CLEARING HOUSE 



1414 



CLEMATIS 



of the room a list of the amounts due to his 

 bank from each of the other banks, as shown 

 by the checks, drafts and other obligations 

 which the clerk has brought with him. 

 Promptly at 10 o'clock the delivery clerks 

 begin passing from one desk to another, de- 

 livering to each settling clerk the bundles of 

 claims of all sorts that their banks have against 

 his banks. After each settling clerk has re- 

 ceived all of them he draws up a statement 

 containing the balance his bank should pay 

 or receive. These statements are handed over 

 to the manager of the room, who, after check- 

 ing them, reads out the amount which each 

 bank owes to all the banks or is entitled 

 to receive from them. This work must be 

 completed by 10:45 o'clock. Later in the day 

 the amounts due by the debtor banks are paid 

 in cash to the clearing house manager, who in 

 turn pays the creditor banks. In this way 

 each bank settles all its obligations to all the 

 other banks of the city by one single payment, 

 instead of settling with each bank separately. 



History. The clearing house system was 

 first established in London during the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century. The New York 

 clearing house, the most important one in the 

 United States, was established on October 11, 

 1853. During its first year it transacted busi- 

 ness of over 5,750,000,000, or an average daily 

 business of $19,104,000. In 1915 its business 

 amounted to over $90,842,000,000, or an average 

 daily business of more than $302,802,000. In 

 1916, due to vast war contracts filled for 

 Europe, the New York clearings were more 

 than $250,000,000,000. The immense saving of 

 time and labor which this method accomplishes 

 may be seen from the fact that of this enor- 

 mous amount only an average of about four 

 per cent of the daily balances is usually paid 

 in actual money. Next in importance to the 

 New York clearing house is that of Chicago, 

 where the business transacted was over 820,500,- 

 000,000 in 1916. Clearing houses have been 

 established in all the larger, as well as in many 

 smaller, cities of the United States. W.F.Z. 



CLEAVAGE, klcev'aj. Careful examination 

 of a block of loaf sugar reveals numerous 

 glossy spots on it. When seen under a mag- 

 nifying glass these glossy spots prove to be the 

 sides of small crystals of sugar. A piece of 

 rock salt presents a somewhat similar appear- 

 ance. We know that slate and mica can each 

 be divided into thin layers which have smooth 

 surfaces, provided the divisions are made at 

 the right places. The surfaces of crystals and 



these natural planes of division in slate, mica 

 and other substances are the places along which 

 such substances easily break or separate. They 

 determine the manner of separation and the 

 form of the different parts. This manner of 

 separation is known as cleavage, and the direc- 

 tions along which such bodies break are called 

 planes oj cleavage. Iron shafts sometimes bo- 

 come crystallized by long usage and break 

 along a plane of cleavage. When this occurs 

 the surfaces of the crystals are very easily seen. 

 See CRYSTALIZATIOX ; METAMOKPHISM. 



CLEBURNE, kle'burn, TEX., the county 

 seat of Johnson County, and a distributing 

 center for the surrounding agricultural region, 

 situated in the northeastern part of the state, 

 about thirty-two miles south of Fort Worth, 

 fifty-four miles southwest of Dallas and sixty 

 miles north of Waco. Railway facilities are 

 provided by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 

 Railway, constructed to this point in 1883; the 

 Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, extended 

 to the city in 1904; and the Trinity & Brazos 

 Valley Railway, built here in 1909. The city 

 was founded in 1843, was incorporated in 1881 

 and named for Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, a 

 Confederate general. The population, 10,364 in 

 1910, had increased to 11,587 in 1914. 



Cleburne has a large trade in grain, live 

 stock, cotton, wool and produce. There are 

 planing mills, marble and granite works, cot- 

 tonseed-oil mills, flour mills, foundries, cotton 

 gins and a compress with a capacity of 75,000 

 bales per season. The shops of the Gulf, Colo- 

 rado & Santa Fe and of the Trinity & Brazos 

 Valley railways are located here. E.B. 



CLEMATIS, klem'atis, a woody, climbing, 

 flowering plant, found both wild and in the 

 cultivated state throughout North America and 

 Europe. It is beautiful in flower, but even 

 more attractive when it is gone to seed. In 

 September, when most of the summer flowers 

 have come and gone 



Then the wild clematis comes, 

 With her wealth of tangled blooms, 

 Reaching up and drooping low, 



and we see the sprays of white or purple star- 

 like flowers gracefully trailing over rocks and 

 fences or swinging from the tops of shrubs. In 

 the cities, the cultivated varieties cover 

 veranda, trellis and arbor with fragrant white 

 blossoms or large flowers ol blue or reddish- 

 purple. The most common variety is the vir- 

 gin's bower, or traveler's joy. When its flow- 

 ers have gone the vines are covered with 

 feather.-tailed, silky tufts of seed-clusters like 



