52 chapters
9 hour read
Selected Chapters
52 chapters
CHAPTER I. JOBE SETS AND STUDIES.
CHAPTER I. JOBE SETS AND STUDIES.
MISTUR EDITURE:—My name is Betsy Gaskins. I was born a Dimicrat. My father was a Dimicrat and my mother dident dare to be anything else—out loud. Our family, thus, was of one mind, perlitically, until Jobe Gaskins begin to come to see me. I was a young woman of nineteen summers, as the poit would say. Jobe he was a Republican and “didn’t keer who knowed it.” My folks opposed Jobe on perlitical grounds. Jobe he opposed my folks on the same grounds, but hankered arter me, though he knode I was a “
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II AN ARGUMENT ON THE MONEY QUESTION.
CHAPTER II AN ARGUMENT ON THE MONEY QUESTION.
THE anon is here. Last Tuesday evenin, arter I had milked and swept and washed up the supper dishes and done many other things I have to do day in and day out, year in and year out, arter Jobe had done his waterin and feedin and choppin of wood, we both found ourselves settin before the fire, me a knittin, him a settin and studyin. Says I to him, all of a suddent, loud and quick like: “Jobe, what yer studyin bout?” You ort a seen him jump. He was skeert. I spoke so suddent and quick. He hemmed a
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III. JOBE SLEEPS IN THE SPARE BED. THE DREAM.
CHAPTER III. JOBE SLEEPS IN THE SPARE BED. THE DREAM.
THAT nite arter I had got into bed and kivered up my head, I went to sleep and waked not until broad daylite. Imagine my surprise, when I waked, to find that durin all that long nite I had been the sole okepant of that bed. The piller on which Jobe, my dear husband, had slept for over thirty-four years had not been teched that nite, and, for the fust time in thirty-five years next corn-huskin, Betsy Gaskins had slept alone. I felt skeert. I felt as though some awful calamity had or would occur t
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV. “THE COMERS.”
CHAPTER IV. “THE COMERS.”
BILL BOWERS has got me into trouble. The Thursday arter I had my dream about the money bizness, who should ride up to our gate and hitch but Bill Bowers? I had not seen him for nigh onto two years, except in that dream, until he rid up to that gate post. No sooner did I lay eyes on him than I thought of our meetin him that day in town, right there by Spring Brothers’ big store, and of his tellin us of the money plan, and of his goin with us to the county treasurer, and of us a learnin from the c
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V. JOBE MUST RAISE $2,100.
CHAPTER V. JOBE MUST RAISE $2,100.
MY heart is heavy. Poor Jobe is nearly destracted. Our home is in jeopardy. Congressman Richer must have his money. He must have it by Aprile fust. Poor feller, he too is in bad straits; his gittin defeated last fall upset his calkerlations. And jist to think, Jobe voted agin him; helped to defeat him, as it were. But Mistur Richer holds no spite agin Jobe for that. He was a Dimicrat, and he knew Jobe was a strait Republican. Such things will happen to any feller runnin for office; somebody has
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI. BETTY, THE DRIVIN ANIMAL.
CHAPTER VI. BETTY, THE DRIVIN ANIMAL.
EVER since we got that letter from Congressman Richer, demandin his $2,100 by the fust of Aprile, Jobe has been scourin the country fur and near tryin to borrow the money, and, poor man, he is worse destracted than ever. Things haint like they use to be. Nobody seems to have any money to lend. He finds lots of people a huntin money, but nobody a findin any. He has been to Sandyville, and Mineral Pint, and Zoar, and way up in Stark County as fur as New Berlin, and nary the man has he found with $
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII. THEY DRIVE OLD TOM.
CHAPTER VII. THEY DRIVE OLD TOM.
JOBE and me have been to town and we are back alive, thank goodness. There is no place like home—if it is mortgaged. Last Tuesday mornin, bright and airly, Jobe and me got up and got ready to go to town to raise some more interest money. I wore that blue cambric dress that Simon Kinsey’s wife got me for helpin her make apple butter last fall three years ago, and the lace cap mother knit and gave me the year John Sherman fust begin to borrow greenback money on bonds and burn it up, and that black
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII. ANOTHER LETTER FROM RICHER.
