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Transcriber’s Note:
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
There are two footnotes, which have been moved to directly follow the
paragraphs in which they are referenced.
The full page drawings are also moved to avoid falling in mid-paragaph.
The pagination in the list of illustrations refers to their original
positions. They appear in this version as [Illustration: <caption>]
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please
see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding
the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
Betsy Gaskins
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[Illustration: “THAT EVERY STAR WAS AN EYE LOOKING DOWN ON ME WITH
PITY.” (CHAPTER XXXVIII.)]
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==BETSY GASKINS== (Dimicrat), Wife of Jobe Gaskins (Republican)
[decoration] Or, Uncle Tom’s Cabin Up to Date [decoration]
[Illustration]
By....
W. I. HOOD
[Illustration]
With Illustrations
from Original Drawings
by C. B. FALLS
And an Appendix
Edited by K. L.
ARMSTRONG
[Illustration]
CHICAGO:
THE WABASH PUBLISHING HOUSE
No. 324 Dearborn Street
COPYRIGHT, 1897,
BY W. I. HOOD.
_All rights reserved._
NOTICE.—The illustrations in this work are engraved from original
drawings from life, and their reproduction, except by special permission
from the publishers, is prohibited.
[Illustration: BETSY GASKINS.]
[Illustration: JOBE GASKINS.]
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PREFACE.
THIS book is written for a purpose. It is founded upon actual
occurrences. Betsy and Jobe Gaskins are characters well known to you, if
you will but reflect upon events coming under your own observation
within the past few years.
The author claims no inspiration or gift of genius. This is only a
simple statement of facts deserving the consideration of every
intelligent human being. While you read these pages, if you will permit
your intelligence to assert itself over your prejudices, and if finally
you will do that which the nobler instincts of man prompt you to do
toward bringing about a better condition of things under the government
of which you are a part, the author will be fully repaid for his labor.
He asks you only to keep in mind at all times that Jobe Gaskins is your
brother; that Betsy Gaskins is your sister.
W. I. HOOD.
_New Philadelphia, Ohio, April 24, 1897._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“GOD, by giving to man wants and making his recourse to work necessary
to supply them, has made the right to work the property of every man;
and this property is the first, the most sacred, the most
imprescriptible of all.”—_Turgot._
[Illustration]
“THE right to work is the right to worship. The clink of the anvil and
the hum of the harvest field, the music of the poet and the meditations
of the inventor are chords in the anthem of creation.”—_Henry D. Lloyd._
CONTENTS.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER Page
I. Jobe Sets and Studies 15
II. An Argument on the Money Question 22
III. Jobe Sleeps in the Spare Bed. The Dream 27
IV. “The Comers” 38
V. Jobe Must Raise $2,100 43
VI. Betty, the Drivin’ Animal 49
VII. They Drive Old Tom 53
VIII. Another Letter from Richer 61
IX. A Few Reasons by Betsy 65
X. Is there a Woman in the Barn 69
XI. “In Town” 73
XII. The Decision 78
XIII. Jobe Cheers Up 84
XIV. A New Mortgage 89
XV. Jobe, Out of Trouble, is Unruly Again 93
XVI. Jobe is Scared 97
XVII. Jobe Sleeps in the Barn? 104
XVIII. The Spittoons 111
XIX. A Big-headed Man 118
XX. Bonds Sell Well 121
XXI. The Sermon 124
XXII. Jobe Working to Raise the Officers’ Salaries 128
XXIII. Plan to Relieve the Rich of an Expense 132
XXIV. Them Promises 138
XXV. Jobe Excited Over a Nomination 141
XXVI. The Bloomers 145
XXVII. “Them Populists.” 149
XXVIII. Trouble with Billot 155
XXIX. “Inforcin the Law agin Billot” 158
XXX. Betsy Discusses “Fiat” Money 166
XXXI. Jobe Blows a Fish-horn 180
XXXII. At Court Again 185
XXXIII. Judgment Rendered 189
XXXIV. The Little White Rose-bush 195
XXXV. Jobe Talks of Things that Are Gone 200
XXXVI. Bill Bowers on the Fence 202
XXXVII. Betsy Faints. A Vision 207
XXXVIII. The Parting 211
XXXIX. The Preacher and the Saloonkeeper 216
XL. Them Rooms. The Director of Charities 228
XLI. A Sore Hand 235
XLII. Hattie Moore 244
XLIII. A Family Reunion 249
XLIV. After the Woe, then Comes the Law 256
[Illustration]
PART II.
