
darkest cloud place the rainbow, that
pillow of the dying storm. You need
not print the title on the frame. The
dullest will catch the design at a
glance, and say, "That is the road to
heaven." Ah, me! On this sea of
life, what innumerable ships, heavily
laden and well rigged, yet seem bound
for no port! Swept every whither of
wind and wave, they go up by the
mountains, they go down by the val-
leys, and are at their wits' end. They
sail by no chart, they watch no star,
they long for no har*
Many years ago word came to m
that two lmpoatera, as temperance lec-
turers. had been speaking in Ohio, in
various places, and giving their expe-
rience. and they told their audience
that they had long been intimate with
me, and had become drunkards by
dining at my table, where 1 always had
liquors of all sorts. Indignant to the
last degree I went down to Patrick
Campbell, chief of Brooklyn police,
saying that I was going to start that
night for Ohio to have those villians
arrested, and I wanted him to tell me
how to make the arrest. He smiled
and said: "Do not waste your time by
chasing these men. Go home and do
your work, and they can do you no
harm." I took his counsel, and all was
well. Long ago I made up my mind
that If one will put his trust in God
and be faithful to duty, he need not
fear any evil. Have God on your side,
young man, and all the combined
forces of earth and hell can do you no
damage.
And this leads me to say that the
mightiest defense for a young man is
the possession of religious principle.
Nothing can take the place of it. He
may have manners that would put to
shame the gracefulness and courtesy
of a Lord Chesterfield. Foreign lan-
guages may drop from his tongue. He
may be able to discuss literature, and
laws, and foreign customs. He may
wield a pen of unequaied polish and
power. Ills quickness and tact may
qualify him for tho highest salary of
the counting house. He may be as
sharp as Herod and as strong as
Samson, with as fine locks as those
which hung Absalom, still he is not
safe from contamination. The more
elegant bis manner, and the more fas-
cinating his dress, the more peril. Sa-
tan does not care for the allegiance of
a cowardly and Illiterate being. He
cannot bring him into efficient service.
But he loves to storm that castle of
character which has in it the most
spoils and treasures. It was not some
crazy craft creeping along the coast
with a valueless cargo that the pirate
attacked, but the ship, full-winged and
flagged, plying between great ports,
carrying its millions of specie. The
more your natural and acquired accom-
plishments, the more need of the reli-
gion of Jesus. That does not cut in
upon or hack up the smoothness of dis-
position or behavior. It gives symme-
try. It arrests that in the soul which
ought to be arrested, and propels that
which ought to be propelled. It fills
up the gulleys. It elevates and trans-
forms. To beauty it gives more
beauty, to tact more tact, to enthu-
siasm of nature more enthusiasm.
When the Holy Spirit Impresses the
image of God on the heart he does not
spoil the canvass. If in all the multi-
tudes of young men upon whom reli-
gion has acted you could find one na-
ture that had been the least damaged.
I would yield this proposition. • • *
Many years ago I stood on the anni-
versary platform with a minister of
Christ who made this remarkable
statement: "Thirty years ago two
young men started out in the evening
to attend the Park theater, New York,
where a play was to be acted in which
the cause of religion was to be placed
in a ridiculous and hypocritical light.
They came to the steps. The con-
sciences of both smote them. One
started to go home, but returned again
to the door, and yet had not courage to
enter, and finally departed. But the
other young man entered the pit of the
theater. It was the turning point in
the history of these two young men.
The man who entered was caught in
the whirl of temptation. He sank
deeper and deeper in infamy; lie was
lost. That other young man was
saved, and he now stands before you
to bless God that for twenty years he
has been permitted to preach the Gos-
pel."
"Rejoice, O young man, in thy
youth, and let thy heart cheer thee
in the days of thy youth; but know
thou that for all these things God will
bring thee into judgment.
FREE BALLOT AND FAIR COUNT [ ^ ^ arch ists
the
People
SIR THOMAS BROWN.
He Appreciated the Value of 1'osaili
and Studied Uravo.
