The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-30
What's bred in the bone is sure 10 como
out In the flesh"
Pounds, shiIIlngs and Pence.

Pounds, Shililngs and Pence. =
"The most troublesome case I ever had
ard I've had lots of them on my hands
now--was an old fellow named Hall, who
died over in Milford more than a year
ago, He was Yankee born and Vans
kee bred, but he not only talked English
money but actually thought English
money and cast his interest in pounds
shilings and pence He was generally
easy enough 10 get along with until ha
came 90 the shilings. Then unless you
explained and specified in every item he
went mad as a halter and refused to-
trade with you until you told him what
he wanted to know. He was terribly
down on what he called the York shiiI-
ine.'
"You know when the States fixed the
exchange value of an English shilling
New York counted eight shillings 10 a
COLLAR, while all of the New England
stetes made six shlllings equal to dol
lar. Right away after this the trou-
bic began and continued red hot for
many years. All over New England q
shilling was worth 1875 cents. while it's
value In New York was only 1914 cents,
or a nine-pence in New England money.
Years ago when this old man Hall was
skipper of a lumber schooner he had
taken a cargo 20 New York and sold IL
for so many shillings p thousand feet
meaning of course New England shill-
lnSS. w ell, WHEN TIC was pdiu pli lncV
gave him York shillngs, causing a loss
of % per cent on the cargo which ate
up the profits and left the Captain badly
in debt. He never got over 1t. WhenS
ever anybody said York shilling 10 him
he flew In a rage and fairly frothed az
the mouth, He had shock during one
OF obese fits and died the next day
Until the time of the Civil War" said
tie grocer, more than half of the peo-
pie hercabout talked and thought IN
money % the English denominations. Az
dollar was generally called by It's right
name. but S1.25 was always seven and
six and S150 was nine shillings.
sun Reckon the Half Cents. 4
'In many cases, such as three and nine4
pence and seven and ninepence, a cena
was split in two, requiring the use of a
half-cent coin. In order to check the half
cent habit the mint stopped coining half
cents But this practice went on tho
same as ever; the purchaser paid over this
money retaining the half-cent in every
transaction. For example, II you owed
me a ninepence, which was equivalent tn
1914 cents, you gave me IL cents. which
squared the bill. but II you didn't have
the exact change and passed me out .
quarter of a dollar / handed IL cents bach
to you and kept 10 cents for myself. II
was always wise plan for a man to carr
ry lot of small change in his pocket
talked shillings and pence"
when are the people going to get oveH
these foreign ways?" asked O bystanderx
Never. wholly. / think" was the de<
llberate answer at takes longer to Grade
icate habit than 1t does to acquire IT.
The English-speeking race have talked
in pounds and shillIngs for more than 500
years.
Some OF US Americans will continue to
talk ID until the year 5000 or longer.
More than a quarter of a century ago Cons
gress passed an act authorizing the usc
OF the metric system OF weights and meas
ures in the United States. 1t stands as q
law to-day but the people at large know
no more about 1t than they do of the Chi
nese language The metric Technology
is used In chemistry, geology and nearly
all the exact sciences. 1t Is not only
easy to learn, but very convenient, but the
people prefer the old way. If a CUSTOM
er should come in here now and ask ma
for metric OF Bingham cloth or a kilo-
gram of anything I sold by weight Z
should have TO say that had just sold
out the last OF 1t in order to conceal my
ignorance. One man can lead a horse
to water, but dozen men can't make him
drink"