Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-05-28
"1n Memory Of Cash Down.

He is at rest. Cash Down is dead and
buried and the mourners are home from
the funeral. He was a well known man,
but of late years he was not half APP
preciated. There was a time when he
stood head and shoulders above Trust
and Dead Beat, but times some how
changed. Cash Down left quite large
family, who will take warning by his
sad fate. He cut his life short by many
years in his efforts to keep his word and
meet his pecuniary obligations, and
they will not follow in his footsteps.
There was time when Cash Down
was met with a smile and a hearty shake
of the hand. IL he wanted his buggy
repaired the blacksmith would figure
fine and depend upon his pay the hour
the work was finished. He could then
take the money and become Cash Down
himself, making difference of ten
per cent. in his favor. If Cash Down
wanted a new suit of clothes the tailor
made difference of 50 between him
and Slow Pay, and the money could be
sent East to pay for his cloth. The last
time Cash Down was out on the street
he saw Slow Pay, Bad Debt and Dead
Beat walking arm in arm, and the
blacksmith, the tailor, the grocer and
the merchant shook hands with each
one Of them and replied:
"Certainly-certainly. You can have
what you want on time, and III sell you
just as cheaply, and wait upon you
as promptly, as l will Cash down"
One of them might payin six months;
the other might be forced to pay in a
year or two, and the third didn't intend
to pay at any time. They got the same
treatment as Cash Down, and a great
rush was made to send home their
goods.
The old man entered a grocery where
he had paid out hundreds of dollars in
ready money and asked the price of
sugar. Slow Pay sauntered in after
him and asked the same question, and
both were given one figure. Yetat that
time Cash Down had paid over that
counter more than thousand dollars
in ready cash, and Slow Pay was in
debt fifty dollars and adding to the
figure.
Cash Down went to a dry goods
store to purchase a dress for his wife.
Bad Debt was ahead of him. Cash
Down pulled out a $40 bill and paid for
his goods on the spot. Bad Debt
picked up his bundle and told them to
charge it. In the one case the merchant
had his money in the cash-box to help
pay for a new stock. In the other his
collector would be months, if not years,
getting it, or in the end it would be
charged to profit and loss. Yet Cash
Down had to pay the same price that
Bad Debt did.
Cash Down wanted a new pair of
boots. He went to his old shoemaker
and was surprised to hear that he
would be charged fifty cents more than
for the last pair.
"Has there been a great advance in
the price of leatherPn he asked.
"Oh, no.n
"DO you pay your wOrkmen mOreP"
"Not a cent. You see, Slow Pay,
Bad Debt and Dead Beat are into me
pretty heavily, and l must make it up
by charging cash customers a little
more! That's a way we all have of
doing.n
Cash Down must then pay the same
prices as Dead Beat, and help make
good Dead Beats Indebtedness in addi-
tion He went home, sick in mind and
body. The doctor who attended him
was bound by solemn agreement to
charge as much as if called to see Dead
Beat, and his prescriptions cost more,
because he had to help pay Dead Beats
old bill at the drug store. When he
died the undertaken made no reduction
on the casket, and the tombstone cutters
put an extra five dollars on the price of
the shaft to pay the balance due from
Bad Debt for the one furnished his
child's grave!
Mrs. Cash Down, widow of the late
deceased, went down after her mourn
ing yesterday. She bought bonnet at
one place and said she'd pay sometime
this summer. She got dress goods at
another, and simply told them to put it
on the books. She needed shoes, and
she said she'd hand it in some day. She
had hundred dollars in her pocket,
but she didn't pay out a cent. She had
learned something, ,-Detrot Free Press