OCR Text |
Show Pound for Pound Mrs. Blair s Rick Fatker Put in tlie ? 9 Scales Gold Pieces Till Her Weigkt and tke Heap of Coin c -' -4 How Papa & "Dill l?'? JDalanc e dand JohnHuli, II mIEL, h ' V 4 Now Ske Sues to Dowered A ' ' A . IT T w'Ir Get Her Dowry "Pine Tree" Tj shillings -n ijaclc Back in 1677. J-ZclViV I Ly' """s ounces. The value f FS I l Jj f) international x 7 'y ijg:?! -.. pounds.' So here is Isa VF ' J the formula: III I " A ( ' 6739,780.65." ' r' I fw' Make the cal- "Z. v' KS ll dilation for your- - ,-52 CT) self. But she says Jj s' V t'ie amount she Jfsrnv ( received as her I ) -J ' weight in gold was wfs, JZ)) wJj '' shows that her 7 tA 9",. --2Sic!iC9 avoirdupois weight A familiar fond expression applied to babies, sweethearts and favorite fa-vorite daughters. You have often heard it. Its practical demonstration, however, is a rare occurrence. So it is interesting to know that just now there is pending in the Superior Su-perior Court in Chicago a suit in which the fair complainant demands that her divorced husband return to her her "Weight in Gold" which her father gave to her as a marriage dowry. Thus is publicly revealed, for the second time in the social history of this country the circumstance of a bride actually receiving as a dowry her weight in the coin of the nation. Moreover, the two instances are linked over a period of more than twef centuries in families of the same lineage. Starting with the present instance, Mrs. Mary Barbour Blair, of Chicago, in her complaint com-plaint to the Superior Court of Illinois says : "At the time of her marriage, and as a wedding gift or dowry, your oratris received from her father the value of her weight in gold, or thirty-two thousand, five hundred and fifty-eight and fourteen one-hundredths dollars ($32,558.14), which, with the increase thereof with other moneys belonging to your oratrix, her father invested and reinvested and held in trust for her until used as hereinafter here-inafter set forth." The complaint declares that she obtained this trust fund from her father and turned it over, with other moneys, to her husband. Prank P. Blair, who was thus enabled to acquire 13,000 acres of coal lands in Illinois, which he sold for $165,000 to the Shoal Creek Coal Company, of which he is president. So she prays the Court to make Frank P. Blair return to her that weight in gold dowry with the amount of other loans, including interest. The Blairs are divorced, and both live in Chicago. Her father is Edmund D. Barbour, of Boston where "pine tree shillings" were first minted in the year 1652, and where Hannah Han-nah Hull, daughter of John Hull, who minted the first American coins, received her weight in them for a marriage dowry. It is asserted, moreover, that this same John Hull was a collateral ancestor of Edmund D. Barbour, and that in dowering his own daughter upon the occasion of her marriage he was actuated actu-ated by more than the sentimental example set by the first American Mintmaster, described de-scribed as a "tradition" in school text books. "My father wras rather poetically senti-' mental," explains Mrs. Blair, "and I was his favorite daughter. When I married he revived an ancient sentimental custom and gave me as my dowry my weight in gold. I weighed at that time 132 pounds." As a matter of fact, the custom is Oriental as well as sentimental, rising out of the idea that bulk of body signifies health and general gen-eral well-being. Hence the Oriental expression expres-sion of good-will, "May j'our shadow never grow less." Thus, when the best-beloved wife of the Maharajah of Nepal recovered from a serious illness in 1910 he generously demonstrated his thankfulness by distribut-ir.tr distribut-ir.tr the amount of her weight in gold to the poor of his capital city of Pashupatmath. . John Hull kept a diary, written in quaint arly Kevenlcrnth century English, which b printed in the records of the American Antiquarian Society. Notes in this diary inform in-form us that Hannah Hull not only was his favorite but his only daughter. The diary does not mention the dowry in "pine tree shillings" which he gave her, but in the diary of the man she married on February 28, 1677, Justice Samuel Sewall, is this entry bearing that date : "My father-in-law, Mr. John Hull, to his free promise, 500." Now this amount, five hundred English pounds, is equivalent to the 10,000 "pine tree shillings" weighing 1,500 ounces in silver of "sterling weight and fineness," which written writ-ten tradition says Hannah Hull received as her dowry, the equal of her weight in silver shillings namely, 125 pounds, troy. Under the Colonial