6 NORTH CAROLINA 



thunder-showers and thin clothing, he meant 

 to say, what we need is an insoluble cur- 

 rency. That, as such things go, was a pretty 

 substantial argument for " free silver," or 

 so it seemed to me ; and I spoke of it, ac- 

 cordingly, a week or two afterward, to an 

 advocate of the "white metal." He was 

 impressed by it just as I had been, and 

 begged me to make use of the argument 

 when I got back to Boston; as I now do, 

 with all cheerfulness, feeling that, whatever 

 a man's own opinions may be, he is bound 

 to keep an ear open for the best that can be 

 put forward against them. At the same 

 time, I am constrained to add that I have 

 never been quite sure whether my driver's 

 plea was anything better than a polite sub- 

 terfuge. It would have been nothing won- 

 derful, surely, if he had questioned the genu- 

 ineness of a kind of money to which he was 

 so little accustomed. Small bills " ones 

 and twos," as we familiarly call them 

 have but a limited circulation at the South, 

 as all travelers must have noticed. On my 

 present trip, for instance, I bought a railway 

 ticket at a rural station, and proffered the 

 agent a two-dollar bill. He gave it a glance 



