BOOKKEEPING 



the penny stage, but had already learned that 

 it was wise not to spend her pennies for candy 

 as fast as she acquired them, but to save a few 

 for other childish wants that might arise. One 

 day her father nave her a small cash box. They 

 counted her money and found that she li;ul 

 fourteen cents. Then he showed her how to 

 make out a little slip to put in place of any 

 pennies she took from the box. The first one 

 read, Candy, St, and the next day, when her 

 mother borrowed from her, a second slip said 

 to mamma, 5{. When her mother re- 

 turned the money, the slip was torn up. Later, 

 after she had mastered these simple steps, the 

 little girl was shown how to take a receipt from 

 her mother for money borrowed and how to 

 return it when the slip was destroyed. On 

 another day, when given more pennies, she 

 was told to write a slip, Given me by mamma, 

 104, so that this transaction could not be con- 

 fused with money paid back after a loan. 



When the first of the month came, the father 

 showed his young pupil how easy it was to 

 balance her cash. First of all, they counted 

 the pennies in the box and found sixteen. 

 They knew that at first she had fourteen cents, 

 and the slips showed that she had been given 

 ten cents, so there was a total of twenty-four 

 cents for which to account. Since sixteen cents 

 was on hand, eight cents must have been spent. 

 But the slips told only of seven cents having 

 been taken out of the box, so her father made 

 it clear to her that she must have forgotten 

 a slip for one cent. And then the little girl 

 suddenly remembered that she had hurried to 

 get a penny to give to the organ grinder's mon- 

 key, and so had neglected her bookkeeping. 



To make things easier for the next month all 

 the slips were torn up and a new one put in 

 which said Balance on hand February 1, 16$. 

 Of course if there had been any slips repre- 

 senting money lent, they would have been pre- 

 served. 



The Simplest Books. From the cash box 

 and its slips it was a natural advance to a 

 cash book. The child could see, especially 

 when she began to have more slips, that it 

 would be an advantage to write her records in 

 a book. In the first place, this would prevent 

 slips being lost; in the second, it would save 

 the time of copying all the figures upon one 

 sheet of paper when the cash was to be bal- 

 anced, and best of all, it would give her an 

 opportunity to compare one month's affairs 

 with another. 'For five cents her father bought 

 a little book with a single column on each page. 



BOOKPLATE 



He showed the little bookkeeper how to write 

 on the left-hand page the explanations for 

 money received and on the right-hand page 

 those for money taken out of the box, and how 

 to put the figures directly under each other 

 in the columns, so that addition was easy. He 

 told her not to cross out items representing 

 loans when the sums were repaid, as she had torn 

 up slips, but to make an independent entry on 

 the Cash Received side of the page. 



Little folks do not have enough to do with 

 lending and borrowing to need a ledger. The 

 signed receipts show money that is to come in, 

 and if a debt is contracted a temporary slip 

 can be made out. Later the advantage of a 

 ledger will appear, and then parents may easily 

 explain its principles, or even start a child in 

 a simple system of double-entry by studying 

 the first part of this article, which explains the 

 more advanced steps in bookkeeping. j.o's. 



BOOKPLATE, a printed or engraved label 

 pasted in a book as a mark of ownership. It 

 is usually made of paper, but vellum, morocco 

 leather and other materials are sometimes used. 

 The best bookplates are impressions from en- 

 gravings on copper or wood, but zinc etchings 

 and other cheaper processes are also employed. 

 A printed label, bearing only the name and 

 address of the owner, is an inexpensive and 

 dignified substitute for the more elaborate and 

 decorative designs. 



Bookplates were first used in Germany dur- 

 ing the last quarter of the fifteenth century. 

 These were crude affairs, usually colored by 

 hand. The earliest known printed copy was 

 used about 1480, and the earliest dated book- 

 plate was designed by Albert Diirer in 1516. 

 From Diirer's day to our own the lover of good 

 and rare books has lavished care and skill on 

 the ornamentation of his bookplate. For many 

 years its most prominent feature was the 

 owner's coat-of-arms, but this style has been 

 partly displaced by allegorical or pictorial de- 

 signs. One of the greatest book collectors of 

 all time was Robert Hoe, the son of the man 

 who invented the rotary printing press; the 

 central feature of his bookplate was an old 

 hand press. In place of the idea that a book- 

 plate must show the owner's lineage, it now 

 usually indicates something of the character 

 and tastes of its owner. 



The collection of bookplates and of books 

 containing bookplates is a fascinating pastime. 

 Many of the plates designed by great artists, 

 such as Diirer, Holbein, Hogarth, Bartolozzi 

 and Piranesi, are worthy of a place in an art 



