134 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



manufacturer. I ordered a rubber stamp, and 

 arranged to call for it at a certain hour. It was 

 not ready at the stipulated time, because — so said 

 the baker — the dough had been troublesome that 

 morning. When I called again later, the stamp 

 was still unfinished, because — so said the printer 

 — some job work had been promised by noon, and as 

 the dough had not risen properly, the type-setting 

 had been necessarily postponed. It was a case of 

 Stick won't beat Dog ; Dog won't bite Pig ; &c. 



This robbing of Peter to pay Paul is the particu- 

 lar sin of most Western business men ; it clogs the 

 wheels of progress ; it palsies prosperity ; it keeps 

 capital seeking investment in the vaults of the 

 banks. In hard times it spells stagnation. After the 

 collapse of the land boom, I heard many a man say : 

 ** I have to pay what I owe, but nobody pays my 

 bills receivable." (A curious perversion of fact. 

 No money changed hands at all. In the county 

 where I was living at that time, we went back to 

 the primitive methods of bargain and barter.) 



This state of affairs is profoundly immoral. It 

 obscures all distinctions between meum and tuum ; 

 it makes honest men thieves against their will. 

 Amongst a people who venerate evolution, and 

 regard the word as a fetich, who inscribe upon their 

 coins E Pluribus Unum, this policy, if persisted 

 in, will surely achieve degeneration and disinte- 

 gration. 



That I am speaking within my brief, none will 

 dispute who is familiar with the history of Banking 

 in the West. We have, it is true, Bank Commis- 

 sioners, who are paid by the people good salaries to 



