The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-02-25
FLYING FINANCIAL KITES.
> W6rriment that will Make n Nan wrinh.
led and Gray in Less than n Year.

There are more kiters than you dream of.
can soon tell one, just as gambler can
pick out gambler or one impecune recog.
nize another. Every species of animal has
its own marks and habits. When see a
man shining around every morning an hour
or two after he ought to be at his store or
office, and trying to borrow somebody's
check here and having hurried interviews
with the notary there, l say to myself,
That poor wretch is in the tolls. In some
way he contracted small debt which he
he didn't want any one to know about, and
he thought to pull through by doing little
kite-Aying.' It's a costly expedient can
assure you from experience. 1t costs time,
large discounts, and frequent notary fees
and the longer You go on the worse it is.
lived too extensively, and got behind
financially. kept putting off creditors to
whom owed finally $4O0, but they pressed
me hard, until borrowed q friends check
for 500, and used it in satisfying for
lime the hounds who were after me. When
1t became due gave my own check to meet
1t, and then borrowed another friends check
to deposit against my own. That's the way
got started. My creditors wanted the rest
OF their money, and therefore | borrowed
$3oo from brother clerk, paying good
discount for it. So l kept on borrowing
money and checks. found it easy at first
to repay the loans as they became due, and
was foolish enough to raise more money
than really needed and to waste it. When
you are sustaining your credit by kiting it
doesn't make much difference whether you
add little to the size of your kite or not
| saw that another clerk was worrying his
life out in kiting, and one day went to him
and asked him what load he was carrying
He said $3.50. What with discounts and
protesting expenses and reckless borrowing
beyond my needs, had got my debt up to
vi, 800 then, and thought it was u pity the
young fellow should be risking his situation
and fretting himself about paltry $3.50
decided to put him out of his misery, and
borrowed another check of $3.50, and flew
his dobt beside my own. can't tell you of
the hours spent in working the scheme.
Every morning before the banks opened
was flying around town borrowing friends
checks for two or three days, getting loans
of money at high rates of usury, and trying
to fix things with the notaries. And every
day the debt was larger, and the feat of fy-
ing it more difficult. Fortunately, | was
lucky in aspeculation, and was wise enough
to use the money thus nude in paying of
every claim against me, aud getting cut Of
the kiting business. If hadn't | should
have come to grief long before this; for
there is no such thing as averting grand
collapse some time or other in kitins. unless
you make an outside strike. Now look on
and see other fellows Mt the game. It's the
same old story with every one Of them. Day
after day they go the round Of banks nota-
ries, friends, and Shylocks, and more
careworn and pesplexed set of unfortunates
you can't find anywhere. They are always
at their wits end 10 know where the next
check is coming from, and unless they have
good stock of light. heartedness in theii
nltnres, AS | have fortunately, they will gel
wrinkled and gray in less than year"