The Vinton record. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1866-1891, 1871-02-23
Patent Bookkeeping.

uOtiCcu INC Iitlio Piihecu oiips
containing their names and a
statement of their accounts,
with which their papers are
now addressed. This system
of keeping accounts is patent.
ed by Rev. Robert Dick, Of
Buffalo. BY its use we not on.
ly save time, as papers can be
addressed in this manner, by
aid of an ingenious little ma
chine, at the rate of 5000 per
hour, but all liability to skip a
name, as in the hurry of wri-
ting, is done away with. The
patentee says of the benefits OF
his system: 90
"The great value of Dicks
Patent System of Book.keep-
ing, as applied to Newspaper
business, results from the fact,
that in the process Of address.
ing the several papers Of each
issue, every subscriber, wheth-
er near or remote has a plain
and definite statement of his
account, fastened to each paper
sent him; so that in all cases
whore the publisher stops the
subscribers paper on the day
his prepaid time expires, every
subscriber always knows that
he has had the paper the full
time that he was entitled to
receive it, and hence can new.
er be annoyed aud vexed by
the convection, that he has
been cheated. A conviction
which, however false and
groundless, in the case of any
subscriber, is almost certain to
result in his determination not
to take the paper again; silent.
ly, it may be, but more ire
quently by far, the Ill treat
ment of which he conceives
himself 10 be the victim is
trumpeted ia, and wide, to the
great ia mage Of the papers
circulation. The dates on the
papers f~orestall all this mis-
chief, prevent old and we'll
known subscribers who consid.
err themselves personal friends,
from associating unpleasant
ideas Of distrust and i'll treat.
ment with the sudden stoppage
Of their papers, "just because
the subscription was not paid
on the very day 1t fell due."-
But the value of this patent
book. is still more ben.
efically felt in those cases
where the publisher sends out
his paper on credit, for years
in succession. For as soon as
he puts the date to which each
subscriber has paid for his pa.
per, on every copy he sends
him, so soon does his Postlnas-
ter, and all who look upon his
paper, know exactly how far
he is in arrears, and hence the
full extent of his delinquency;
which when really serious be-
comes shameful, a well known
element of power, which this
system turns in a most efec-
tive manner upon all delin-
quent subscribe rs with a force
ever increasing as the arrear-
ages increase; while every one
who keeps his subscription pre-.
paid receives, under this sys-
tenn, all the honor due to his
name. That such a man is
worthy Of credit any where, is
an easy inference. Still the
value of this patent is not con
fined to the influences already
stated, but extends to cases
where payment is not made;
because III every such case, the
mouth OF the delinquent is
sealed against questioning the
correctness of tie publishers
statement OF his account; see.
ing that under this system of
sending 1t to him on every pa.
per he receives, he can not
avoid, virtually, writing across
it, ACCEPTED, every time he re-
ceives a paper. Subscribers
do not take offense at the dates,
because all see at a glance, that
the system is credltable to all
who pay creditably; and hence
whoever snarls at the label
snarls at himself. All, there.
fore, who have penetration,
either laud the system, or pat
it gently; while every one re.
joices that at last he has the
perfect means of detecting any
error that may creep into his
pawsnanar account a class of