1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



343 



to your place so quickly you would never 

 miss it at all. I am not in the least to 

 blame. The fault is all on Cs part." Quite 

 a good many stop right here, and stoutly in- 

 sist that they are in no way at fault, forget- 

 ting, apparently, that the barrow was loan- 

 ed to them and to nobody else, and that they 

 alone are responsible for its return or for its 

 value. Again, B will say, " The wheelbar- 

 row was in my barn, and the barn was 

 burned up. Surely you can not blame me 

 for it, for the bai n'was struck by lightning." 

 Sometimes B adds, " As I lost the whole 

 barn, with all there was in it, you surely 

 can bear the loss of the wheelbarrow." Per- 

 haps A suggests that, as B has had troubles 

 and misfortunes, he will not think of crowd- 

 ing him now, but it seems to him that some 

 time in the future, when B has caught up 

 from the loss of the barn, A thinks he ought 

 to have another wheelbarrow. Now, I have 

 known B to say, a great many times, before 

 they got through, " I wish you had never 

 loaned me the wheelbarrow at all. I never 

 used it a bit, and it did not do me a particle 

 of good." 



Well, suppose A should say to himself (I 

 hope he is a gentleman, and will not say it 

 out loud), " I do believe neighbor B is right. 

 It would have been better for both of us if I 

 had refused to lend my bright new wheel- 

 barrow; and I declare, it has so often re- 

 sulted in just about this way, when I have 

 tried to accommodate and to do a friendly 

 act by loaning tools that it has been no ac- 

 commodation, and I have just made enemies 

 of my neighbors. I believe I will never lend 

 any more tools." Dear friends, the record 

 of bur ledgers has so often shown, in plain 

 black and white, that loaning a man money 

 (or what amounts to the same thing, letting 

 him have goods on time) has only resulted 

 in getting him into trouble without doing 

 him a particle of good, that I have been 

 tempted to decide we had better stop it al- 

 together. But a better spirit suggests, 

 "No, my friend, do not stop it altogether, 

 but be more careful in the future." Be 

 careful that the accommodation you feel in- 

 clined to grant is not going to bring trouble 

 on both sides. 



Before dropping this point I want to say 

 that, of late, quite a few have censured me 

 rather severely for having trusted them. 

 Some of them have been so unkind as to 

 say that it was only a sharp plan of ours to 

 get them into a trap where they could not 

 help themselves. This has come up a good 

 many times when I have urged my right to 

 interest as well as principal. We simply 

 ask for the interest we are obliged to pay — 

 nothing more. When a good many friends 

 find themselves unable to pay at the time 

 they promised, or expected to, I have often 

 written back, il My friend, we are in great 

 need of the money, and really must have it ; 

 but to relieve you from your cramped posi- 

 tion, as you have stated it to me, I will, if 

 you wish, go to our bank and borrow the 

 money for our own needs, and you may, if 

 you choose, pay me exactly the interest I 

 have to pay at the bank." Now, it is true 

 that a great many— yes, by far the larger 

 part— have written me letters of earnest 



thanks for relieving them from the necessity 

 of going out to borrow money, and they 

 have in due time paid interest and princi- 

 pal, saying they would never forget the 

 kindness I had done them. The larger part 

 have done this ; but still quite a good many 

 have failed to pay me back, even after 'I 

 have tried to help them, and have talked 

 hard besides. 



Now, then, if we are to do a credit busi- 

 ness, whom shall we trust? Dear friends, 

 your nearest bank will answer the question 

 for you, and in a plain, common-sense way. 

 Some of you, I know, feel bitter toward our 

 banking institutions, and call them " mon- 

 eyed aristocrats," and such like things ; but, 

 my friends, this is all wrong. If you do 

 not like banks, it is your privilege not to 

 patronize them. But if you do patronize 

 them, and they accommodate you according 

 to business rules, treat them as friends and 

 neighbors. You may say that banks are 

 expensive ; but it is your privilege and duty 

 to give up the purchase of things you can 

 not well afford, without reflections on your 

 fellow - men or reflections on the great 

 Father in heaven for giving you only a hum- 

 ble station. Do you ask what the conditions 

 are for accommodation at the bank V Well. 

 I presume they will be something like this : 



The cashier will say, " My friend, where 

 do you live, and what pronerty do you 

 own V " 



If you reply that you own a farm or a 

 house and lot, or a store, the next question 

 is, " What do you consider your property 

 worth, and what incumbrance has it in the 

 way of mortgages, etc. V " 



If your property is of a kind likely to 

 burn up, you will be asked if it is insured ; 

 and if insured, the summing-up will be, kt If 

 you should get sick, or die, or if your house 

 should burn up, or if a cyclone or flood 

 should come upon you, are you in such 

 shape that you would still be able to pay 

 back this money ?" 



If you are unacquainted with the cashier, 

 he will ask you to call in some mutual ac- 

 quaintance—somebody to prove your identi- 

 ty, to attest to the truthfulness of your 

 statement — the postmaster, the station 

 agent, or the storekeeper, or people who are 

 known to the banker, and who know almost 

 everybody in the vicinity. Now, if you 

 have had difficulty with any of the above 

 three, or if you owe them money and can't 

 pay it, I shall have to admit that your 

 chances are slim for getting the accommo- 

 dation you ask. And here we see how im- 

 portant it is that you live according to the 

 spirit of the text at the head of this talk. 

 If you have not done so, you have no right to 

 complain. 



Now, suppose you do not own any proper- 

 ty at all— you are renting a place. In that 

 case the cashier would be foolish if he gave 

 you credit unless you brought forward some- 

 body known to him— some man of means to 

 sign a note with you to go your security. A 

 great many of you will say right here, " I 

 am not going to ask anybody to sign with 

 me." Good ! A. I. Roof is one of that very 

 sort. But, my friend, if you say you are 

 not going to furnish a signer, you must not 