CHAPTER VIII. ANOTHER LETTER FROM RICHER.
JOBE went to the election Monday and voted her strait. That nite I put another patch on his pants. Ive been a doin his patchin just arter election every year since 1873. Jobe dont mind patches so long as the Republicans are in, but there is no end to his kickin if the Dimicrats are in. I cant see what difference it makes; the patchin has to be done, and more of it, every year. Tuesday Jobe went to town to pay his interest and hear how the election went. He had borrowed what he lacked of Bill Ger
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX. A FEW REASONS BY BETSY.
CHAPTER IX. A FEW REASONS BY BETSY.
THE Republicans swept the platter. They elected every officer from township clerk down, and the sheriff has sent Jobe a notice to appear before the Common Pleas Court and show cause why he should not be foreclosed. Jobe feels good over the election, but bad over the notice. Now I think there are a good many reasons why we shouldent be foreclosed, and more reasons why we hadent ort to be. Its not our fault that we have to be. First. We shouldent be because Jobe has voted the strait Republican tic
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X. IS THERE A WOMAN IN THE BARN?
CHAPTER X. IS THERE A WOMAN IN THE BARN?
YOUD a dide to see the fun I had with Jobe day before yisterday. It was warm like, and I went out to the barn to see what Jobe was a doin. When I got up to the barn door I heerd Jobe a talkin. Peekin in through a crack, I seed Jobe settin on the half-bushel, lookin desperate and jist a layin it off with his hands, like as if he was argyin with some one. At times he come so near a swearin that he is in danger of gittin churched, if they find it out on him. Jist as I got my eye to that crack he br
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI. “IN TOWN.”
CHAPTER XI. “IN TOWN.”
WE are at court. The case is on. Poor Jobe, he is so worried and troubled and downhearted that he dont seem to enthuse when the officeseekin canderdates and polerticians are shakin of his hand and tellin him that “we got there, and are now ready for ’96,” &c., &c. Jobe he jist takes it, and says: “Is that so?” Not one of all them polerticians or canderdate fellers seems to know that one of their “old and respected citizens” is about to be foreclosed out of house and home. Not one
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII. THE DECISION.
CHAPTER XII. THE DECISION.
THAT day, when the judge and lawyers got back from dinner, and arter Jobe and me had eat our lunch in the jury-room, they opened court agin, and the judge, lookin at me tired like, says: “Mrs. Gaskins, the court is now ready to proceed with the case.” “So be we, Mistur Judge,” says I. So Congressman Richer’s lawyer got out a lot of papers and notes, and, showin them to Jobe and me, asked us if we admitted signin of them. “Certainly we do,” says I. So he handed them to the judge, sayin that that
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII. JOBE CHEERS UP.
CHAPTER XIII. JOBE CHEERS UP.
JOBE’S aunt Jane out in Indyana is dead. The poor, dear soul worked hard all her life, and now she is dead. She had been takin care of a rich inverlid for some twelve years, and got two dollars a week for all that time. By livin plain and not goin anywhere for all that time, she has saved $563, and she has left all her savins to Jobe, her only kin, the lawyers out there write us. Aunt Jane. We got a letter from them last week sayin she had died of a suddent, and left Jobe all she had, arter payi
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV. A NEW MORTGAGE.
CHAPTER XIV. A NEW MORTGAGE.
WE was that bizzy last week, with gittin our legicy and payin of costs, and a borrowin of money, and a writin of papers, and a signin of our names, and a swearin to this, that and the other thing, that I dident git my bakin done, let alone do any writin. The fust of last week we got our share of our legicy; the officers in Indyana got the balance. Howsomever, what we did git come handy for a while anyhow. I dont know what we would have done if Jobe’s poor, dear dead aunt hadent a died jist when
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV. JOBE, OUT OF TROUBLE, IS UNRULY AGAIN.
CHAPTER XV. JOBE, OUT OF TROUBLE, IS UNRULY AGAIN.
