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together, even with the aid of all the world. If the gold standard is a good thing, we ought to declare in favor of its retention and not in favor of abandoning it; and if the gold standard is a bad thing why should we wait until other nations are willing to help us to let go? Here is the line of battle, and we care not upon which issue they force the fight; we are prepared to meet them on either issue or on both. If they tell us that the gold standard is the standard of civilization, we reply to them that this, the most enlightened of all the nations of the earth, has never declared for a gold standard and that both the great parties this year are declaring against it. If the gold standard is the standard of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have it? If they come to meet us on that issue we can present the history of our nation. More than that; we can tell them that they will search the pages of history in vain to find a single instance where the common people of any land have ever declared themselves in favor of the gold standard. They can find where the holders of fixed investments have declared for a gold standard, but not where the masses have. Mr. Carlisle said in 1878 that this was a struggle between "the idle holders of idle capital" and "the struggling masses, who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country"; and, my friends, the question we are to decide is: Upon which side will the Democratic party fight; upon the side of "the idle holders of idle capital" or upon the side of "the struggling masses"? That is the question which the party must answer first, and then it must be answered by each individual hereafter. The sympathies of the Democratic party, as shown by the platform, are on the side of the struggling masses, who have ever been the foundation of the Democratic party. There are two ideas

of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them.

You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.

My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth; and upon that issue we expect to carry every State in the Union. I shall not slander the inhabitants of the fair State of Massachusetts nor the inhabitants of the State of New York by saying that, when they are confronted with the proposition, they will declare that this nation is not able to attend to its own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but three millions in number, had the courage to declare their political independence of every other nation; shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to seventy millions, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers?

No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we can not have it until other nations help us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetal

lism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

OWYHEE JOE'S STORY

BY ROUNSEVILLE WILDMAN

It was the beginning of the end. The last tie of the mighty Union Pacific was the first tie in the march of civilization into the great "West."

With the thunder of iron wheels and the reverberant screech of the whistle, the Indian, the buffalo, the desperado fled; the overland coach became a memory, and the cowboy changed his buckskin for New York shoddy. Later, as the gigantic Pacific system stretched out its arms to the north and south and absorbed the alkali bottoms of Wyoming, the sage brush plains of Idaho, the pine forests of Oregon, even the lava beds of northern California, the pioneers of '49 and the miners of '63 became a curiosity; and the men who had subdued the wilderness from the back of an untamed mustang, were styled "mossbacks" by the "tourist coach' emigrants and relegated to the background.

Yet it is only a little more than a decade, since thirty leather-springed, steel-ribbed overland stages were, and had

been for years, the one connecting link between the hardy miners and pioneers of southern Idaho and "home." Their very sight recalls Indian fights, highway robberies and daredevil flights. In them lives the essence of the fast dying "Wild West." Their day is past; their past is but a tale; their present is forgotten.

I asked Owyhee Joe about them once. Joe had been a famous driver. Wild stories are told of his daring trips up from Winnemucca or out from Boise with a coach well loaded with gold-dust, prospectors, and government mail. His achievements live in the memory and on the tongues of the oldest inhabitants, and grow in luster as the years pass.

It was a hot, sultry afternoon; Joe was sitting in my office, and I felt free to lounge back in my chair and listen to his stirring account of an Indian fight he had been in near Kuna, when, unaided, he had driven off ten Bannocks and saved the gold bricks in the boxes of the Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express. I smiled patronizingly when he had concluded. "And how about the time when you were relieved of your bags without even an 'if you please?' A shade of annoyance and chagrin passed over his bronzed face, and he shifted uneasily in his chair.

"It was a hotter day nor this out there on the mesa, when that young chap stepped out from behind a little clump of greasewood, and as'd me perlite ernuff to throw up my hands. No argument in the face of that thar shootin' iron, Mr. Editor. He took over four thousand clean dust and made for Salt Lake on the back of my bes' leader. Never hearn tell how we caught him? No? Wall, ye see, I took my wheel hoss and made for Boise. Found Bill McConnell, governor and senator since the same, Colonel Robbins, Jim

Agnew, an' Hank Fisher. We made a bee-line 'cross country to head him off. Changed hosses three times. We struck his trail, found whar his hoss had broke down an' he'd stolen another. That stolen hoss meant a necktie party. Sabe?

"In twenty-four hours we came in sight of him. Hoss played out. Game up. Nothin' but sand and sage brush for miles, except one lone tree. Kinder placed there by Providence, McConnell said. Thar thet young feller setone leg over the horn of his saddle. Fine looker. Stood six in his stockings. I knew him the minute I sot eyes on him. He knew me, but never twigged. Bill McConnell war ahead, and he opened the meetin' without singin'. "Good-morning, stranger.' "Good-morning.'

"Seen anything of a man about your size, straddle of a sorrel mare looking a heap like the one you ride?' ''No, I haven't.'

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"That's a purty good mare o' yourn.'

66 'Yes, she was worth a cool five hundred dollars, but she's a little winded now; say, mister, I'll give you five hundred dollars clear for that one o' yourn and stop the deal.' He was making a good bluff. Hoss stealin' in them days was death on the spot. He knew we war on him. His offer would well pay for the broken-down hoss, and he war a-bankin' that his money would pull him through. But, yer see, he didn't know McConnell. Mac had been cap'n of the vigilants back in '63, up in ther Basin, and had a name ter keep white. He just smiled at the man's innocence.

"That's a straight blind o' yourn, pard, an' it stands us to come in, but we're thar an' hold you over. You look a leetle mite played out, as well as yer mare. If you'll jest

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