Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-02-19

ultu DelleNe III auu III W INC o uA'Sh,
but that STINT my way. A man as would
lie would steal hogs, and"
But We got into the buggy and drove
off.
BANK NOTE RHYMES.
How the wis lave Writ on ths Queens
Currency-soms Queer Autographed
Inscriptions.
S. JuneS' Gd:ctS.
The practice of ~scribbling moral retlec-
tions, often from an immoral point of view,
on the back of bank notes SEEMS TO be
dying out. Certainly the bank note
rhymster is less in evidence On English
paper money than he used to be, because
hank notes circulate more than formerly,
or perhaps because they are nowadays re-
newej at such short intervals. The Scotch
bank note being Of smaller value n cir
culating for q longer time, passes through
the hands of more needy persons and soon
becomes so grimy.that the term filthy
luCre" applied to it has an added signih-
canoe.
In Lackhart's Life of Scott" there is s
reference to bsnk-note literature. Lady
Louisa Scott had sent to the novelist an
original verse that was found on the back
of a bank note by Lady Douglas. 1t is
chiefly notable as q rare instance OF the
bank-note rhymster's parting with his
money in a Christian spirit. Go, poor
devil, get tie gomez is the kind Of parting
salutation most in favor, but the note that
fell into Lady Douglas hands said:
Farewell, nv notes, and whercsO'er We wend
| Shun gaudy scenes and be the poor man friend.
You've left Il poor one; go to one as poor,
.Aud drive despair and hunger from his door.
These linea recalled to SCOTS IecOl!ec-
ton the murder of Begbie, p hank porter,
because it was thought the notes stolen at
that time might he traced througha u idle
young fellow" to quote ScOtt's reply 10
Lady Louisa Scott, ''having written part
of q play house song on one Of them"
Many Of them were discovered, hut acct
de ntIy, and this one was among the num-
Der. IL fiction, of course, detectives have
followed up the same clew more success
fnlly.
Though the hacks OF some bank notes
are more interesting than a book, and even
rise to the dignity of tragedy, there are
certain stereotS ped phrases which occur so
frequently on them that they are familiar
to every body. Such are: Here to-day
and gone Tomorrow" ''The hest of friends
must part" and a very common adapta-
ton Of well-known couplet:
It comes as a boon and a blessing to man,
Like the Pickwick. the owl and the Waver!ey
Pen
Az a tag, suggested by this, has been
noticed:
They come as q boon-this is perfectly true;
But all that come here are damnably few.
A business gentleman in Edinburg,
through whose hands q large number of
Scotch notes pass, took a copy Of the fol
lowing:
Lord of Love, send from above
sword with two sharp edges,
To cut the Threats of wicked men
Who gruGge poor clerks their wages.
Beneath that was inscribed, in another
haod:
Why cal on God for such a blade
Because yOLr wage Is SmaiR
Or why assume your pay is grudged
Without any proof at ali?
Rather give thanks with tervent heart
Unto the Lord of heaven.
Who weekly ScIdS this One-pOUnd note
When muCn less might be given!
1t would be interesting to know whether
he was himself q ''peor clerk" who wrote
these additional lines, or only 81 employer
OF clerks. The fUllowingalso passed through
the same gantlemen's hands on 81 notes:
You ugly, dirty little scrap,
To look at hardly worth n RAP:
An yet I'll give my hearty vote
None can produce Il sweeter note.
With this may be compared:
It's odd that any man should wish
dirty scabbit rag like this;
Yet many u one would cut a caper
To get a wheeu sic bits y paper.
What seems most to strike the bank
scribe is the transformers of all human
pleasures. | have seen 3 note from Burns
''Pleasures are Like Popp;es Spread
adapted in this way:
Pound notes are like peoples spread.
You get them changed. and 10, they've fed;
Or, like the files upon the river,
One moment there, then gone forever.
'"The trail Of the serpent is over them
ALL" SAYS another melancholy moralist,
but an optimist wisely adds:
It's better to have had and lost
Than never to have had at all.
That last couplet is another Of the COM
monplaces on b1nk notes. This Is better,
though less generous:
The devil has owe
To assume a pleasing shape.
And batter still
They are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the
time.
Perdition Cstch my soul.
But 1 do love thee
has been met with, and also This is the
very ecstacy Of love" mot Of IN age,
but for all time" does does not, it may be
feared, mean that the writer is to put his
bank note out to usury.
Perhaps the most interesting bank notes
are those whose inscriptions are autobio-
graphical. "After keeping this for ten
years" said one that ! was told of lately,
sit is gone at last. Such is life.n There
is the first Is note / ever earned APP
peared in a handwriting that was not
boyish. "To pay the remit is brief but
sufficient. So, perhaps, is the Scotch ~
will be married tomorrow; God help me,
JED" The most dismal story ! ever
heard of being read on q bank note, how
ever, was: "The last Of q large fortuRS
spent o. dirk"
A historical interest attaches to the IN
scription. when shall we three meet
s~gain?" which used to be common on bank
notes. Who the third Of the trio referred
to has puzzled some people, but no doubt
it wss Abraham Newland. Newland was
kaashier of the Bank of England 80 years
ago, and in that capacity signed the notes
Of the bank. He was much talked of and
written of on that account in his own day,