JOBE he is jist as contrary and stiff-necked as he ever was. He acts as though he had never went through what he has went through since last Noo Years. He is beginnin agin to act towards me as if I was his inferior; as though it wasent me who stuck up for him and fought his battles in time of trouble—yes, stood by him when all creation, office-seekin canderdates and all, had forsook him. He now says the reason he did not pay off that other mortgage years ago was because it wasent made “payable i
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI. JOBE IS SCARED.
CHAPTER XVI. JOBE IS SCARED.
JOBE he is in a critical condition. Day before yisterday, when Jake Stiffler brought our mail out from town—it consisted of the two noosepapers that we have took for years, that is, the Ohio Dimicrat and the Tuscarawas Advercate —I played a trick on Jobe that nearly cost him his life, and nearly made me a weepin and mournin widder. For years and years we have took them two “stanch and substantial” noosepapers without ceasin. We have took them simply because one was a Dimicrat paper and the other
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII. JOBE SLEEPS IN THE BARN.
CHAPTER XVII. JOBE SLEEPS IN THE BARN.
IF Ide a knode that Ide a had to went through what Ive went through since I last writ, I would have been a old maid longin for some one to love, and some one to love me in return, instid of bein the tormented wife of Jobe Gaskins, Esquire, as I am to-day. From the time Jobe come in from the barn, the next mornin arter nearly dyin over the Advercate’s change of abuse, to this hour, the two old parties has been on the outs; and instid of gittin better, things are gittin wuss. The Lord only knows w
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII. THE SPITTOONS.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE SPITTOONS.
COULD you tell a feller where he could borrow a little money to pay taxes with? Here it is June, and taxes are due agin—bridge taxes and all—and Jobe lacks $22.69 of havin enough to pay his share. Taxes seem to stay up better than anything else. They really seem to be on the rise. I wonder if a feller could borrow that much money from them county commissioners? They git their pay when they sell a bridge to the taxpayers—cut-worms or no cut-worms. Them commissioners ort a have a little spare chan
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIX. A BIG-HEADED MAN.
CHAPTER XIX. A BIG-HEADED MAN.
JOBE and me are livin under a flag of truce. I went down into the adjoinin county to find out which one of our county commissioners is the bridge agent, and by what I could hear it was Commissioner Westholt what was down there, but it seems they are all agents or kind a pardners in the “commission” bizness. When I got home I up and told Jobe that it was one of the Republican commissioners—givin his name. Jobe he flew up and claimed he knew better; that Commissioner Westholt is a Dimicrat, for he
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX. “BONDS SELL WELL.”
CHAPTER XX. “BONDS SELL WELL.”
JOBE haint got that tax money yit. Times seem awful hard. But Jobe says they jist seem that way; they haint hard at all. “Times are never hard under a gold basis,” Jobe says. Jobe was a argyin last nite that “times is better than they was jist arter the war.” “‘Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as bonds sells well?’” Says he: “Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as bonds sells well?” Now, I dont know. Maybe we had. “‘Times are never hard under a gold basis,’ Jobe says.” But Jobe an
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI. THE SERMON.
CHAPTER XXI. THE SERMON.
I GUESS Jobe and me are goners. Jobe is nearly broken-hearted, and I feel kind a faint like. We will have to go to hell. Our preacher says so. Last Sunday Jobe wanted me to go to meetin. I said Ide go. So I jist put on that hat I got from Jane Summers, and the blue cambric dress I have wore now for some three years, and we hitched poor old crippled Tom to the spring wagon and we went. We tied Tom under a shade tree jist outside of town and walked in. They was singin when we got there. As we walk
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXII. JOBE HELPING TO RAISE THE OFFICERS’ SALARIES.
CHAPTER XXII. JOBE HELPING TO RAISE THE OFFICERS’ SALARIES.
