The spotted boy, dwarf, and big snakes now loom up, and we hear that:
“This wonderful spotted boy was captured in the wilds of Africa [Seventy-five miles northeast of Weaverville—] with his strange companion [Lauterbach], the huge boa constructor, which you see [Try the battery!] him handle with the greatest possible [Hioiko!] freedom [without causing the gums to bleed]. And here is the wonderful little Fairy Queen, 18 years of age, and only thirty-one inches in height. She was born [Ohne Strumpf] in Grand Rapids, [Seventy-five miles northeast of Weaverville], Wisconsin; has a thorough education, and possesses [A splendid Concord coach!] the [Small sum of one quarter of a dollar] graces and manners becoming a [Lauterbach] lady of the highest [Hioiko!] standing in society.”
All hands round:
“Get right aboard here, now, and at 6 o’clock I’ll land you at Reno, seventy-five miles northeast of Weaverville, in the wilds of Africa, where I saw the Indian thirty-one inches in height, born at Grand Rapids, try the battery and take all the stains out of the wonderful spotted boy, who only eats once in four months, and sheds his skin twice a year. Having been educated in a convent in Milwaukee, geh i not hoam to try the battery, when the big white snake eats the little girl across the way you’ll get a drink for a bit, and see the sea-lion try the battery free, up in the mountains this wonderful Lauterbach soap-root climbs a tree and then hangs by the tail, tilee leari, oiko hi oiko! which purifies the blood, strengthens the nerves of the spotted boy, cleanses the teeth, and does not fear to encounter either the lion or the tiger, being able to regulate the instrument to suit all constitutions.”
In Virginia City, as well as in all the towns and cities on the Pacific Coast, gold and silver coin is the only money in circulation. There are now in circulation at least two American coins almost unknown in other parts of the Union—the trade-dollar and the twenty-five cent piece—as their coinage was not authorized until after greenbacks became a legal tender, and had taken possession of the Atlantic States to the exclusion of all coin, except copper and nickle.
The trade-dollar was coined for our trade with China and Japan. It was coined expressly to supersede the Mexican dollar in the countries named. It contains a trifle more silver than the Mexican dollar, and the Chinese were not long in ascertaining this fact. Now the American trade-dollar is in great demand both in China and Japan, and the old Mexican dollar is thrown completely into the shade. The Chinese and Japanese are great lovers of silver, and the American trade-dollar, being pure silver, is preferred by them to the coin of any other nation. The end—the final fate—of the trade-dollar, however, is inglorious. It is sent to India by the Chinese for the purchase of opium. In India they are sent to the Calcutta mint and are there made into rupees, stamped with the value on one side and on the other outlandish heathen characters. Thus the silver of the big bonanza fills the opium-pipe of the Chinese mandarin. The amount of American silver sent to India to pay for opium is very great.
The Chinese in Nevada and in all other towns on the Pacific Coast industriously gather trade-dollars which they send to the head men of their companies in San Francisco, by whom they are shipped to China. Persons who have but lately arrived from States where no coin is seen, are astonished at the abundance of silver in Virginia City, and delighted to be in a place where they may once again hear the almost forgotten jingle of gold and silver; though I once heard a New York lady say: “I never saw such a place. I hear nothing but the jingle of money from one end of the town to the other. The people all go about jingling their money as though on purpose to show that they are able to pay their way!”
To the impecunious new arrivals—the weary and tattered immigrants—this jingling of coin must be still more aggravating.
A gentleman in Virginia City one day told a story about slipping a silver half-dollar into the gaping coat pocket of a grasshopper sufferer who was gazing hungrily in at the window of a restaurant. The man continued looking at the good things displayed in the window for some time, devouring them in imagination, then, heaving a sigh, turned away. As he was moving off, however, he carelessly, and through force of habit, as it were, put his hand into his pocket. Bringing forth the silver coin the instant his hand came in contact with it, the fellow gazed upon it with a face which wore a look of astonishment comical to behold. Finally he seemed to conclude that it was all right, the Lord had sent it, when he retraced his steps to the restaurant and soon was seated before that which was probably the first square meal he had faced in some days.
A Comstocker, who heard this story told, relates that he concluded he would experiment a little in the same direction. If half a dollar had power to so astound an impecunious immigrant, he would try the effect of a trade-dollar. Procuring a bright, new trade-dollar, he sallied forth in search of a subject. He had not travelled far until he saw before him a young man of most rueful countenance—an undoubted grasshopper sufferer. The man was leaning against a lamp-post on a street corner, his face elongated, his mouth standing negligently open, and his half-closed eyes gazing wearily up among the fleecy clouds, as though he were wishing himself dead and taking his ease as an angel, far away in the realms above.