law establishing the first mint with John Hull as Mintmaster, Hull was authorized to retain as his fee one out of every twenty shillings coined, and "all persons are at liberty to bring in bullion, plate and Spanish Span-ish pieces for coinage." The services of an expert mathematician were not required to determine how many shillings equalled the weight of Hannah Hull. Tradition says that John Hull placed his daughter in the pan at one end of his biggest mint balances and simply shovelled shillings into the pan at the "other end until they weighed up the girl and the balances hung level. . That shilling, as well as the English stilling' still-ing' of to-day, closely approximates the value of twenty-five cents. Thus, Hannah Hull's dowry of 10,000 shillings amounted to $2,500. But their purchasing power then was about four times what it is now, so Hannah Hull's dowry in shillings really was equal to $10,-000 $10,-000 in the hands of a present day bride. That this statement is no exaggeration history plainly indicates. Harvest hands in the middle mid-dle of the seventeenth century in the New England Colonies received 80 cents per day wages, against at least four times that nowadays. now-adays. In 1638 the Secretary of New Amsterdam Am-sterdam under Governor William Keift, re-reived re-reived a salary of $250 per year about the same job as that of clerk of a small town, receiving to-day at least $1,000 per year. All this happened in Boston, when Boston wore its swaddling clothes. It was also in Boston 223 years afterward that Edmund D. Barbour, John Hull's descendant, felt his strong paternal sentiments stirred by the knowledge that his favorite daughter had fallen in love and wanted to marry Frank P. Blair, of Chicago. Edmund Barbour was a very much richer man than John Hull had been. He loved his daughter no less than John Hull had loved Hannah Hull. Manifestly, he must do more for her upon the occasion of her marriage to the man of her choice. As a dowry his daughter should receive the amount of her weight in gold. Now another complication ! The troy ounce does not weigh the same as the avoirdupois ounce. The only accurate way of making Mrs. Mary worth her weight in gold was to weigh her by gold. Mary Barbour, on the scales, weighed 132 pounds by the avoirdupois standard. But gold is not weighed by avoirdupois, but by troy weight of 12 ounces to the pound, instead in-stead of 16 ounces. The avoirdupois pound contains 14.58 troy Copyrl was not paid in r-the r-the equivalent of avoirdupois ounces in gold. r Did Father Barbour figure the amount of T. that weight-in-gokl dowry in troy ounces, . 12 to the troy pouud? Here is the way this-works this-works out: J32xl4x$20.67$32,741.28. So this evidently was the method a dis- crepaney of only $1S3.14 in father's favor. V But, of course, Mary Barbour Blair's memory of her precise weight at that time may be those seven or eight ounces in excess of the exact figure. It is interesting to try and visualize in one's mind the bulk ia gold coins making up the amount of this dowry of $32,558.14. Most people have very vague ideas on the subject. But most people are familiar with the gold double eagle. The value of 1,628 of these is practically what this bride received re-ceived $32,560. These coins "stack up" ten to the inch. Therefore, the whole number would make a "stack" lS1, feet high, or two stacks each 6 feet high reaching well above the bride's head standing beside them. Laid in a row, edge to edge, they number just about ten to the foot. Linked together in forty rows of forty to the row they would h cover a space practically four feet square with 28 pieces left over. Usiug 14 of these surplus pieces for a "fringe" on each end. the bride could have fashioned from her dowry a unique bedside rug the first thing ; her bare feet would touch each meOBiug on rising. " i - , " fJK T- i-- '"'. vr ' 1 1 ( , i- v - ! . .-.v,-"y, !'K-t? it "i-i Diagram Comparing the Standing Figure 6 Mrs. Blair with Her Weight in Gold Double Eagles, Which Would Make a Stack I3a Feet High. ght, 1917, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Rosi ie V t,r uom c""- ' - - 1 - ' - S ' : ' - ) 1 - A . ' ' S J i s',- ,v " ? " V. - J- J . v;v " "--S . 1 - t -.v - --f - I N : ' ' ' . -: :- ) k - - V. N fx' - ' ' ' c y?, V VX : T, . . "..O yy:, r ". . - , " - - " fv- f ' ; , i?-; y, - y : , ' ' , : - -, ; ty'-' - : 'y,'if- l'J Wh J Mrs. Mary Barbour Blair, Whose pT-J y ' "t-i " Marriage Dowry Was Her Weight I iSCM LJJL f ! in Gold. (And Eelow) The 1628 yl v y L ' ; Double - ! Represented A'A1- Vrv Fashioned aF'; Exactly ,,04$ . Four Feet ffeC ' erved. , ' |