JOBE has been a helpin Hen Minick cut wheat and harvest for a week past, and the poor man has big blisters in his hand and cracks and sores on his fingers that jist keep me busy a pickin and a salvin and a doctorin. And he is that stiff he can hardly walk. He has been workin to git money to pay taxes with. When he got done Hen told him he would have to wait till arter thrashin time for the $7.50 he owes him for helpin. Jobe told him he would have to have it right away, as his taxes was past due,
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIII. PLAN TO RELIEVE THE RICH OF AN EXPENSE.
CHAPTER XXIII. PLAN TO RELIEVE THE RICH OF AN EXPENSE.
ON the fust page of last Tuesday’s Plain Dealer there is a article that has caused me to have a great deal of thought. It is about Captain Fred W. Lawrence of Company B, of the Standin Army of Ohio, a writin to the coal operators, and railroad officers, and monopolists, and bankers, and rich speculators of Cleveland, askin them to give somethin toward supportin said army. He says he wants to git “good men in the militia—men who can be depended on to do their duty in case of labor trouble .” Now,
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIV. THEM PROMISES.
CHAPTER XXIV. THEM PROMISES.
JOBE took what hay he could spare to town yisterday and sold it to Billot, the miller. He dident git any money. He took Billot’s note, due ten days before our semi-annual interest falls due on our mortgage. Jobe says he would rather have Billot’s note than the money. He says it haint in style to pay cash durin a gold basis. “Jobe took what hay he could spare.” Our hay crop wasent nothin to brag on this year. We got $19 worth of hay off from five acres of medder, and a little doodle for old Tom.
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXV. JOBE EXCITED OVER A NOMINATION.
CHAPTER XXV. JOBE EXCITED OVER A NOMINATION.
THIS mornin while I was settin a churnin and thinkin, thinkin how high the monopoly men and the money-lenders and the officeholders live, and how low the farmers and mechanics and day laborers live, and wonderin why some live high and some low, Jobe come a stormin in at the kitchen door, so suddint like that it skeert me. Says he: “Betsy, give me my overhalls, quick, and put up that churnin and come out and help me build a higher fence around the medder.” And while he was a sayin it he was a jer
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXVI. THE BLOOMERS.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE BLOOMERS.
I MADE me a pair of Dimicratic bloomers day before yisterday, and Jobe he is mad. Ive been a waitin to make me a pair all summer, but put off doin so till arter the Dimicratic State convention. As soon as I heerd from that convention I sot to work and made them. I made one leg and the waist out of a pair of Jobe’s old black pants, and the other leg I made out of a sheet. The black leg is to represent the polerticians and schemers what wants a “gold basis,” and the white leg is for the Dimicratic
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXVII. “THEM POPULISTS.”
CHAPTER XXVII. “THEM POPULISTS.”
IME in trouble. Them Dimicratic bloomers seem bound to split asunder, or worse. Some days there is only a stitch or two breaks out; other days they rip half the length of my arm. Every time I think of the high interest we are payin and have been a payin for these many years, of the number of times we have changed officers from Dimicrats to Republicans, then from Republicans to Dimicrats, back and forth, time and agin, without any change except for the worse—every time that I think in all these y
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXVIII. TROUBLE WITH BILLOT.
CHAPTER XXVIII. TROUBLE WITH BILLOT.
THERE may be hopes of my bloomers survivin the election, but I tell you it takes stitchin and soin to do it. That State platform ort a been like the county platform, or else the county platform like the State. Then my bloomers would a been all alike—both legs made of the same kind of stuff—and wouldent a needed this whippin and stitchin and soin. Jobe is in a fix agin. Our interest falls due the 20th of October, and you remember it is payable in gold. “Billot jist laffed at him.” Well, what do y
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIX. “INFORCIN THE LAW AGIN BILLOT.”
CHAPTER XXIX. “INFORCIN THE LAW AGIN BILLOT.”
WHEN we got to the trial, on Monday, we found our witnesses and the witnesses and lawyers of Billot a talkin, and a laffin, and a whisperin together. They seemed to have some deep subject which Dimicrats and Republicans were both in earnest about. So I told Jobe to git around among them and listen, and see if they wasent layin some plan to gain the lawsuit for Billot. Soon arter Jobe he come in a smilin and said: “They haint a talkin about the lawsuit at all; they are jist talkin together how to
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXX. BETSY DISCUSSES “FIAT” MONEY.