He was a physician, and. while giv-
ing only hiB leisure to science and lit-
erature, he became a leading authority
in the zoology and botany of Great Brit-
ain, says Popuiar Science Monthly. He
introduced the word "commensality,"
now in common use, to express a state
of many living together, as it were, at
the same table. The word was men-
tioned by Johnson as an examplo of a
useful term, which if rejected, must be
supplied by circumlocution. Browne
was a pioneer in the scientific study of
graves and their c .tents. He appre-
ciated the value of fossils. He was also
a comparative anatomist, and constant-
ly engaged in such topics as the anat-
omy of the horse, the pigeon, the beav-
er, the badger, the whale. In a note
on an anatomy of a spermaceti whale
the following passage occurs: "It con-
tained no less than sixty feet in length,
tho head somewhat peculiar, with a
large prominence over the mouth; teeth
only in the lower jaw, received into
fleshy sockets in the upper. The
weight of the largest about two
pounds; no gristly substance in the
mouth, commonly called whalebones;
only two short fins * * * on the
back; the eyes but small." This Is a
very good note, we think, and written
in a scientific spirit. He studied animal
mechanism, especially the gaits of the
quadrupeds and the acts of swimming
and floating: the problems of right and
left handedness and the erect figure of
man. He tells us that "temperamental
dlgnotions" can be detected by study-
ing spots on the finger nails. Physi-
cians even of our own day have not
formulated knowledge on this curious
subject. He discovered the animal aoap
now called adlpocre. "He would have
made a very extraordinary man for the
privy council," we are told by his biog.
rapher.
One of the Druiandi <
Parly.
The People's party, at its National
Convention at St. I^ouis, declared in
favor of a free ballot and fair couut in
the following language:
"Believing that the electtvo franchise
and an untrammeled ballot are essen-
tial to a government of. for, and by the
people, the People's Party condemns
Lhe wholesale system of disfranchise-
ment adopted in some of the States ae
inrepublican and undemocratic, and we
ieclare it to be the duty of the several
itate legislatures to take such action
is will secure a full, free, and fair bal-
ot and honest count."
With the Populists In most of the
Southern States this question Is one of
lupremc if not paramount importance.
If the pressing issues of the hour are
lo be settled in accordance with the
spirit of the Declaration of Independ-
ence and the meaning of the Constitu-
tion, the people must be free to vote as
they choose and have that vote counted
as cast.
By a system of gerrymandering con-
gressional districts in some states, and
constitutional limitations and bare-
faced fraud In others, the great issue
in these states is an untrammeled bal-
lot. Without it no reform can bo ac-
complished. Without it platforms, and
declarations and demands amount to
nothing. To the Populists of the South
especially the Importance of this tesue
Is apparent. While they are agitating
other questions no effort should be
spared to secure to ever legal voter,
not only the right to vote freely as he
chooses, but the right to know that his
vote will be counted as it is cast.
If the fear of negro domination ever
was any excuse for tampering with the
ballot box that day is past. Recent
election returns prove that tho negro
to-day is with the party that most
feared his domination, or that that
party is guilty of the most flagrant
frauds on the light of elective fran-
chise that ever desgraced a civilized
people. In either case the demand for
i free ballot is no less urgent.
The cry should go up from one end
t>f tho land to the other for the rights
of citizenship. The dark frauds which
have been perpetrated on the right of
slective franchise is a blot on our good
name, a shame to our civilization. No
party can any longer afford to condone
Dr apologize for base election methods
omployed in many states in the South
by the dominant party. If this question
Is pressed from now on as it should be,
the party in power must either amend
the laws and for its methods or the
people will rise up and overthrow it.
The right of free and untrammeled
franchise is dearer to the American
Citizen than any other. Let a concert-
ed effort be put forward from now on to
secure that right, and in such manner
that the demand dare not go unheeded.
WILL NOW TRY A HAND AT
GOVERNMENT.
WHAT WASHINGTON SAID.
Foreign Influence the Foo of Kcpuhll-
ran Government.
George Washington, in his farewell
address, among other things said:
Against the insidious wiles of for-
eign influence, believe me, fellow citi-
zens, the jealousy of a free people ought
to be constantly awake, since history
and experience prove that such influ-
ence is one of the most baneful foes of
republican government. * * The
great rule of conduct for us in regard
to foreign nations is to have with them
as little political connection as possi-
ble. * * * Why forego the advant-
ages of so peculiar a situation (as we
possess)? Why quit our own to stand
upon foreign ground? Why, by inter-
weaving our destiny with that of any
part of Europe, entangle our peace and
prosperity in the toils of European am-
bition, rivalship, interest, humor or ca-
price? 'Tis true our policy is to steer
clear of permanent alliances with any
portion of the foreign world. * * *
Constantly keeping in view that 'tis
folly in one nation to look for disinter-
ested favors from another; that it must
pay with a portion of its independence
for whatever it may accept under that
character, there can be no greater er-
ror than to expect or calculate upon
real favors from nation to nation. 'Tis
an illusion which experience must cure
which a just pride ought to discard.
JACKSON DEMOCRACY.
Extract from His Veto Message to Con-
gress December 3, 1804.
