The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-06-21
CURIosITIEs OF CREDIT.

- =" ~@S~SSs'
CURIOSTTIES OF CREDIT.
Examples of the trust Underlying Rusi.
Mess--The Promises to Pay of Mer-
chants and How They are Regulated In
the Usual Channels Of Trade.
How much personal confidence has
TO do with enabling the social and busi-
ness life of the day to be carried on is
nowhere better shown than in a con-
sideration of the system of credit which
underlies all manner of transactions.
Nothing, indeed, is more apt to be-
wilder than a casual survey, which
serves only to illustrate to how great an
extent the principle of trusting is re-
sorted to. There is quite 4 large BUSH
ness done in the sale of striking cards,
illustrated with more or less taste, which
convey to the reader the information
that ''Poor Trust is Dead Bad Paw
Killed Him. And when this motto
appears, accompanied by q striking cut
in colors showing a dead dog lying on
the ground with legs ppEffad and with
piteous expression of countenance,
fixed apparently by the instantaneous
process" while the animal was in the
last throes of dissolution, it is very diff
ficult for the unpractised observer to
resist the conclusion that the motto is
rigidly adhered to by the person in
whose premises the sign is displayed.
A little experience, however, shows how
much of hollow mockery the thing is.
What is known to the vulgar as 1.-THE
slate, " appears everywhere In one form
or another. The record of trust changes
in character. 1t varies from the chalked
markings on the cellar door through
various grades of accounts until it
reaches its acme in big sheep-bound and
heavily ribbed volumes filed with speci-
mems OF the penman's art and the
book-keeper's best skill. But the thing
ehronicled is the same. It is a record
OF trust, confidence, credit, and it
marks the bridges which cross the
points OF more or less prolonged impe-
cuniosity. Its variances are almost in
Vulnerable and some are rather extra
ordinary. To the latter class belongs
the case that was recently tried in one
OF the courts of this city, wherein it ap-
peared that a laundress had gone on
doing the washing for two years or
thereabouts for man who would have
been good customer had he but
voluntarily paid the large debtincurred.
Il is gratifying to note that sympa-
thetic jury-forgetting all their own
trials anent burned linen, limp cuffs
and collars and hashed buttons gave
verdict against the defendant, re-
quir1ng him to pay for the thousands of
pieces which had been rinsed. clear
starched and mangled for him. Every
grocer, haberdasher, or other small
uadesman in poor neighborhood, has
constant experiences in the credit line
with his neighbors, and even pailfuls of
coal and bunches of greens are not
paid for until the buyers themselves
obtain their weekly wages. And a
somewhat similar state Of affairs pre-
walls in what are called higher circles,
although the matter of convenience of
payment rather than the ability to paw
Is what governs there.
1T is, however, in the mercantile
world proper--the world whose horizon
is bounded by boxes and bales of goods
sent to and from every habitable cline
that the system reaches its highest
ana most notable developments Here
II is that complicated mechanism is
brought into play to give to credit its
widest range and most flexible appli-
ances. Rating agencies are employed
70 keep record of the transactions of
uadesmen, their liabilities and resour-
NfS. III aRR1x. L -,
'er OF calculation as to the amount for
which purchaser shall be trusted in
view OF all his circumstances. Some of
tne methods by which res ults are ar
figed at. as well as sketch of the MAJ
eninery in use for the purpose, form in
'elestlng features of the subject
Iromlses to pay abound. The richest
mousse issues its paper as well as the
smallest. Brokerage establishments
ss ave 1 neen founded, some of them with
Si,VVO,0O0 at their command, to handle
.ne paper of the merchants, and there
sre nanks which make feature OF dis
sountlng the paper. One bank is known
70 nave had as much as 81. COO, 600 of
= he paper on hand at, one time, and
mere are three or four which carry in
me neighborhood of $40, ,0oo, 900 worth
me year round. The rate of discount
= sne banks is all the way from three
sna one-half to twenty-five per cent,
ssS sscSOlalng to the standing of the signer,
anu the broker receives one-fourth of
ne per cent for negotiating the paper.
aoa e merchant may draw his note for $50.-
80 ne wants $4,000 at once and the
~ ..e;malnder as soon as it is possible to OBJ
san j. The broker advances the So