CHAPTER XXX. BETSY DISCUSSES “FIAT” MONEY.
LAST Sunday, arter I got my dinner dishes washed up and the kitchen swept, I went out in the front yard where Jobe was. I found him a settin at the foot of the big apple tree, sound asleep. He had took the noosepaper with him and sot down there to read why it is better to borrow money from Urope than to make it ourselves, and had went to sleep over it. Besides he had been out all the nite before to a big Republican rally and had carried a banner sayin: And the poor man had to tramp three or four
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXI. JOBE BLOWS A FISH-HORN.
CHAPTER XXXI. JOBE BLOWS A FISH-HORN.
JOBE has been so busy tryin to git Mr. Bushnell, the millionair, elected governor, that he forgot about his interest bein due at the bank. He stayed to town the nite of the election till the chickens were crowin for daylite. It was nearly mornin when I heerd the patriotic sounds of the fish-horn. I got up and looked out of the winder, and there was Jobe a comin up the lane, with his breadbasket stuck out and his head throwed back, blowin that fish-horn as though his life depended on it, and ever
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXII. AT COURT AGAIN.
CHAPTER XXXII. AT COURT AGAIN.
THE lawsuit to foreclose us out of our home is bein tried to-day. We borrowed Ike Hill’s gray mare and driv to town airly, and found the lawyers hangin around like buzzards waitin for the arrival of a dead beast. They begin to meet us and shake hands from the time we hitched in front of Urfer’s big dry-goods store until we got clear inside the fence that surrounds the judge’s seat and divides the high-toned cattle from the low-toned breed. They all wanted to know if we had “ingaged counsel.” Whe
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXIII. JUDGMENT RENDERED.
CHAPTER XXXIII. JUDGMENT RENDERED.
THE lawsuit is over. The decidin is done, and we are foreclosed. My heart has been so heavy and Ive been so troubled that I jist couldent set down and write a letter with any sense to it till to-day. You dont know how bad it makes a body feel to know the place you have looked on and loved as home is a gittin away from you—slippin from under you, as it were. Everything seems to change. Jobe, poor man, he jist sets and studies. Well, that day at court, arter dinner, the judge come in, took his sea
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXIV. THE LITTLE WHITE ROSE-BUSH.
CHAPTER XXXIV. THE LITTLE WHITE ROSE-BUSH.
WHEN Ike Miller brought Jobe’s paper, the Advercate , to us day before yisterday, the fust thing my eyes fell on was: “SHERIFF’S SALE.—Isaac Vinting, plaintiff, vs. Jobe Gaskins, defendant.” I tried to look away from it, but, all I could do, I couldent git my eyes off from them lines. I turned the paper over, but it jist seemed to me that I could see them words all over that paper. I never had anything make me feel so queer in all my life. My head seemed to be goin round and round, and I coulden
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXV. JOBE TALKS OF THINGS THAT ARE GONE.
CHAPTER XXXV. JOBE TALKS OF THINGS THAT ARE GONE.
JOBE is down sick with “brain fever and nervous prostration.” The doctor says it all come from his worryin over bein foreclosed. Jobe jist lays and moans and talks to hisself. He is out of his head most of the time. “Jobe jist lays and moans.” Last nite he thought he had Betty, our drivin mare, back (the one we parted with last spring to git money to pay interest to Congressman Richer). He thought our little Jane was livin agin, and he was holdin her on Betty’s back, a lettin her ride. “I have t
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXVI. BILL BOWERS IS ON THE FENCE.
CHAPTER XXXVI. BILL BOWERS IS ON THE FENCE.
JOBE is able to be up. We have been foreclosed, and ex-Congressman Richer has the farm back. We have a notice in writin to vacate these premises on or before the first day of March. Jobe bein sick, neither of us was to town the day our old home was sold by the sheriff. I felt bad all that day—felt jist like somethin awful was about to happen. Jobe seemed weaker and more restless than usual. Bill Bowers rode by our place in the evenin, stopped at the gate and hollered. I went to the door, hopin a
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXVII. BETSY FAINTS. A VISION.
