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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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History of the Champaign "Elephant" 600 the last named $300, to be paid over to him, to be used to the best advantage in furthering the design of "the r i n g / ' GRIGGS' OPERATIONS. He immediately took the cars and traveled up and down the state; and according to the Chicago Tribune correspondent's puff of him, written for the purpose of putting him into the office of treasurer, he was mainly instrumental in getting up the state house swindle, the Cairo penitentiary swindle, and, if you will have it so, the Champaign county swindle, and putting them through the legislature A BID. Meantime, we, "the ring", had prepared a bid, under the authority of the board of supervisors of Champaign county, about as follows: The Urbana and Champaign male and female institute building and ten acres of ground, at a cost to the county of $30,000; 160 acres of land in section 18, $14,000; and 640 acres of prairie parts of section 21 and 28, situated three and one half miles from the college at $50 per acre $34,000; in all say $78,000. —The county had already voted $100,000, of which $5,000 had been appropriated. So we had $17,000 left for working expenses. To be sure we put this bid in at more than twice these figures but that was to be the cost to the county. OPERATIONS AT SPRINGFIELD. We went to Springfield early and engaged a suite of rooms at the Leland House, at the trifling cost of $30 per day, to be used as headquarters. A whiskey chebang was opened next door, where everything was free to our friends. We decreed a subvention to the country press outside of McLean and Morgan counties; subsidized two of the lesser radical luminaries of Chicago with the payment of $500 each, more or less; paid the tavern bills of our friends and members of "the ring"; and, by the use of money, whiskey, stuffing, padding and forcepumping, kept the newspaper correspondents up to their work; and as a consequence, nearly the whole press of the state was filled with puffs of the greatness and glory of the Champaign county "ring".
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