The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-01-10
CHASING A DOLLAR.
IT COST LOTS OF TIME AND LABOR
AND WAS NEVER FOUND.
The Efforts of q Corporation Manager to
Close HIS Concerns Accountable Trou-
BILE Bank Bookkeepers Have With De-
layed Checks.

Ciosc MS CONCERNS Account-The Trou-
BILE Bank Bookkeepsrs Have With De-
lsyed Checks.
look here, young mani IL you can't
be moro careful In keeping my account
straight. I'll have TO withdraw 1t. Here
I've bea. waiting for three days for you
TO balance my book properly simply be-
cause You couldn't find out until now
how you made my balance larger than
made it. You would be served right IL I
had drawn oct my money according TO
your balance"
The irascible old gentleman tucked his
handbook in an inside pocket, buttoned
his coat tightly and shuf1led along toward
the doorway Of the bank.
'If the old gentleman had cultivated
his patience as much as he has his honesty,
no wouldn't have said that" the book
keeper remarked to the next depositor in
line. "Ho doesn't realize perhaps that we
have to keep track OF thousands of nc
counts, or he doesn't know that other peo-
pie nre not SO particular as no Is. The
trouble with his account was that two
checks that he had drawn some time ago
had not been presented for payment, and,
of course, our account here didn't have
| any record of them when he asked mo q
| few days ago TO give him the amount of
his balance. He thought something was
wrong because his figures were less than
| those 1 gave so he left his book to be bal
anoed. In the meantime the checks came
, in and today my balance agrees with his.
/ If he had been in better humor, l would
| have explained the whole thing, but
| what's the use now? We are all likely to
make mistakes here, but il we do we can
| got things straight after awhile. Some
! day may have a chance to talk to him.
Every few can understand why our ac-
counts do not always balance the same as
| theirs until we explain how some checks
| are held back or lost. We have accounts
| that have never been closed although the
| depositors drew their last checks years
| ago believing that they were closing ac-
coants. The balances that are carried
| along are small generally, and they cause
| a good deal of trouble Perhaps l ought
| not to say that they are never closed, be-
| cause after awhile we transfer the balances
| to the profit and loss account to save the
trouble OF carrying them along sep
| arately from quarter to quarter, but the
| unpaid balances can be traced whenever
| the occasion requires an examination.
"Here's an account that explains one OF
years ago "a corporations affairs were
wound up by mutual consent of tho stock
| holders for the purpose of transferring tho
| business to another concern. 1t had here
| balance of about SEQ, 600 when tho man
| ager began to close all of its accounts and
| pay its debts. At the end Of two months
| the manager had drawn checks against
| the full amount of the account here, trans
| ferred some OF the debts to the new con-
| Germ by consent and arranged for the clos
| ing of the books. He left the handbook
| to be balanced, and as the number of checks
| was quite iii &c he did not call for 1t for
| several weeks. When no got the book, he
| found that my account gave him balance
of sl3, aud he persisted in saying that l
| was wrong in my figures because he had
drawn checks against the full amount hero
I and that all of the checks ought to have
been presented for payment. All interest
| ed persons had been informed that the af
| fairs were TO be wound up, and plenty of
time had elapsed for the presentation of
all checks for payment. He left the book
| again and l went over the figures when
| found time My account WAS right, and
| when the manager called again told him
| that, and said also that when ho checked
| off the Cancelled checks with the stubs in
| his check book he would find that two
| checks had not been presented for payment.
| "You may not believe it, but Ee chased
| tho checks for two months and succeeded
in finding only one, and that was for Sl2,
| leaving 81 unpaid He wrote to the per-
sons to whom the checks had been sent
| and asked them to present them for pay
| mont or deposit them somewhere for col
lection. Both replied that they had depos-
| no, in &c
| the manager wrote to the banks and asked
the cashiers to put the checks through the
| regular course of collection. The cashiers
replied that they had never received the
| checks. That made matters worse, and
| the manager wrote again to the creditors.
| One of the creditors happened To look
| through some papers that belonged TO bis
| sister and there he found the check for
| S12 Then he remembered that when he
| received tho check from tho corporation,
months before, he cashed IL from some
money that he was carrying for bis sistor
| and never thought OF IL afterward. lie de-
| posted the check for collection and we
| paid 1t.
"That left s1 undrawn and we carried
| that balance along for six months. Again
| the manager wrote to the other creditor
/ and asked him, rs q favor, to find the
check for 81 because 1t was annoying him
and troubling us. The countryman re-
piled that he had received the check, had
| got cash for 1t somewhere-he thought at
the bank, but he might be mistaken-and
had spent the money but he would try to
| find the person who had that check. Sew
eral weeks afterward he wrote to the man
| ager that he had not succeeded in finding
| the check, and as lie could not make nm
| affidavit that he had lost the check the
manager could not draw a duplicate check
| and have it presented for payment. Final
| ly the manager abandoned the chase and
came to me again. He wanted to have the
handbook show that the corporations
account had been closed without any bal
ance, and got the consent of the cashier
| to transfer tho balance to profit and loss
and make an entry to that effect In tho
| corporations book. We have that dollar,
and If the check is presented we will pay IL,
! but I'd like to bet that 1t never will come
| In. New York Times.
Indispensable.