CHAPTER XXXVII. BETSY FAINTS. A VISION.
THE other day ex-Congressman Richer’s lawyer brought a man out to look at the farm. They driv into the gate, out through the bars back of the barn, across fust one field then another, the lawyer a pintin and layin it off, the feller a lookin and noddin his head. Arter a while they come back and come up into the yard, the lawyer still a pintin, the feller still a lookin and noddin. I heerd the lawyer say: “We want you to clear this all up. Clear away these bushes, and sow the yard down in lawn gr
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE PARTING.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE PARTING.
JOBE is gone. Last Monday morning bright and airly he started for Lorain to find work. He had hunted and hunted far and near, high and low, around here for work, but couldent find any. Some one told him there was lots of work at Lorain, and poor Jobe decided he would go there. He only had $2.95. He said he would take the railroad to Medina and walk the rest of the way. Ile never forgit the mornin he left. We sot up late the nite before, talkin. We talked over our whole lives—about when we were f
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXIX. THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER.
CHAPTER XXXIX. THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER.
MY heart is so broke that I hardly know how to rite. This is March 3d, and yisterday arternoon they put me out. I had about give up their comin, and was tryin to feel better, when all of a suddint I heerd a knock at the door. I opened it, and there stood three strange men. Said the one who acted as leader: “Is this where the Gaskinses live?” Says I: “One of them is stayin here, and the Lord only knows where the other one is.” “I am a deputy sheriff,” says he, “and have orders to set you out.” Sa
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XL. “THEM ROOMS.” THE “DIRECTOR OF CHARITIES.”
CHAPTER XL. “THEM ROOMS.” THE “DIRECTOR OF CHARITIES.”
THAT mornin arter I wrote you the last time—arter I had built me a fire in my stove and got my breakfast and washed up my dishes and made my bed—I sot down on a chair out there by the big road. I never felt so queer in all my life. Not a sound could be heard, except over on the hill near Jake Stiffler’s I could heer a cow a bawlin. It was awful lonesome. No one to speak to, nothin to look at, except my things piled up there beside the road. I couldent help thinkin of poor Jobe—his beggin, and be
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XLI. A SORE HAND.
CHAPTER XLI. A SORE HAND.
I AM sick. I have been sick since day before yisterday. I have a high fever. My head bothers me. I cant rite. Here is another letter I got from poor Jobe. Oh! how I wish he was here. I know he would care for me and watch over me and do for me while Ime sick. Read his letter and return it. They seem so near to me. I havent been able to be out of bed much to-day. If Jobe was only out of that dreadful place. To Betsy Gaskins. Dear Wife :—I got your letter yisterday. I cant tell you how I felt when
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XLII. HATTIE MOORE.
CHAPTER XLII. HATTIE MOORE.
MR. EDITOR:—My name is Hattie Moore. My age is seventeen. My father was a soldier. My mother is a widow. I was betrayed by one of the leading city officials, and while he to-day is performing the duty and drawing the salary of an office of trust and honor, his child and I, its girl mother, are inmates of this poor-house. I write to let you know about Betsy Gaskins. They brought her here yesterday. She is very sick. She is delirious and talks a great deal in her sleep, about somebody by the name
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XLIII. A FAMILY REUNION.
CHAPTER XLIII. A FAMILY REUNION.
MR. EDITOR:—Your letter asking more about Betsy Gaskins received. I will tell you all I know. Whether Betsy Gaskins is living or dead I cannot say, and I never will know, though what I do know I never can forget. The strange things I have seen since I last wrote you are mysteries that can only be guessed at; they cannot be solved. Betsy had been growing worse every day till the night of that terrible storm. The rain and sleet and snow, the wind and hail, made it one of the most dismal nights I e
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XLIV. AFTER THE WOE, THEN COMES THE LAW.
CHAPTER XLIV. AFTER THE WOE, THEN COMES THE LAW.
