Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-10-31
BILL COLLECTING.
WAYS or TIE SMALL LAWYERS AND
THE REGULAR AGENCIES.

80
"There are a good many collectors in
San Francisco, but they may all be de-
scribsd in two classes. The first class in
cludes the small lawyers-young fellows
inst getting a start, as a rule, though
Won find some old hands among them.
They work singly. The others belong
nsually to one of the regular collection
a~pencies and work together on some sort
Of 2 svstem-hunt in parties, o. it were,
and beat out their game like u band OF
sportsmen.
The collector settled himself for q long
conversation by fitting his chair back,
resting his feet on the table, and light
ing a cigar.
I%sNow," he continued, "the young law
YER has several ways of going about his
business. Surprising him to have a case
bill-the next thing to do is to find
his A If he is i~mpecunious he goes
mt in person with the bill and hunts the
fellow ND. II he has had a fee within a
week or two and has the price Of half a
dozen meals in his pocket no usually
writos. With an ordinary bill he must
write four letters. The first will say:
Dear Sir: A bill against you has been
placed in my hands for collection. You
viii oblige, etc, by calling at my Office and
settling the same. There is no answer to
this. The second letter is still polite but
firm, The third letter is worded some
what in this way: Dear Sir: If the in
closed il not paid we shall begin suit at
once. The fourth and last is a summons
to answer in q suit. In nine cases out OIL
ten this is effectual. II u man has any
standing at all he won't go through the
iustice's court for q little bill, so they come
up and settle.
"But these ere simple cases. The tough
ones IRE usually turned over to the collec-
ton agencies. The collection agencies Will
take ANYTHING, and if the bill is collectlble
they can usually get the money. When
bills come in they are 'districted' accord
ing to the part of tho city in which they
belong. They are then turned over TO
the regular collector for that district who
present them in the usual smooth, oily
form. After q bill has been put out once
it is reassigned, according to the reception
.yhich it received. If the debtor manifested
q disposition to pay, it is placed III the
hands of the ordinary collector. The hard
cases, though, are turned over to the col
lector technically known as the bulldozer.
THE DULLDozER y HIS CLUB.
THE ~bulldozer is big man, and usually
carries q club for company. lie goes to
the hard case, swells himself up to look
Us big as possible, tramps up and down
the room with his club for a cane, and
that he has come to see that
bill paid. He doesn't make any threats;
that is against the law. But he has q
very suggestive way Of twirling his club
and making the most Of his big voice,
and if the hard case is o small man he
usually succumbs at the first encounter.
Ifhe is a big man the argument gets pretty
warm, and they dare each other to come
out into the street and fight. But as the
bulldozer has orders not TO fight unless
necessary, and there are not many VINO
want to try to throw him out, there Is
usually a compromise.
What struck me as remarkable as any
thing when l first went into the business,
resumed the collector, reflectively, after a
pause, "was the number OF men who
would acknowledge a bill but decline to
pay it for some frivolous reason. There
are lots Of men who go into an enter
prise with the cheerful intention Of allow
Ing someone else to foot the bills in case
of failure. | had a case where a ma
chinist did some work for an inventor. |
presented the bill last week. The bill
Is ell right he confessed, but the ina
chino is 10 good. Do you think 1 am
paving bills of that kinda AS he has a
little property l think he will pay III a
few days. Sometimes q man of this kind
denies that tie bill is rightfully his. Hc
made the purchase, or had the work done
on somebody clse's advice, and we mus
get the money out Of them.
'One of the characters of the profession
Is the cheerful debtor. Hcisa bland smil-
ing person that sheds threats as 3 duck
does water. He has no property and no
income. Ho is as inc lcCrned as the
summon breeze, and admits the bill with
rs much n as though it were
his mOther-in-law's. He invariably winds
up with oh, go ahead and sue If you think
you can get it that way. l haven't the
slightest objection
ONE OF THE SARCASTIC KIND.
1.-THE sarcastic kind is usually a woman.
! had one yesterday that follows the cheer,
full business of laying out the dead. BY
the way she went for me / didn't know
but what she was going to follow her pro,
fession right there, and intended to see to
it that ] furnished the corpse. And is
that the kind Of bill ye would collectT she
said. The bill of q man that calls him
self a doctor and gives a girl in spasms
medicine to be taken once in four hours!
/ demonstrated that she had called the
doctor and ought to pay him. Doctors is
no good sho said scornfully. Il throwed
his medicine out of the window, and I'd
like to serve him the same. Oh she con
tinued, becoming very sarcastic, you car
sue if you want to; but you knows what
them catches as sues beggars.' And she
stalked Indignantly out.
THE clustering man is another nice
character. He comes laundering around
with q big nose and red face, and wants
to know why in the name Of the seven
devils he is distraced by having a bill sent
To him through an agency. The idea,' ne
busters, of anybody supposing l wouldn't
pay the bill But he never does. He goes
out with the parting shot that he woulo
have paid it but now he will wait till he
gets ready. There is only n way to reach
that kind Of man. We 60 right to his EN-
ployer-he is usually getting good salary
and we force q collection. No quarter
is shown in such cases"
What do you find the hardest class tc
deal with in this city, asked the reporter,
"Wcll, about the toughest cases we get
are the bills against laywers-some Of
the big downtown fellows that you would
never suspect, too. If the clients only
knew it, they could pay some big fee:
pretty cheap by buying up the bills that
are floating around. The best class tc
collect from is the medium poor, who
have n small regular income. We meet
pitiful case of br~oken-down gentility
trying to keep up appearances. The
excuses they make and the pains they
take to hide their poverty are really
touching. We are never hard on such
people, though u business isn't n that
has much heart in it.-San Francisco
Chroaicle Interview.
Every able bodied Indian in Maine In!
q dog, and every Indian who Is not able
bodied has two.