I. The Impending Revolution 277
II. The Philosophy of Money 283
III. A Bird’s-eye View of American Financial History 307
IV. The Eight Money Conspiracies 345
V. Financial Authorities 352
VI. Interest and Usury 380
VII. Debt and Slavery 387
VIII. The Laws of Property 393
IX. Direct Legislation 401
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
[Illustration]
1. “That every star was an eye looking down (Frontispiece.)
on me with pity.”
2. Character title.
PAGE
3. Betsy Gaskins 7
4. Initial T 11
5. Jobe Gaskins 13
6. Initial M 15
7. “We both hankered” 17
8. “I did git him started to readin” 19
9. “That canderdate feller” 20
10. Tailpiece 21
11. “Me a knittin, him a settin and studyin” 23
12. “‘Talkin like them blame Populists’” 26
13. “I waked not until broad daylite” 28
14. “‘Feedin-feedin, of course,’ says he” 29
15. “‘Do you promis?’ says I, girlish like” 30
16. “I sot down, lookin him square in the 31
face”
17. Bill Bowers 32
18. Ornamental tailpiece 37
19. “‘Ide vote the Dimicrat ticket at the 39
very next township election’”
20. “They waked me up at the dead hour of 41
midnite”
21. “That very sheet of paper” 45
22. Congressman Richer 46
23. “Jobe works and sweats” 47
24. Ornamental tailpiece 48
25. “Jobe and me both sot down and cried” 50
26. “Started for town bright and airly” 54
27. “Jobe and me counted up how much we had” 57
28. “That nite I put another patch on his 62
pants”
29. “He explained to Mr. Jones” 63
30. Ornamental tailpiece 64
31. Ornamental tailpiece 68
32. “Peekin through a crack” 70
33. “Jist a layin it off with his hands” 71
34. “‘Mistur Court, Gaskins is here’” 74
35. “‘I ’bject’” 76
36. “‘I want to prove to you, Mistur Judge’” 79
37. “‘This is the law, whether it is justice 81
or not’”
38. “Jobe and me sot there dazed like” 82
39. Aunt Jane 84
40. “He would call him ‘Billy,’ in honor of 85
the next president”
41. “Before Jobe could git up, William hit 86
him agin”
42. Ornamental tailpiece 88
43. “He would rather pay seven per cent. 90
than six, in order to support a sound
money basis”
44. “‘Law or no law,’ says I” 91
45. “‘Payin it in gold to keep your party in 92
power is up-hill bizness’”
46. “‘John Sherman is the greatest financier 95
on airth’”
47. Ornamental tailpiece 96
48. “‘Now, Betsy, you see what kind of a 98
party you belong to’”
49. “So I went to work and cut out the 100
headin”
50. “‘It is all over, Betsy,’ says he” 101
51. “That nite he slept in the barn” 103
52. “‘Jobe Gaskins, you make another move!’” 105
53. “‘Are you mad, Betsy?’ says he” 108
54. “Jobe was on his knees in the middle of 113
the bed”
55. “A strait, influential, leadin 115
Republican officeholder”
56. “Lots of fellers jist like him” 116
57. “Jobe he flew up” 119
58. “It wasent anything onusual for a county 120
officer to make all he could”
59. “‘Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so 121
long as bonds sell well?’”
60. “‘Times are never hard under a gold 122
basis,’ Jobe says”
61. “They whispered and snickered at my 125
straw hat and Jobe’s linen coat”
62. “He said the rich all belong to church” 126
63. Harvesting 129
64. “I was puttin salve on Jobe’s hands” 130
65. The hand that voted “the strait ticket” 131
66. “Some good men in case of labor trouble” 133
67. “Some of the little children are pretty” 136
68. “Jobe took what hay he could spare” 138
69. “They are kept so busy legislatin” 139
70. “A huntin them overhalls” 142
71. “I had sot down and went to churnin” 143
72. “The Dimicratic bloomers” 146
73. “‘Hello, mistur’” 147
74. “‘We ketch em a comin and we ketch em a 148
goin’”
75. “I seen him a comin up the lane” 151
76. “The fust time for nigh onto twenty 153
years”
77. “Billot jist laughed at him” 155
78. “Jobe he got mad and called Billot a 156
Populist”
79. Ornamental tailpiece—sunset 157
80. “Lawyers a talkin and a laffin” 159
81. “‘Mistur Moore, how long has it been 161
since you quit advocatin the use of
good, old-fashioned greenbacks?’”
