The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-05-11
PETTY TRICKS.
Borrowing and Forgetting to Pay.
Meanness as to Small Things.

Meanness as to Small Things.
80 HERE'S great deal of unintentional
| IHN dishonesty in the world" said a
| SAgS sprightly young lady to writer con-
nected with THE CALL.
! In what sense do you mean that?" was
| asked.
"Oh. in a number of ways Perhaps IL
would be clearer if l were to say that lack
| of memory is the cause, or rather is re-
| sponsible for host of unpleasant affairs
that seem like dishonesty on the part OF
those who perpetrate them. But let me
| explain. l suppose that no one really
means to defraud his neighbor of small
sums. and yet it happens so frequently.
| For instance, l am out shopping with a
she turns to me and says: Can you
change a dollar for me? l would
| like to have a four bit piece l
look in my purse; cannot give her the
dollar if you want it. Oh, that will do
just as well, thank you; don't let me forget
to give it to you before we separate Aud
she takes the proffered coin and uses it 8
she had intended. Other things crowd in,
and before we know it the time has come
for hurried good-by, and We are at our
respective homes before either of us
has thought of that borrowed half
dollar. When come to make up
my accounts, fol-. the day now, you
needn't laugh and look amused when
tell you that | am trying to learn a little
book-keeping-I find that / am a half a
dollar out of the way. 'Therep l eXclaim
to myself. she forgot to give me back that
piece OF money, and L can just imagine now
unpleasantly she must feel about il at this
particular moment. She is always SO pune
tiliously exact, pays everything as she goes,
and L know she will be dreadfully mortified
when she discovers her remissness.'
But would you believe it, the next time
That L see her she makes no reference to
the matter. l can see that she has for
gotten all about it. 1t gives me very I'M
comfortable feeling-not so much on ac-
count OF the loss of my four bits, although
am free to confess that | do not care to
scatter my coin around in that reckless
and unsatisfactory manner. But what does
disturb me the most is that l am tormented
by the fear that perhaps |, too, have done the
same thing to some one else, and that at this
very moment they may be thinking of me
as person who does not pay her small
debts. l have been puzzling my brains ever
since to see If l am in any friends debt,
and it IS all in vain. l suppose that my
friend, II she remembers any part of the
transaction. merely recalls that she asked
me TO change some money for her, and so
thinks that the money she.spent was the re-
suit of that exchange of coin.
This is not solitary instance. l have
known 1t, with certain variations, to occur
again and again."
that she did not return you the money ?"
asked the listener.
How can you imagine it possible
for me to do such a thing" responded
the lady,, with some slight Indignation.
Why, she'd not believe that she could
have been SO careless. 1t would not be my
word that she would doubt so much as it
would be her reliance upon her own sense
Of honor and her memory. No, indeed.
that four bits she can keep, and I'll keep
my friend; only, l lend no more money if
l eau help it,"
But that's not the only way in which 1
meant that people so often are dishonest.
Why, know young fellow who rides a
great deal on the cars, and never pays his
fare If he can avoid it. OF course ne
makes as if he was going to pay not only
his own fare, but also that of whomeyer he
chances to meet, but It's only bluff. He
never gets his money out. in time. Even
young ladies may have the privilege of pay
ing for his company if they care to. Once
or twice when literally cOrnered by some
who have grown tired of paying his car
fares so often, he murmured something
about not wanting to break gold piece
My! but that was great fun for those who
saw it.
Then 1 happen to be blessed with ac-
quaintances who are i'll the habit of ALWAYS
running short OF postage-stamps, and they
never mind saying, by the way, do you
happen TO have stamp or two in your
purse know you always carry some, and
IL you could obllge meY OF course | can,
OF course do, and l couldn't tell you now
often this has occurred. Well. once or
twice It wouldn't matter, but as a regular
thing l don't like it.
II hope you wont think that mean only
women are the offenders on the score of un-
Intentional dishonesty, for if you will per
init me TO say 1t, think that your sex are
also apt to be the same. For instance,
please notice that fortify my charges with
examples, which hasten to assure you are
bona fide ones. know young man in this
city who is quite swell; he never is
known to carry pencil or a knife,
and when dancing cards without the
tiny pencils were all the rage for
private parties he was never provided with
pencil. So his invariable custom was to
approach the musicians with that irresisti-
bic manner of his and borrow pencil,
with the sincere promise to return it before
the close of the evening. And he really
meant TO do 1t, too, that was the beauty of
it; bet he never did, and l have seen him
with most cOnscienee-stricken and dis
tressed look upon his handsome face, as be
would exclaim: There, I've gone off
thought l could remember it this
time. But that was the regular thing
with him and after time, the entire corps
of dancing musicians came to know him,
and they never had a pencil when he asked
for it. What he would have done had not
society introduced pendant pencils TO the
gentlemen's dancing-cards I'm sure | do
not know. To be sure, he always carried
those pencils in his weekday pockets in
the vain hope of seeing the luckless musi-
clan and returning it to him on the spot,
wherever it might chance to be, but he
never found the men, and so kept their
pencils.
Il might multiply countless numbers of
just such instances, but forhear. l only
know that in lew stores will they allow
customer the privilege of borrowing PEN
ell for moment, because experience has
taught them tnat such borrowers, especially
II they be men, are only too apt to pocket
the pencil in an absent-minded way and
walk off with it. That's all"