The Men of the West 33 



years, one single instance of a cruel and cutting 

 rebuke from one in authority to a clerk or servant. 

 A friend of mine had a clerk who was always for- 

 getting important duties: letters would be left 

 unmailed; important entries on the books would 

 be omitted; messages, even, were sometimes not 

 delivered. Said my friend to me one morning: 

 "Really, I must speak to John." So John was 

 summoned, and I wondered what manner of rebuke 

 would fall upon his head. " John," said my friend, 

 "it is most astonishing what a very bad memory 

 you have. But I believe that in time it will 

 improve, because I notice that you have never once 

 forgotten to draw your salary on the first of the 

 month." John took the hint, and after that my 

 friend was truly and faithfully served. 



It has been said that corporations have no con- 

 sciences. I can personally testify that this is, 

 generally speaking, untrue of the banks in the 

 West. The kindness and forbearance shown by 

 them to their debtors have tided many and many 

 across the quicksands of ruin. It is often, I admit, 

 the policy of the strong not to seize the spoil, but 

 I know of cases where bankers have preferred the 

 interests of customers to their own, and during 

 recent years of drought and panic, notably during 

 the time when the Australian banks were breaking 

 by the score, the policy pursued by the capitalists 

 of California averted a general panic. Had they, 

 in their hour of sore need, pressed claims upon an 

 impoverished community, half the farmers and 

 storekeepers in Southern California would have 

 become bankrupt. More than one bank suspended 