82. “‘Lawyer—Dimicratic lawyer and 164
polertician’”
83. “He carried a banner” 167
84. “I got a straw and tickled his nose” 171
85. Ornamental tailpiece 179
86. “It was nearly mornin when I heerd the 181
patriotic sounds of the fish-horn”
87. “He looked kind a pale” 182
88. “‘Give us a tune, Jobe’” 183
89. “‘This is not accordin to contract’” 184
90. “We hitched in front of Urfer’s big dry 186
goods store”
91. “‘Ready’” 187
92. “‘I am a banker, sir, a banker‘” 190
93. “He made sich a fine argament for gold 193
and agin other money”
94. Little Jane 196
95. “I could nearly see her little dimpled 197
fingers pattin the airth around the
roots of that little bush”
96. “‘Mamma, ... how pritty!’” 198
97. Ornamental tailpiece 199
98. “Jobe jist lays and moans” 200
99. “I have to chop all the wood” 201
100. “‘Out with it, Bill; we are prepared for 203
the wust’”
101. “‘Ile tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my 205
mind to try them Populists hereafter’”
102. “‘O, Lord, is there no other way to 209
do?’”
103. “He drawed me over in his arms and 212
kissed me”
104. “He was wipin his eyes and blowin his 213
nose as he went towards town”
105. “Then sot down and cried and kept a 214
cryin every little bit all mornin”
106. “They pulled me away from the winder” 218
107. “At all the gates around the big fence 221
they had signs stuck up”
108. “I asked him for something to eat” 222
109. “‘Well, old man, sich things hadent ort 225
to be’”
110. “I slipped over and put my face agin the 229
glass”
111. “The feller turned around and looked 233
black at me”
112. “I have to work hard in this place” 236
113. “One nice little place that I thought I 239
would rent as soon as I got my first
week’s pay”
114. “I worked there three weeks” 241
115. “Everything was cold and dark” 242
116. Initial M—Hattie Moore 244
117. “He teched me on the shoulder” 247
118. “I got onto a freight train” 248
119. “Pushing back the hair of the sick 250
woman, leaned over and kissed her on
the forehead”
120. “There lay Mrs. Gaskins” 252
121. “There again was the face of that little 253
girl and the face of an old man”
122. “In the morning there was found a 254
white-haired man”
123. Tailpiece—the rose-bush on the grave 255
124. Initial B—the editor 256
125. “Behold! See that money!” 265
127. The world’s oppressor 274
Betsy Gaskins (DIMICRAT).
--------------
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 “Dimicrat dide in the wool.”
And I must say I hankered arter Jobe, though I knode he was a rank
Republican. On that one pint we agreed: we both hankered.
Well, the time come when Jobe and me decided to lay aside our perlitical
feelins and git married.
This our folks opposed, but we “slid out” one day, and the preacher
united the two old parties, as far as Jobe and me was concerned, though
I was still a Dimicrat, and Jobe he was still a Republican.
Like the two great perlitical parties at Washington, when they want to
make a law to suit Wall Street, Jobe and me decided to pull together on
the question of gittin married.
We have lived together for nigh onto thirty-five years, and durin all
that time Jobe has let me be a Dimicrat, and Ive let him be a
Republican. It has never caused any family disturbance nor never will,
so long as I be a Dimicrat and let Jobe be a Republican.
We have no children livin. Our little Jane was taken from us just arter
her seventh birthday. Since then we have been left alone together, jist
as we was before little Jane was born. It is awful lonesome, and as we
grow older, lonesomer it gits. Sometimes, when I git my work all done
and have nothin to okepy my mind, I git that lonesome, I hardly know
what to do. Of late years I read a great deal to pass away the time.
Jobe he hardly ever reads any, not because he cant,—Jobe is a good
reader,—but it seems the poor man works so hard, and has so much to
trouble him, that he would jist rather set and study than to read.
When he gits his day’s work done and his feedin, and waterin, and
choppin of wood, he jist seems to enjoy settin and studyin.
I hardly ever disturb him when he is at it. I jist set and read or set
and knit, as the case may be, and let Jobe set and study.
I _did_ git him started to readin a couple of years back. I had signed
for a paper that said a good deal about the Alliance and the Grange and
sich, and Jobe he read it every week, and got so interested that he
would talk on the things he read about to me and to the neighbors. He
got nearly over his settin and studyin and seemed in better spirits so
long as he kept a readin of that paper. But one day a feller, who was a
Republican canderdate for a county office, came to our house for dinner
(they allers make it here about dinner-time, them canderdate fellers
do).
[Illustration: “WE BOTH HANKERED.”]
Well, arter dinner, Jobe and that feller went into the front room, and
the feller gin Jobe a segar (a regular five-center, Jobe said), and then
they set and smoked, smoked and talked, talked about the prospect of
their party carryin the county, the feller doin all the talkin, until at
last Jobe told him that he “had been readin some of the principles of
the People’s party and liked em purty well.”
The feller reared back, opened his eyes, looked at Jobe from head to
foot, and then indignant like says, says he to Jobe:
“I am astonished!—astonished to think that Jobe Gaskins, one of the most
intelligent, most prominent and influential Republicans in this
township, should read sich trash, much less indorse it.”
And from that day to this Jobe Gaskins, my dear husband, has quit his
readin and gone back to his settin and studyin.
His party principles was teched. The argament of that canderdate feller
was unanswerable; it sunk deep into Jobe’s boozim, and from the time
that that feller thanked Jobe for his dinner and hoss feed, and invited
Jobe and me both to come into his office and see him, if he was elected,
to this writin, I have not had the pleasure of talkin with my husband as
before.
[Illustration: “I did git him started to readin.”]
That feller robbed me of all the bliss I enjoyed of havin my pardner in
life to talk with of evenins. And all I got for bein thus robbed, and
for the dinner and hoss feed he et, was a invitation to see him okepy
the high position of county officer—as though that would pay for vittles
or satisfy an achin void, caused by him a turnin Jobe from his readin to
his settin and studyin. What good would it do me to see him okepyin a
county office and drawin of a big salary? Yes, drawin of a big salary
that poor Jobe has to work his lites out of him to help pay. All that
there canderdate feller cares for Jobe remainin to be a Republican is so
that he, and sich fellers like him, will continer to vote for him and
his likes, and pay the high taxes out of which they git their big
salaries. What do they care for poor old Jobe Gaskins, whether he be a
Republican or a Dimicrat or a Populist or one of them wild Anacrists, if
it were not that he had a vote and they want to keep him in line? What
keer they what papers he reads, or how quick he changes his polerticks,
if they dident want to git office and draw a big salary?
[Illustration: “That canderdate feller.”]
Say anything to Jobe about this and he will flare up and tell you he
“doesent intend to lose the respect of all the leadin men in the county
by changing his perlitical views.”
He dont stop to ask hisself, “Who is the leadin men?” He dont stop to
ask hisself how much taxes and interest and sich he contributes to make
them the leadin men. Contributes it to support them and their families
in style sich as becomes leadin people.
Yes, to support their families, I said, so that their wives and their
girls can wear fine silks and satins, while I must git along with a
brown caliker or gray cambric dress at best.
Jobe and his likes earns the money by the sweat of their brows, and them
canderdate fellers and their likes spends it in high livin and makin
theirselves leadin citizens. And then they are astonished to hear of one
of their regular voters a readin anything that says that sich men as
Jobe Gaskins and his wife Betsy, if you please, are jist as respectable,
jist as leadin citizens, as any county officer or polertician and their
wives. Yes, it astonishes them to hear of his readin a paper that says
that the farmers have jist as intelligent, honest and patriotic people
among them as the leadin citizens have. Now I read sich “trash,” as the
canderdate feller calls it, and I dont keer who knows it, though Ime a
Dimicrat. But as it is gittin late and milkin time is here, I will
close, promisin you more anon, as it were.
BETSY GASKINS (Dimicrat),
Wife of
JOBE GASKINS (Republican).
[Illustration]