"Circumstances make It my duty to
call the attention of congress to the
Bank of the United States. Created
for the convenience of the government,
that institution has become the scourge
of the people. Its interference to post-
pone the payment of a portion of the
national debt that it might retain the
public money appropriated for that
purpose to strengthen it in a political
contest, the extraordinary extension
and contraction of its accommodations
to the community, its corrupt and par-
tisan loans, its exclusion of the public
directors from a knowledge of its most
important proceedings, the unlimited
authority conferred on tho president
to expend its fund in hiring writers
and procuring the execution of print-
ing and the use made of that authority,
the retention of the pension money
and books after the selection of new
agents, have through various channels
been laid before congress. They were
substantially a confession that all the
real distresses which individuals and
the country had endured for the preced-
ing six or eight months have been
needlessly produced by it with the view
tf affecting, through the sufferings of
the people, the legislative action of con-
gress."
IT NOW rests, with the Republican
party to demonstrate that the gold
standard is a good thing. If it don't
do it it ought to be evident to every
man that it is a fraud and that neither
old party can be depended upon.
Wilt Despoil the People of Their Itlshta
and May llrlug on u lltoody Revolu-
tion Mime of the Offenses of Pluto-
cracy.
The principles of the Declaration of
Independence are just as potent today
as they were in 1776. And the oppres-
sions which the cowardly grandsons of
revolutionary heroes suffer a-re Just as
galling and destructive of Liberty and
equality as were the u-njust taxation
and tyranny our forefathers fought
against. The ICngl-ish and American
money power .which is the same, have
crushed our government out of all sem-
blance to a government cf the people.
"We hold these truths to be self-evi-
dent, that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unali-enable rights; that
among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness; that to se-
cure the rights, governments are in-
stituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of tire
governed; that, whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of
these ends, it Is right of the people to
alte-r or abolish it, and to institute a
new government, laying Its foundation
on such principles, and organizing its
powers in such form as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Bafety
and happiness. Prudence, Indeed, will
dictate that governments should not
b j changed for light and transient cau-
ses; and, accordingly, all experience
hath shown that mankind are more
dsiposed to suffer, while evils are suf-
ferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing in-
variably the same object, evinces a de-
sign to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it Is their right, it is their
duty, to throw oft such government,
and to provide new guards for their
future security.—-Declaration of Inde-
pendence.
Such has been the suffering of the
useful producing classes of America,
and they are beginning to see the ne-
cessity or restoring the government
to the people from whom It has been
stolen by the money powewr of Eng-
land and America. •
We submit facts as startling as were
those recited in the Declaration that
was framed by our forefathers.
The money power has prevented the
passage of laws ecessary for the pub-
lic good.
It has caused the repeal of laws that
kept money enough in circulation to
enable the people to do a cash business
without paying tribute to the money
brokers.
It has delayed the passage of laws so
as to enable trusts find enables trusts
and combines to corner the market on
staple products.
It has prevented the passage of laws
for the benefit of the majority of the
people.
It has forced Its way into legislative
halls in the form of a lobby to influence
legislation for own special purposes.
It has prevented state legislatures ac-
complishing the work for which they
were called in special session. For in-
stance, the late session of the Illinois
legislature.
It has openly, flagrantly and boast-
fully disregarded the inter-state com-
merce law, and defied the anti-trust
law.
It has prevented the administration
of justice by controlling the courts.
It has made judges independent of
the law, the constitution and the peo-
ple.
It has, through its political heelers,
created hundreds of useless high sal-
aried offices, and had them filled by
appointment from the enemies of the
people.
It is building military fortresses and
garrisoning them with rich men's sons,
besides drilling school children to be
soldiers instead of useful citizens.
It indicates what kind of text-books
shall be used in our common schools,
controls our colleges, and prevents even
the preaching of the principles of Jesus
Christ in many pulpits.
It has made the military Independent
of civil power.
The American money power has com-
bined with England to force this
country to maintain a financial policy
that is robbing the people of their
homes, and turning thousands out to
beg, steal or starve.
It causes the building of war ships
and cannon, and has secured an entire
change in the tactics of the U. S. army,
so that now soldiers are being specially
trained to bombard houses and mur-
der working people who dare assemble
on the streets of our great infernos,
called cities.
It has cut off our trade with the
world by appropriating all our surplus
products to pay interest on bonds and
mortgages.
It has forced the Issue of interest
bearing bonds to enslave the people.
It deprives men of the right, of trial
by jury, and has set up a system of
"government by injunction."
It has caused the sending of armed
troops into a state where the local of-
ficers were fully capable of enforcing
the law.
It has doubled the ueucs of the peo-
ple, and thirty thousand of its repre-
sentatives have stolen half the wealth
of the nation.
It has secured by special grants
enough land to maintain ten million
people in honest industry.
It has rendered all our laws inoper-
ative where the rich man is involved.
