K, was, and is still (for these are actual transactions taken from his
account books), an exchange broker, doing business in New York. He
buys notes on the banks of England, Ireland, Scotland, France and
Canada--indeed, foreign banknotes of all kinds--for which he usually
pays about ninety per cent, of their face value. By the end of last
year he had invested $200,000 in these notes brought here by
travellers. He then inclosed them in letters, and sent them to their
proper destinations to be redeemed. Redeemed they were in due time,
and the proceeds remitted in gold. In this business he earned the neat
profit of $22,222, and the country was that much richer thereby. But
Mr. Greeley, who only looked at the import of K's gold remittance,
declared the country $22,222 worse off than before, and dares us to
"come on" with the figures.

L, and some fifty thousand other skedaddlers ran off to Canada when
the war broke out, for fear they might be drafted. Together with the
colored folks who fled there, and the many travellers who went there
from time to time, they carried with them most of our silver
half-dollars, quarters, dimes, half-dimes, and three-cent pieces.
These amounted to $25,000,000, which the skedaddlers, the colored
folks, and the travellers, as with returning peace they slowly
straggled back into the country, invested in Canadian knick-knacks,
which they disposed of in the United States. The incoming goods
were duly entered at our frontier custom-houses, but the outgoing
silver was not. Mr. Greeley, unaware of this fact, detects an
over-importation of $25,000,000, and is waiting to be elected to
Congress in order to legislate the matter right.

M, (an actual transaction) had $1,000,000 in Illinois Central Railroad
bonds, for which he desired to obtain $1,000,000 worth of iron rails