The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1896-06-19


His Pe~-'a- sant
He ana
Gre..es !. '..<.. s:-~--.s-..o
Marcel
Detroit banks Gi,:' 10 to take pennies.
nickels aud other s;o.: cs..,fgc IS i,uck
as the western CO.. i,l,g. =. Invented
the term, hates to sec s,t!.' currency III
game OF poi,er. As Z rms, tsere is
strong kick when any LARGE amount OF
pennies is turned IN at Ci:2e. ;.I.d some
time ago the local banks { led a rule
! not to take rcaDies in bulk from mer-
camille estal)iists i,1c:its. I lis aroused
the Indignation q .;crclz> cTers who re-
ceived LARGE q,:ars. ias 81 s.fpners from
their customer, ;,s l.f}ti"r toe new deal
they were Obliged 10 ship tiaeir surplus
to eastern cities or SEND; It to the treas
ury department or to sub treasures at
considerah le trouble and expense.
Barrie 6, Salad'n, who run the larg-
est bakery in the city, and naturally
take in an almost endless number OF
cents, were the most seriously affected
of any firm, and they determined on re-
venge. just how to accomplish this
was a mystery. If the rule had applied
to only one bank it would have been
easy to get even by transferring business
to another bank, but rs all the banks
had united on the issue this remedy was
out of the question. TO suspe ID all
banking relations could not tie thought
of. Mr.. Barrie went home enc evening
trying to devise some plan to get even.
AS he sat reading the paper after sup
per one of his children asked for
penny to put in a missionary box.
Suddenly an idea occurred to him.
Why not work on the missionary idea
and get corner on the penny market!
With the large amount Of coppers COM
ing to his store it would be easy to
soon accumulate enough sinners to
cause serious shortage on cents. The
more he thought IF it the more Mr.. Bar
RE was pleased with the idea. On the
following morning he consulted his
partner, and the two decided to carry
the plan into execution.
fully sealed up and placed in the eel
lar. A slot was cut in the lid and q tip
tube placed to run from the slot to the
cash drawer upstairs. Early in Novcm
Der the first penny was dropped into
The huge barrel, and after that every
copper that came in, instead of being
placed with cash to be turned into the
bank, was dropped into the slot. The
barrel began to fill and the receiving
teller at the Citizens savings bank was
puzzled at reeeiving no more offers of
heavy deposits of cents. Mr.. Barrie
explained at the bank that he had
found "a new way Of getting rid Of his
pennies. n
But slot machines, Sunday school con-
tributiOnS at Christmas and q heavy call
by merchants for small change during
the holidays exhausted the visible supply
of the useful coppers, and the banks,
instead of refusing to take large guam
titles of pennies, were at their wits
end to gather enough to supply their
customers. Merchants who sent to
banks for five dollars, ten dollars or fif-
teen dollars worth of Gems were disap-
pointed. The banks tele rraphed to
eastern cities, but were unable to get
supply on short notice. Then the follow
ing appeared in a Detroit paper:
There is great scarcity of pennies in
Detroit
Mr.. Barrie was happy. He dropped
into his bank and casually asked the
cashier about the penny crop. He thep
pleasantly reminded the cashier that
the bank had once sneercd at coppers
On the two days following he made
similar remarks at the bank and on the
fourth visit he casually said
''By the way, guess we've got quite
batch of pennies up at the shop If
you'll send q man up / can give you
some. But | want a premium of one
and one half per cent"
The bank readily agreed, and mes
senger was sent up. When he arrived
he was told there were more pennies
than he could carry. If the bank want
ed them ALI they must send up an ex.
press wagon. The telephone was re-
sorted to. The bank was delighted
Oh, certainly, it would take all it coulo
get. :"
Half an hour later an expressman
called. The contents Of the hogsheau
| had been elnptled into three barrels,
which were placed on the wagon and
taken to the bank. The cashier was
fairly struck dumb; lie had calculated
on half bushel Of pennies at the out
side-here We're barrels Of them. He
| telephoned to MIR. Barrie. He didn't
want the whole mint
Cant help that" said Mr.. Barrie.
"You said you'd take al you could get
at one and one half per cent. premium
So the barrels were rolled into the
bank and placed in back room, which
was cleared of all furniture The thou
sands upon thousands of coppers were
dumped on the, tiled floor. Counting
them was out of the question, and
weighing was resorted to. The aver
age number of pennies in a pound was
ascertained, and then the entire collec-
ton was weighed off. It was roughly
estimated that there were one hundred
and two thousand five hundred pennies
In the lot. Barrie & Saladin received n
check for fifteen dollars and seventy
i've cents as premium. Then every
bank In town was notified that it could
have all the pennies it wanted by send
ing over. They all s'bit'' and the bank
managed to unload about two-thirds of
its stock within few hours. The
shortage in the penny market was re-
heved, and there is now 9. superabun-
dance OF the copper articles.