1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



613 



merchant to keep books and lose more or 

 less bad accounts, etc. He said this mer- 

 chant replied that he did not want the trade 

 of a man who always pays cash down for 

 every thing he buys. I suppose what the 

 merchant meant was that he would prefer 

 a customer who had a book account, and 

 paid that account without grumbling, to one 

 who usually paid spot cash and then de- 

 murred when asked to pay for something he 

 thought he did not have.* 



In discussing this matter I have heard 

 people claim that the dealers in their town 

 have actually made a business of trying to 

 make people believe they had not paid a bill 

 so as t J get payment a second time. This 

 is not only an unchristianlike spirit but I 

 think it is unreasonable. There may be 

 men in business who would want you to 

 pay twice, but I think they are ver^j rare. 

 In all transactions of this kind we need to 

 be very careful to cultivate the beautiful 

 spirit suggested in that passage in the 13th 

 chapter of First Corinthians—" Is not easi- 

 ly provoked; thinketh no evil." 



1 told you I had stood on both sides of the 

 counter for many years of my life. Well, 

 I am sure from what experience I have had 

 that the men who stand on both sides try to 

 do a fair and honest business. Perhaps this 

 may refer more especially to small dealers 

 and merchants. When we get among the 

 trusts and millionaires, I am really afraid 

 that strict honesty is getting to be some- 

 what old-fashioned. Now, the younger mem- 

 bers of our family suggest a remedy; and 

 although I do not just like this remedy I am 

 afraid that, with present modern improve- 

 ments, it is almost the only one. It is sim- 

 ply to put your money in the bank and have 

 a check-book, and pay your bills by check. 

 This might do in a town where there is a 

 bank; but it would be quite inconvenient in 

 small towns or in the country. Under the 

 circumstances there seems to be no other 

 way than to keep cash accounts. Put down 

 in a book with date, in some way so you can 

 read it, all the money that comes into the 

 home, and all that goes out; then you have 

 proof that will stand law, that you have 

 paid certain bills. You may say that such a 

 course would be entirely out of question 

 with the cares and duties that press you, 

 especially since it is so difficult to get com- 



* There is a hardware store in Traverse City where 

 they have two prices for every thing— one for the spot- 

 cash customer, and another where the account goes on 

 the books. This seems only fair and honest: but I am 

 told it does not work. When a merchant really opens a 

 cash store he must explain to everybody and make no 

 exceptions. Such a grocery was once started in our 

 town. One of our best-known and wealthiest citizens 

 went for some butter when dinner was already waiting. 

 But he had changed his clothes, and his money was in 

 his other suit. The cash-store man said, "Mr. B., I hope 

 you will excuse me if I ask you to leave the butter on 

 the counter while you go back for the money." He 

 explained, as fully and as pleasantly as he could, that 

 he was obliged to make no exceptions. But the butter 

 remained on the counter, and it broke up a friendship 

 of years' standing, not only between the two men, 

 but between the two families. Who was right and who 

 was wrong in this transaction? Good Christian people 

 will be found on both sides, and so, perhaps, the ques- 

 tion can never be settled. 



petent help either on the farm or in the 

 home. But, my friend, you will probably 

 make big wages by keeping some such cash 

 account. I wish to illustrate how much 

 such a cash account would save by some of 

 my experiences. 



When I made one of my trips to Florida I 

 bought some supphes of a dealer. Months 

 afterward I was asked to pay for them. I 

 declared they were paid for, but I had 

 nothing to show for it. The dealer and I 

 were good friends, and we talked the matter 

 over; but, although I felt sure I had paid 

 the bill, I could not prove it. After I gave 

 up and decided to pay it again I happened 

 to think that I sent the money up by the 

 mail-boy. When called up he said he re- 

 membered it perfectly, and he was even 

 able to fix the date. The dealer, who kept 

 a cash account, turned to his books, and 

 found that on that day they were the amount 

 of the bill ($5.00) ahead, and they had never 

 succeeded in teUing where it came from. 



At another time I took an outfit down 

 home to see if Mrs. Root approved of it. 

 After I decided to keep it she kept telhng 

 me I must go up and pay the bill. Now, 

 she thinks that, as I kept neglecting it, she 

 took the money to the store-keeper and paid 

 it herself. But they felt equally sure they 

 never got it. As the bill was not presented 

 till several months after I bought the goods 

 she was obliged to confess she could not tell 

 to whom she gave the money; and she could 

 not remember, either, any thing about a re- 

 ceipt, so we paid for the goods, possibly a 

 second time. When I asked the proprietor 

 to examine their books as the other dealer 

 did he said they did not keep any cash ac- 

 count that would enable them to tell whether 

 they had so much money ahead about that 

 time or not. Surely, every merchant should 

 keep some sort of cash account so as to help 

 trace transactions (of about $10) like this. 



Now, do not imagine that I am insisting 

 that I paid the money twice. I have everv 

 confidence in my good friend who keeps the 

 store, and I have never thought of feeling 

 any less confidence in him on this account. 



A friend of mine thinks she has paid a 

 doctor's bill of thirty or forty dollars a 

 second time. She feels sure she had a re- 

 ceipt in full, and that it lay around the 

 house until she thought it was of no use. 

 and destroyed it with other papers. The 

 physician, unfortunately, let the account run 

 until it was several years old. He then 

 brought it in, in connection with a more re- 

 cent bill. He keeps a book of receipts, and 

 each receipt has a stub. When a receipt is 

 given to a patient the stub remains in the 

 book. His book does not show any stub of 

 such a receipt as she claims to have had 

 around the house until it was thrown in the 

 waste paper with other receipts. Under 

 the circumstances the bill was paid— paid 

 oyer again, as she thinks; paid for the first 

 time, as the doctor thinks. 



I have mentioned these home transactions 

 at length to show how much a brief cash ac- 

 count may be worth. I said in each case 



