The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-13
GERMAN AND RUSSIAN BANKS

American Hurry For Them.
 The banks of Berlin have branche:
 in all parts of the city for the convent
 ence of the public, and their own profit
 of course, because they are no more
 benevolent than similar institutions ir
 other countries. The Deutscher bank
 for example, has twenty-two suboffices
 located where they are the most con
 venient, at which deposits are received
 drafts sold, notes paid, letters of credit
 purchased, orders left for the purchase
 of stocks and bonds, and other business
 transactions, without compelling the
 customers to go all the way down town
 to the main bank But no money is paid l out at these branch offices. It is only taken in, and at the close of business
 every day the receipts are transferred
 to the vaults of the central bank. You can make not payable to any of the | branches, but you cannot borrow money l there. You can leave an order for the l transaction or the sale of stocks, but l the transaction must be completed at l the main office. It is, however, a great convenience to the public and it seems to me that the system might be intro-
  | It takes a long time to do business ] in European bank, because all the l bookkeeping connected with the trans action is done while you wait and be- fore the money is paid. If you have check to be cashed you present it at the window of the paying teller. He makes note of it on his pad, with your name and the name of the signer and the amount and passes the check over to the individual bookkeeper, who looks up the account of the person by whom the check is drawn If the check is not good he passes it back Immediately. If it is all right he enters the amount in the book against the account of the signer places his initials or cipher on the margin of the check and passes it along to the general bookkeeper, who makes an entry, initials the check and then passes it over to the cashier, who makes an ote in his daybook and puts the check on a sindle. He then counts out the money on al title silver tray and sends it by a page to the paying teller, who hands it over to the person presenting the check, who has been kept waiting all this time. If identif- cation is necessary there is even more delay, but the transaction is entirely complete so far as the bank is con- cerned, and the bookkeepers keep right along with the business.
 Letters of credit are paid the same way, and ther is usually large group of people sitting or standing around waiting the summons of the teller. The bookkeepers take the checks in their proper order. Favoritism is seldom shown. The first to come is the first served. Each transaction is noted four times by the teller, bookkeepers and cashier and each has the names and the amounts, so that their books must agree,
 In Russia it is even more tedious. When l called at bank to make a draft aginst my letter of credit I was met at the door by a man in gorgeous livery with a long staff in his hand. He wore silk knee brooches, silver buckles on his shoes, a. long scarlet coat with silver braids two inches wide, the epaulets of a major general and big cooked hat. He led me into reception room which was sumptuously furnished. | It might have been the library of a club. There were fine oil paintings upon the walls bronze and marble statuary 1 and the furniture was artistic and ex- pensive. Upon the center table were several volumes of photographs city directory, a railway guide, the last re- port of the bank, two or three guide- i boks and several morning papers. | Over in one of the corners was hand carved writing desk furnished 1 with all sorts of stationery.
 While I was wondering what I was ! there for a gentleman of irreproachable attire and manners entered and asked | how he could serve me. I explained | that I would like $50 on my letter of | credit, and wondered how he knew I | was an American, but he had doubtless learned from long experience to dis tinguish the different nationalities, and I soon discovered by the manner in which he received subsequent arrivals that he could speak German and French as tluently as English.
 I handed him my letter of credit and he bowed politely and left the room. For a time I was alone with my thoughts. I looked over all the books and papers, watched the traffic in the street from the window made two or three entries in my note book, and if the polite gentleman had not forgotten all about me, when a page in buttons entered with silver tray, upon which were two drafts-duplicates for my signature. The little fellow bowed like a French dancing master, and seemed to be deeply impressed with a sense of responsibility. He came in several times afterward on similar