It has caused the supreme court to
declare It unconstitutional to tax the
rich. I
It has bribed men chosen to represent
the people.
It has made protection of property
the sole object of our government.
It has plundered the people, driven
young girls to prostitution, starved
wives and children, driven men from
happy firesides to wander on the high-
ways and caused the murder and im-
prisonment of workingmen whose on'.y
crime was helplessness.
It is at this time engaged in fastening
the chains of debt slavery upon the
piodueers of this country, by issuing
bonds, destroying the money of the
people, and setting up a golden calf
and a hunk of soap grease to rule the
nation.
It has caused young men In the mili-
tary service to shoot down their fath-
ers, brothers and friends to "protect
property," when itself has hired incen-
diaries to burn property so as to make
an excuse for using military force in
driving men back to work at starva-
tion wages.
It has imprisoned men for stepping
on the grass at Washington.
It has caused men to be sent to the
penitentiary for asking for brrtid.
It was the cause of the late war In
which thousands of able-bodied young
men were murdered, and the principal
result of which was the creation of a
debt whereby not only the negro but
the white man is made a slave, and the
owner has not even the responsibility
of feeding him.
And a hundred more things we might
mention.
But, ye gods! is not this enough to
boil the albumen white in every drop
of patriotic blood In American veins?
—Industrial Advocate.
AS TO SOLDIERS' PENSIONS.
The PI 11 toe rata' Concern About Theli
Payment In Cheap Hollars.
The "sound money" people are vis-
ibly agitated over what appears to
them to be the danger of paying the
old soldier his pension in "cheap dol-
lars." It is not the first time this ele-
ment has manifested much concern
about the interests of the old soldier.
A suspicious circumstance, however, Is
that this concern always assumes
greatest activity during the heat of
a political campaign. Most of the old
soldiers are aware of this and make
due allowance for the self-intereets
which prompt this seeming devotion to
their interests.
There was a time when the old sold-
ier was being paid in 40-cent dollars
as compared with gold. It was when he
was enduring the hardships of tented
field, of tiresome march and dangerous
conflict. At that time this same sound
money crew wore at home, gambling In
gold, depreciating the soldiers' money
and speculating off the necessities of
the government. Under the cloak of
pretended patriotism they were bleed-
ing the country. Their speculations pro-
longed the war and added to its cost.
They purchased greenbacks for 40 cents
on the dollar, converted them into
bonds, and afterwards had a law pass-
ed making the bonds payable "in coin."
By legislation they made their 40-cents
worth a 100 cents. They did this al-
though there was nothing promised or
implied in the contract that it should
be done. Not so with the soldier. He
was first paid in coin, or Its equivalent,
and the implication was that he should
continue to receive his pay In that kind
of currency.
But he took it in greenbacks.
He never grumbled.
He knew that the honor of the Na-
tion depended upon the success of arms
and not on the kind of money he was
paid in.
He marched and camped and fought
until victory perched upon our ban-
ners. Then he was paid off in this pur-
posely discredited money and went
home.
In 18G9 a law was passed which
made up the difference between tho
coin and face value of the greenback
to the bondholder. They called It
protecting the National honor. A bill
was introduced to make up this differ-
ence to the soldier.
It was hooted at and scorned.
The men who remained at home and
bled the government were rewarded iuj
patriots.
The men who bared their breasts to
the enemy's bullets; who carried the
flag from Sumter to Appomattox; who
by their patriotic devotion saved not
only the Nation's honor, but the Na-
tion itself, were scorned and neglected
by the treacherous leeches who bled
their country in its hour of trial.
Talk about justice to the soldier! Let
justice be done as it has been more
than done to the bondholder, and every
sound money blatherskite in the coun-
try would hold up his hands in holj
horror.
The Sound Money Fallacj>
Sound money, honest money! What
do you mean by that?
We mean that gold coin only Is to
be our legal tender.
But how are we to get enough to do
all our business?
O, we do not intend that gold coin
is to circulate. The circulation is to
be of bank notes and silver, but it is
to rest upon the gold. Every dollar
is to be redeemable in gold.
But you will not have gold enough
to redeem all the silver and paper.
There will always be three or four
dollars more of circulation than of re-
demption money.
Yes; but nobody will ever expect to
see all the silver and paper come in
for redemption at one time.
And that is honest money! A pre-
tense of having enough gold on hand
to redeem three or four times more of
its representatives in silver and paper.
Each representative being in reality!
worth not over 25 or 30 cents on the
dollar. That Is worse than the 50-
cent silver dollar you accuse us of
wanting to circulate. So much for your
soimd money.—Anneal to Reason.
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Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Allan, John S. The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, November 27, 1896, newspaper, November 27, 1896; Norman, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc116899/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.