The morning call., 1891-07-05
SHILLINGS AND PENCE.
A School Ma'dm'S Difficulties With English
Money.

Before leaving home we were advised by
all means to have common purse. After
trying individual payments for just one day
we saw the wisdom of the advice and took
it, ana !, alas, on account of my age and
matrOnly title, was chosen, like Judas, to
carry the bag. ! thus got little more than
my share of experience, SAYS a contributor
to Harper's Bazaar.
The En- glish money was by far the worst.
The Dutch, German and French money, be-
ing q decimal currency, was very simple
after we had once fixed in our minds the
value of the gulden, the mark and the franc,
for the Dutch cent, the German pfennig and
the French centime Were respectively one
hundredth part as much. But the English
money would never divide by ten, and that
was what was continually undoing us.
Now L wish 10 say, lest some aSpersiorS
be cast upon my reputation as a teach err
that l know the table of English money. l
can say tuently in school:
farthings-l penny,
~ pence Il shilling,
20 shillngs Il pound.
l have even gone as far as what we used to
call, when we were children, the also table {:
shinss=1 form,
sniilings crown.
But | found that knowing the table of En-
gish money and knowing English money
were two very different things. 1t is one
thing to sit in a school-room, mistress of the
sltudtbil, anu illp CUlluItu up III tlcli SILL
lngS and pence, and quite another thing to
stand in IA crowded depot, before an official
who is master of the situation, and count
your own shillings and pence. My intro
duction to 1t was in this wise: We had sup
Piled ourselves before starting with some =
gish gold and little silver. We were very
kindly tutored on the voyage by an English
friend in making change. and also in asking
for tickets in the true English way (Which
is to say, Please give me four third
singles" or flour, second singles" as the
case may be), and we considered that we
were exceptionally well launched.
The first tickets bought from the common
purse was at Chester. Going up to the
booking office" as the ticket Office is called,
| asked the price of q ticket to Windermere.
Seven and eleven pence ha'penny," said
the man.
l gasped. please give me four singles"
l said, with one despairing clutch at my En-
gliSh tutoring, mentally cropping meanwhile
for the chalk and black board. and failing of
that, trying To make the calculation in my
head.
''Thirty-one and ten," said the man,
briskly, handing them to ME.
Now that morning we had made deposit
In the purse of four gold en-shilling pieces.
They were bright, and we we're unaccus-
TONED to them. and somehow they seemed
very valuable TO me. / handed one of them
to the man. He looked at me in astonsh-
ment and some Indignation.
That's not enough" he said
Greatly confused. handed out another.
That's still not enough" he said.
In desperation poured out my store be-
fore him, and motioned to the girls to give
me more. My forty shillings sufficed, how
ever, and he gave ME the change; but re-
membering that l had to give an account of
that money and those tickets, so that each
one could 60 into an acc0unt-book. said,
=" / am afraid l am very stupid; but will
you be kind enough TO tell me again the
price of one ticket?"
Zone ticket" lie said, politely and slow
ly, lis seven shillings eleven and half
pence; four tickets would be thirty-one
shillings and ten pence; that from forty
shilling would leave eight shillings and two
pence, which have just given you"
And when apologized for my slowness,
on the ground of lot being familiar with
English money, he said: Certainly; sup
pose l should have the same difficulty in
your country"