BETSY GASKINS’ sad history and the terrible fate of poor Jobe—for he it was whose body was found on the cinder-pile—caused great excitement, not only in Tuscarawas County, but throughout Ohio, and even in many other sections of the country. One Chicago paper devoted a whole column to portraying the awfulness of turning an old man from a friendly shelter on such a cruel night as the one when Jobe Gaskins froze to death. Other papers in different parts of the Union expatiated on the hardships of t
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
I. THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION.
I. THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.”— Exodus 14:15. THE purpose of the following pages is to present in compact form a series of articles on money and kindred subjects from the point of view of one who, realizing that a world-wide economic revolution is imminent, hopes that this revolution will be accomplished by reason and in peace, not by treason and violence—by book and ballot, not by bullet and bayonet. It is not inten
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY.
II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY.
“The American people must learn the lesson of money or they are lost.” THE word “money” is derived from the Latin moneta (from moneo , to warn), meaning “warned” or “admonished.” Moneta was a surname for Juno, because she was believed to have warned the Romans by means of an earthquake to offer sacrifice. In the temple of Juno Moneta coins were made; hence moneta , meaning either a mint, or coin, or coined money. The English word “money” is defined by Webster as “any currency usually and lawfull
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
III. A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY.
III. A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY.
“I am astonished at nothing in our business life so much as the absence of an earnest, determined endeavor on the part of our men of brains to find the cause of these chronic crises and hard times and then set upon the track of some remedy therefor.”— Rev. Heber Newton. WHAT may well be called the American system of money has been gradually evolved, during three hundred years, from the bitter experiences of the most practical people that ever trod this globe. Franklin, Jefferson, Jackson, Calhou
53 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IV. THE EIGHT MONEY CONSPIRACIES.
IV. THE EIGHT MONEY CONSPIRACIES.
“When I stand in the United States Treasury, I stand on English soil.”— Nathaniel P. Banks. “HUGH McCULLOCH hamstrung the whole nation. His management of the finances, while it enriched him and made him a great London banker, has cost the American people more than the war did.” These words were uttered by Hon. William D. Kelley, and they are true as gospel. They would be equally true if the name of John Sherman were substituted for that of Hugh McCulloch. That the constant aim and object of the
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
V. FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES.
V. FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES.
“Above all things good policy is to be used, that the treasures and money of the state be not gathered into a few hands; for, otherwise, a state may have great stock and yet starve. And money is like muck, not good unless spread. This is done by suppressing, or at least keeping a strait hand upon the devouring trade of usury, engrossing, great pasturages and the like.”— Bacon. THE following is a carefully prepared collection of quotations from the writings and speeches of eminent statesmen, juri
38 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VI. INTEREST AND USURY.
VI. INTEREST AND USURY.
“It is against nature for money to breed money.”— Bacon. THE great Napoleon said, after studying a set of compound interest tables: “There is one thing to my mind more wonderful than all the rest, and that is, that the deadly fact buried in these tables has not before this devoured the whole world.” The ethical sense of mankind saw at an early day the wrong of usury. The Mosaic law was very explicit on the subject. Cicero mentions that Cato, being asked what he thought of usury, made no other an
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VIII. THE LAWS OF PROPERTY.
VIII. THE LAWS OF PROPERTY.
“Property, or the dominion of man over external objects, has its origin from the Creator, as his gift to mankind.”— Blackstone (Dunlap’s Manual of the General Principles of Law). IT is chiefly the laws of property which have enabled the few to accumulate vast wealth while the masses live in poverty. For many generations our laws have been framed with a view to the claims of property rather than the rights of man. For ages the money power has controlled legislation the world over, and, I am sorry
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IX. DIRECT LEGISLATION.
IX. DIRECT LEGISLATION.
“No people can be self-governing who are denied the right to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on every law by which they are to be governed.”— Eltweed Pomeroy. THE Initiative gives the people the power to compel the legislature to put in form all such laws as they may initiate or demand by a preliminary vote. The Referendum gives the people the power to reject or ratify any legislation enacted by the legislature. All legislative enactments to be referred to the people for their ratification by vote before the
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter