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TEXAS PICNICS. How.the People’s Party Carries Every thing Before It. Brownwood cor. St. Louis Globe-Dem ocrat. By-the-bye there is much that is unique in Texas politics this year. And one of the most cuiious things is the Third party picnic. Perhaps twenty-five of these picnics have been held. As many more are an nounced. The idea is a new one to this generation. It is very taking. A couple of years ago the fertile brain of Congressman Dockery, of Missouri, originated what were call ed tariff reform picnics in his State. But the Dockery picnic was not to be compared with the Third party picnic of Texas. Judge Nugent, the candidate of the party for govern or, is an analyzer of popular move ments. He says there has been nothing in later days like these pic nics, when Andrew Jackson ran, and again, when William Henry Harri son was a candidate, similar gather ings took place. There has been no renewal of this campaign feature since those times until now. The third party picnic is the old fashioned camp meeting in politics. It never lasts less than three days. Some of the picnics have been pro longed six days. It isn’t necessary to have railroad connections, excur sion trains and reduced rates to make a third party picnic. Several of the most successful have been held miles out of hearing of the iron horse. The conditions of success are timely notice, good water and abundant shade. The cause does the rest. The T exas farmer puts his wife and children into a big wagon and journeys twenty, fifty and a hundred miles to one of these picnics. With plenty of fried chicken and corn bread for the inner man and feed for the inner horse, he sets out for a good time and he has it. These picnics are under the con trol of the Third party committees. The grounds are policed by volun teers. All the privileges—the mer ry-go-rounds, the lemonade and pop stands, the booths of various kinds— are retained by the committees. The profits, which are often considerable, go into the party treasury. Thus the picnic serves a double purpose. It disseminates the enthusiasm, not to say principles, of the party. It raises the revenue with which the party machinery is maintained. Those who have never seen one of these Texas political picnics will find it dificult to believe the esti mates of numbers attending. There have been several of the picnics where the crowd and camp spread over many acres, and where it seemed as if there must be ten thousand persons, as claimed by the leaders. Barely does the number fall below two thousand. Social in tercourse, visiting of relatives, games, and more or less love-making are attendant features. But three times a day the crowd gathers where the platform has been erected and cov ered with green boughs. There the songs are sung and the speeches are spoken. At every speech there is a song. The volume of sound is tremendous. There is something very familiar in the strains. A quarter of a mile away one can hear the grand old “Coronation.” But coming nearer you discover that the words have been changed to — All hail the power of laboring men. Perhaps the next tune is “The Campbells Are Coming,” but the new words are “The Farmers Are Com ing.” And so it goes. The Third party has pressed into service hymnal and song books, but its writers have played havoc with the old words. Occasionally the pic-nic is seized with a singing fit, and for an hour the orators give way. Some of the songs are so arranged that they can be strung out almost indefinitely. There is one which starts off like this: We'll vote for J. B. Weaver Early in the morning. We’ll vote for J. B. Weaver Early in the morning. We’ll vote for J. B. Weaver Early in the morning, In the fall of ninety-two. The chorus to this runs as follows Oh, Demmies, don’t you hear the cry ? Oh, Republicans, you may heave a sigh; Oh’ people, don’t you pass us by, In the fall of ninety-two. The next stanza runs; We’ll vote for James G. Field Early in the morning. This is repeated three times, and then comes the third stanza, with only this variation : We’ll vote for T. L. Nugent Early in the morning. In a similar way the third party truly affirms its intention to vote for Marion Martin, the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, for “ Evan Jones of Dublin,” for “Clark of Huckaby,” and for everybody else who is a candidate for anything on the ticket. The picnic oratory is entertaining. It beats Sam Jones and his brother Joe put together. The third party has no end of talkers. A farmer with knots on his hands, a stoop in his shoulders, subsoil furr Ows in his face and the color of an Arab, will climb on the platform and speak as if possessed of the gift. The oratory is homely, spontaneous and effective if enthusiasm is the measure. « What gets away, with me,” said one of those unknown and unnamed apostles of the new cause, “is to go to town and see the children of the national bankers and speculators rolled along the sidewalks in silver mounted baby buggies, and then ride PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1892. home by the little farm of my neigh bor and see his poor, little, dirty brat kicking up his heels on an old ragged quilt spread under a persimmon bush, while its mother is out in the cotton patch digging her own grave in the crab-grass and cockle-burs. I tell you, these things are enough to rile any man.” The next speaker in the political “experience meeting” said: “We farmers have to sell everything we raise that’s fit to eat in order to buy clothes and other neccessaries, and we eat the refuse of our product that ought to be given to the hogs. All of the butter and eggs is sent to town. The best fruit and vegetables are sold. Every fat two-year-old steer is taken to the butcher. We who produce these things have to live on what other people won’t have. We live on the slops, you may say.” A single day’s programme of the Brownwood picnic may be interest ing : Song by choir. Speech by Hon. Thomas Gaines : “The land Question.” Five-minute speeches. Adjourn for dinner. Singing. Speech by Gov. Marion Martin; subject: “What is the Paramount Issue?” Song by choir- Speech by Mr. W. D. Gordon: “Reformation From a Historical Standpoint.” Music by the band. Speech by H. F. Jones; subject: “Democratic administrations in Texas.” Music by the band. The five minute speeches are the best of all. They bring out the old fellows who are full to the chin with natural Texas eloquence. A bright particular star in the third party galaxy is the Hon. John O’Byrne. Mr. O’Byrne is always in troduced at the picnics as the “wild Irishman of Upshur.” He has a. rich brogue, somewhat richer on than off the stump. With uproarous effect upon the farmer he tells the story of the two Irishmen who discussed finance during the time of the govern ment bond controversy: “Pat,” said one, “what does all this mane about the tin forties and siven thirties and five-twenties? Can you tell that?” “Av coorse I can,” said Pat “It manes that the poor man will have to get up at five twinty in the mornin’ and work till siven thirty in the even,’ so that the rich man can sleep till tin forty.” “Methodist Jim” Davis has a national reputation. He is known up north as “Cyclone” Davis, because of his whirl wind style of eloquence. “Methodist Jim” is not a parson, although he wears a long tailed black frock coat, swinging his arms and exhorts. Mr. Davis was a newspaper editor, and the fraternity bestowed upon him the name of “Methodist Jim” at one of the annual meetings of the Texas Press Association. He has read law, and is on the third party ticket for Attorney General. “The worst sight of social equality to be seen in this laud,” said the Cyclone at the Stephenville picnic, “is the sight of a sweet white girl hoeing cotton on one row and a big, burly negro in the next row. Talk of negro equality when your indus trial system forces a good woman’s precious Anglo-Saxon girl down on a level with a burly negro in a cotton row. Oh, my God 1 And that is in free America.” The third party has an “earth quake” as well as a cyclone orator. “Earthquake Jones, of Baird” is a good running mate for Cyclone Davis.” “When I marketed my crop of cotton just after the war, I got 28 cents,” ssid Mr. Jones. “I paid every debt, I paid my taxes, I laid in a year’s family supplies, I got Lizzie what dresses she needed, I bought myself a ten-gallon keg of good whisky, and drove home hitting only the high points in the head. Now I sell my cotton at six cents, pay my taxes, get no supplies, no dresses for Lizzie, but I sneak around and get a quart of mean whiskey on credit, start home, and hit the road in only one place, and that a hole called home and stay there growing cotton until next tax paying time. They say there is more money out of the United States treasury than ever in the country’s history. Grant it, but it is all piled up in the banks- Why? Because you have not got the security. There is no more community of interest between you and the national bankers than there is between heaven and h—ll.” A very bald headed man was in troduced at ore of the picnics as “an ordinary clod-hopper.” He came forward in his shirt sleeves and said : “I didn’t expect to make a speech, and I will not try to make a speech, but if there is a man that would be gladder to make a speech in this cause he will have to part his hair nearer tne middle. The democrats say ‘tariff reform,’ and the republicans say ‘reform the tariff.’ They remind me of a doctor in the early days of Texas. In those days sickness, was almost unkown in this state. Scien tific medicine was not only not need ed, but it was not here. The doctor had only two kinds of medicine. One "was called the ‘high pop-o lorum.’ The other was called the ‘low pop o-high-rum.’ Both came from the bark of the same kind of a tree. The only difference in them was that one was obtained by skin ing the tree downward and the other by skinning the tree upward. That is the way with the democratic and republican tariff tinkering. One skins the people downward; the other skins the beople upward.” To express their contempt for the party which some of them have but recently left, these third party peo ple can hardly find words. Prices—High or Low, Which ? In Congress and convention, in the press and on the stump, economic discussion presents a painful inferi ority and incoherence. In different portions of his argume'ht the disput ant will adopt now one and then the other of two antagonistic and mu tually destructive postulates of ele mentary doctrine. They proceed very like the professor of astronomy who, in expounding the planetary motions, adopted both the geocentric and heliocentric theory, according to the varying whims of his auditors. Observing how industrial progress is essentially a process of lessening cost of production, the advocate will justify bis pet policy by the claim that, under it, the consumer will be able to buy more cheaply. Witness ing, on the other hand, the distress, hardship and outcry at low and fall ing prices, the same expounder makes haste to explain how friendly his policy is to good prices for the producer. Now, since the consumer cannot buy low and the producer sell high at the same time, we must take one horn or the other of the dilemma. Economic discourse is but a vain beating of the air until we come to a definite and sound doctrine as to which, high or low prices, is on the whole beneficent. “Practical” men are too much dominated by the in terests, mental habits and biases of their special vocations to decide wisely here. In current discussion it is almost universally assumed that low and lowering prices are best, or at least are inevitable. The object of this paper is to show the radical error of that assumption, that the exact opposing is the true doctrine and that J and falling prices is an evil; and 'the test of merit in any proposed policy, so far as it aims to affect prices, is that it tends to restore and maintain good prices, and that (aside from merely local and special fluctuations from purely temporary causes) the general price range is directly amenable to legislative control. Against the absoluteness of my proposition, that low prices is an evil to be cured, it will be replied, “What, shall we have no more in ventions and improvements; must things be made only in the good old way? Is it not in the line of a genu ine industrial progress that products shall become plenty and cheap ? In short, does not that progress precisely consist in the increasing ease and lessening outlay, with which the things to satisfy the needs and gratify the growing desires of men, can be obtained?” Now, in all this bristling array of impeaching interrogatories there is no express issue taken with any thesis. They all call attention to the relation of the needy man on the one side and the commodities he needs on the other. But the reader is ex pected to interpret the desired cheap ness as a low price. The expecta tion will not be disappointed, for unless somewhat advanced in this learning he will be quite unable to comprehend how a thing may be cheap unless it bears a low price. Discourse upon value and value change is vain till we are informed what is intended by that word. Value in what—in relation to what— and how is the change to be ex pressed ? is the critical question. Man’s conquest over the elements and forces of nature is indeed a proud thing. The soil, the rocks, the forest, tbe sea or a machine have no dignity or right to remonstiate against being compelled to yield up more and more of their stores for less and less of human effort. Criti cal thinking will seggregate out from the gross and confused aggregate of relations the precise one under dis cussion. When w’e speak of price we have regard simply to the terms upon which a consumer shall obtain a product which another man has created. It is, indeed, a good thing to make two blades of grass grow where only one. grew before. But if the eco nomic conditions are such that the second blade is by force, fraud or “financiering” filched from him whose skill and industry made it grow, then higher questions than those pertain ing to agriculture press for consider ation. It is no longer a question of the efficiency of the energy and agencies of production. It then be comes a matter of social justice, and whether with increasing intelligence the worker, such conditions remain ing, will continue to grow the second blade. I know that it is often pretended that it is of no importance •whether tbe purchasing power of money be comes much or little, that money is merely a “scale of valuation” to ex press the bartering relations of com modities and that at bottom com merce is but barter. That is a gross and misenevious mistake. The anal ogy of the yardstick is essentially false and misleading. All of the large transactions and most of the small ones are motived in the antici pated change of price, i. e., the fluc tuate s in the “scale.” It is not claimed that in any other than in a large way and over con siderable periods -wherein special and temporary forces shall have blended into a grand aggregate of tendency, is it competent or de sirable that there should be mone tary legislation to cure the evil of low prices. Only when the general price range shall have fallen below a normal and one is there occasion for legislative interference. I will go furtier and affirm that the highest price! that may have been achieved and maintained under long established money definitions is the one to be restored. True, things are produced to be consumed. That is their motive and end. But in order to that, they must be reduced to definite units and then priced and sold. In the pricing process is involved the vital and tragic issues of our social life. Rise and fall of prices of particu lar things and their constantly vary ing value relations with each other is only nature’s way of directing and re-distributing the productive energy. Such changes are therefore normal and beneficient. But for prices to fall all along the line is" an evil, and sometimes a crime, for it may be the intended effect of legislation. It will all depend upon the legal constituton of the pricing instrument. That instrument should be so constituted as that discovery and improved pro cess may be free to cheapen primary money pari passu with the cheapen ing of all other things. By that means a stable exchanging rate be tween money on the one side and the aggregate of commodities on the other will be secured. Stable prices and constancy in the value of money are but two sides of the same fact. My argument here wij be wasted and my words will return to me void unless the reader shall get a firm grasp of that proposition. To talk of constancy and stability in the value of money with no reference to market reports is the emptiest of all discourse. My mam thesis is,, no novelty of economic doctrine—no crotchet ex cogitated from the brain of a wild eyed “reformer,” and trotted out as a specific for a particular economic situation. It is the doctrine of all the great writers without exception. They are in perfect accord upon the proposition th: t civilization al ways advances rap idly when prices are firm and moder itely rising; that if money is to chan *e in value at all, it is better that it should depreciate. I simply state the same doctrine from the other side when I say it is an|evil for prices to/be low and falling. In this discussAon I do not refer especially to the/injustic and hard ship to the debtor by reason of the unearned increnient in the value of money—an injustice of appalling magnitude at ay time when every thing is being bonded and mortgaged to great creditors. That is the ques tion for the moralist. The pur Economic view has re gard t' * ‘ forced idleness, dis coura ir prise, tbe stinted ex pend' consumption and the the productive energy which rial depresssion com- pels. It o mo plain that all of the pr 1 ivil consists in low prices- ion solely due to the fact t ’ue standard and in strum .iuation grains of sil “dropped out,” as the Ohio 8k ... pressed it, and a ne w one >‘dropp *£to its place by the legislation of "f7X; and unless we are to abandon tl|e metallic defini tion of money, there is no cure but by a full reinstatemjent of the silver unit. ®. D. Stark. The Election Varce. Arkansas Farmer. \ On Monday we went through the farce of holding a State election. The method employed -by the Bourbon leaders to bring about the desired results constitute a parody on free government, and are in no wise superior to the methods in vogue in Hayti. We do not know but the Haytian method of murder ing a political oponent is superior to the Arkansas Bourbon method of stealing his rights, as it only has to be done once. In every case where there was any sort of showing given to the op position, the Populists and Republi cans make a good showing and their combined strength exceeds the Bour bon vote. In many counties the Populists outvoted them, and in others the Re publicans, but it did no good. With the counterfeit Australian ballot and the blind tiger count, with judges and clerks ail of their own way of thinking, (a violation of their own little force bill, by the way) it was no trouble to manufacture majorities. The Arkansas Bourbon?,, like the Alabama Bourbons, enjoy the rare distinction of being able to carry elections without votes. And these pirates, these political thugs and freebooters, have the im pudence to talk about honor. They have not even got the honor that is said to obtain among thieves. And these men invite the outside people to immigrate here and help develop the resources of tl e co intry. De cent men do not f eely move into a State where the price of political preferment is to be an accomplished knave. One day they will learn that the dry rot which afflicts this benighted State is the result of the political villainy which knows no country but political place, no patriotism beyond pelf, and no honor at all. And the shamelessness of it I Counties that now are returned as Democratic will in November give one to four thous and opposition majority. One thing the rascals may depend on, Arkansas methods shall ffiuve such a free advertisement as never before. For every stolen vote in Arkansas they may rely on it that their rotten old party will lose two elsewhere. HON. TOM WATSON’S BOOK. CONTAINS 890 PAGES. ITS TITLE " KOT A REVOLT: IT IS A REVOLUTION." ——:o: Contains a Digest of Political Platform* since the days of Jefferson. Contains a History of all Political Partiea. Os the National Bank Act, Os the Income Tax Law. Os the Legal Tender Notes. Os the Demonetization of Silver. Os the Contraction of the Currency. Os the Way Tariffs are Made. Os the Squandering of Public Landa, Os tbe Pinkerton Militia, Os Tammany Hall. Os the Alliance Platforms, Besides Arguments, Facts, Figures on aU the Leading Topics of the People’s Party movement. —ALSO >— Speeches of the Nine ”at this Session, Also a Synopsis of th® Work of thia Session, The Book should be in the hands of every Lecturer, Speaker, Editor and Voter, PRICE sl.o®. Send orders at once. Address THE NATIONAL WATCHMAN, 13 C. St., N. E. Washington, D. CL $10,000.00 GIVEN AWAY.— To Our Patrons Who Are Lucky Enough To Solve Our W or OJI'I/PjF 11J Ey ! The publishers of the OiNCqr .. / . V nati Herald, one of the most In- nuential Reform newspaper’s published in this part of the world, and one of the most able People’s Party, Farmer’s Alliance and Labor Advocate journals of the world, has undertaken to guarantee to the party throughout the United States and to its adver tisers (40,000) FORTY THOUSAND additional subscribers by January 1,1898, and in os der to secure this large number in so short a time, necessitates a big outlay of money. Wo fully appreciate the fact that If we put agents into every county in everv state in the union to canvass for subscriptions it would cost us not less than TWENTY THOUSAND DOL LARS to secure 40,000 subscribers, and then it would take these agents one year or longer to secure this number and hence to get so large a number of subscribers in so short a time, we have carefully calculated that the cheaper and best plan is, to offer a CASH DON ATION of SIO,OOO and. give every man, woman and child in the universe a chance to get a part of this large sum. 40,00 u additional subscribers will bring to our advertising colnmns $50,000 of advertising each year and hence we ean well afford to pay out SIO,OOO in cash to secure this list. Any school boy ten years old can see the philosophy of our argument. This is the greatest country on earth for NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE and the pub lishers of This Cincinnati Herald do not propose to allow any other newspaper on earth to get a head of them in generous bonefide offers to subscribers. FORTY THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS means to us $40,000 to saw nothing of the largo amount of money we will get through our advertising patronage, and we can well afford to GIVE AWAY SIO,OOO in premiums or rewards to those who are in' ffligent enough to solve our Word Puzzels as given below. This is the fairest and most original, just and straight forward offer ever made. It is estimated by publishers generally who have offered premiums and rewards to the lucky guessers or solvers of their puzzles and riddles that ONE out of every TWENTY are successful, and taking this as a basis we would be called upon to pay cash money to 2,000 persons out of 40,000 subscribers entering the puzzle contest. Hence, SIO,OOO divided between 2,000 persons would be $5.00 a piece for each person. It will tnus be seen that each person who is lucky enough to solve our word puzzle will receive $5.00. If we should not secure more than half ofthis large number of subscribers, we would pay each lucky contestant $5.00 In getting 20,000 subscribers, we would pay out, figuring accord ing to the same rule $5,000 to 1,000 persons. If we get 10.000 subscribers we would pay out $2,500 to 500 persons. If we got 5.000 subscribers we would pay out $1,250 to 250 persons, and hence it will be seen, that the rule applies in any case and we can well and ably afford to give each contestant to the word puzzle $5.00 if h’s should bo successful in solving it Each person can solve as many of the words as he or she may choose. « THE-OQLY €OI|DITIOI|: offer is to secure subaribers AT ONCE and in large numbers to The Cincinnati Herald one of the best newspaper® published. It is aggresive, fearless and independent and is brim full of news from th< whole world. The People’s party principles are ably and thoroughly discussed editorially and by the best writers of the day. The Laboring classes. Farmer’s Alliance and the in« dustrial classes generally will find in the columns of The Herald just such reading matter as they can not find in any other paper of the day. It’s Woman’s department is read with a deep interest by every mother and young woman in thousands of home® and copious extract., and articles are copied in all the leading magazines and newspa pers of the world. The farm and other departments sparkle with interest and in short it is one of the most able and interesting newspapers of the age and should be in every home in christendom. It is seven column folio in size and printed in plain neat type on good * paper and can be read by old as well as young with the greatest ease to the’ most trying eyes. We therefore require that $1.09 be sent with each and every answer to the word puzzle to pay for a years subscription to The Herald. - If you send an answer to morel that one word you will be required to send SI.OO and a separate name for each word yon solve. REMEMBER we will pay yuu $5.00 for each word you solve correctly. If yousolvd ont word you will be required to send SI.OO to pay for a years subscription to the llkr If you solve two words you will be required to send $2.00 to pay for two yearly subscript tions and so on for each word you solve. But in every case you must send a separata name and address for each word you solve. The whole amount of cash you receive for correct answers can be divided among the persons whose names you send, or you can keep the -whole amount yourself just as you may arange among yourselves* In every in* stance we will pay the cash rewards to the person sending the names., , Don’t Send answers to the puzzle without subscriptions and SI.OO for each subsoriptloa at* they will not receive any attention. ® - - HERE ARE THE ’~ i * FIVE WORD PUZZLES? Can any body solve all or any one of them?, IT I FI Eacli dash appearing in the partially spelled a. A W words indicates the absence of a certain letter, and when the proper letters are supplied the original word eeleoted to form each puzzlq will be found complete. Example: B—A— —E, the name of one of the greatest imen of the age. In this case the word selected is Blaine, and the omitted letter® J, and n, are supplied the completed word is found and the puzzle solved* < RS B The namo of one of the best knoim _ C n Statesmen and Public Officials of thA I “aJW United States. f 2 -O-SE I Name of a well known animal. • — " --A | i word or term ght be rightly 3 aw | | ae applied to the Peoples party. 0 $ Something a man likes to have about 4 cas 4Q him whether in businesss or at leisure, i WI - ■ I HIIBIW ■■■ ■■ ■ - - I ■■ II -■■■— « Admired by many newspaper men and hundreds of others. PROT E CT! O N S 8 B tens £ B a W ■irregularity a copy «f the five Word puzzle spelled out correctly, has been sealed and deposited in J. R. Hawley’s steel vault*, to be kept there safely and not touched or looked at until December 81st. 1892, When they will be opened in the’presance of Mr. J. R. Hawley and three witnesses, after the con test ends. Mr. Hawley is Cincinnati’s most prominent news dealer and one of her most re spected business men and citizens, and has been in business in Cincinnati since 1881 and located at 164 Vine Street, and is known to the whole newspaper world Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 26, 1892: 1 havt received from the Herald Publishing Company* a scaled copy of the Five Word Puzzle, properly sealed, and to be deposited in my steel vault and not to be opened until December 31st, 1892, and then only in the presence of three witnesses. ’ J. R. Hawley The complete list of five words with the correct answers will be printed in our first issue of January next so that all who have sent in an anwer to the nuzzle can spa wherein they have failed. THIS WE CONSIDER FAIR AND HONE&T TO ATilj. * IN ANSWERING ALWAYS GlVfi NUMBER OF THE WORD YOU SOLVE. IF SU B SCRIBERS v^? ore of the w ? rd than we can W W 3 H & fe. r.Q afford to pay rewards, \ye will withdraw the offer, but every one sending m correct answers will get $5.00 for each word they solve un til the offer is withdrawn. * J ’ GRAND REWARD wers to al! the five words. The $25.00 is additional to the $5.00 for each word solved mak iag $50.00 to the first ten. This is offered as an inducement to send in five subscribers at ones. Try bard at wlying all Um, word, correctly. Addr e6B i l “etSrl aud all remittances payable to The Herald Publishing Co., . fiG LQNGAfILGRTH STREET. GINCInSkTI, Q, Notice To Subscribers and Club Raisers* In all instances the cash must ac company the names sent in. No paper can be run on credit. In another column it will be seen that the 10 cent offer has been withdrawn, and no subscriptions for less than 25 cents will be received. Long term subscriptions are better all around. FARMERS’HEADQUARTERS, NO. 4 WEST MITCHELL ST. A. ABRAHAM, Agent THE OLD RELIABLE AND THB Cheapest Place to Buy Your DRY GOODS, CLOTHING, BOOTS, SHOES, B ATS, Etc., Etc Right Around the Corner From the People’s Party Paper All are welcome to come and price our large and well selected stock. Remem ber, we sell you cotton checks and sheet ing at actual factory prices. COME and SEE US. 7