The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1901-08-30
OLD ENGLISH TALES.
Box Of the Ancient Banking Sticks
Found Recently in Old
London

Charles Dickens, speaking once at
Drury Lane theater upon the question
of an Administrative Reform associa-
ton, said: ages ago a savage mode
of keeping accounts on notched sticks
was introduced into the court of ex-
chequer, and the accounts were kept
much as Robinson Crusoe kept his cal
endar on the desert island. In the
course of considerable revolutions of
time the celebrated Cocker was born
and died; Walkinghame, of the
Tutors Assistant and well versed in
figures, was also born and died, and
multitude of accountants, bookkeep-
ers and actuaries were born and died.
Still official routine inclined to these
notched sticks, as if they were the
pillars of the constitution, and still
the eXchequer accounts continued to
be kept on certain splints of elm wood,
called 'Tallies.' In the reign of George
III. an inquiry was made by some revo-
lutiOnary spirit whether-pens, ink
and paper, states and pencils being in
| eXfStence-this obstinate adherence to
an obsolete custom ought to be con-
tinued, and whether a change ought
not to be effected. All the red tape in
the country grew redder at the bare
mention of this bold and original con-
ceptiOn, and it took until 1926 to get
these sticks abolished. In 1884 it was
| found that there was a considerable
accumulation of them, and the ques-
ton then arose what was to be done
with such WORKOUT, worm-eaten, rot
ten old bits of wood? The sticks were
housed at Westminster, and it would
naturally occur to any intelligent per-
son that nothing could be easier than
to allow them to be carried away for
firewoOd by the miserable people who
live in that neighborhood. However,
they never have been useful, and Off
cial routine required that they never
should be, and so the order went forth
that they were to be privately and
confdentially burned. 1t came to pass
that they were burned in a stove in the
house of lords. The stove, Overgorged
with these presposterous sticks, set
fire to the paneling; the paneling set
fire to the house of lords; the house of
lords set fire to the house of COM
mons; the two houses were reduced to
ashes; architects were called in to
build others; and we are now in the
second million of the cost thereof
Humorous as his speech is, it is
not strictly accurate, says the Lon
don Graphic. Dickens was not an
tiquary, and his denunciation of the
innocent exchequer TALES is rather
too severe. Far from never having
been useful, they were, as a matter
of fact, indispensable to the times in
which they were used, and were a
ready and handy way of reckoning
more cumbrous, no doubt, but quite
as accurate as reckoning with pens
and ink, states and pencils.
Not long ago, in one of the vaults
of a Lombard street banking house,
an old box was found which had
been in the bank since 1856. When
opened it was found to contain bun
dies of eXchequer TALES with accom-
panying documents, and dating from
17O6.
These tallies (from taller, to cut)
|
us back to some of the oldest rec
ords of our country, for the Nor
mans claim that they gave us the
name and thing called the exchequer,
and an ancient building at Rouen
hears the inscription: lie pere de
IrExchiquier a Londres." In Norman
times the court of exchequer was di-
vided into the upper and the lower,
or the court of account and the court
of the exchequer, and it was in the
latter that tallies were used as checks.
In those days-and, as has been said,
down to the past century-the mode of
keeping accounts was for the buyer
and seller to be provided zach with a
tally" having a series of notches cor
responding to the number or quantity
of goods delivered, or to what was
due between debtor and creditor, the
seller or creditor keeping one stick,
and the purchaser or debtor theother.
The tally used was a square seasoned
rod of hazel or willow, and was notched
on one side, the size of the indenta-
lions corresponding with the amount
of the sum denoted. On two other
sides, opposite to one another, were
inscribed the sum paid lin Roman fig
ures), the name of the payer and the
date of the transaction. The rod, so
marked, was then split down the mid
die, producing two exactly similar
pieces, one of which, the stock or tally
(hence our term 'stocks'') was given
to the payer; the other, the counter
stock or counter tally, remaining in
the eXchequer. When the debt was dis
charged stock and counter stock were
tied up together. The particular in
terest of many of the Lombard street
bankers tallies, which we illustrate
(and which are still in possession of
he bank is that the sets are in many
cases quite complete, and the old box
and its contents is thus an interesting
relic OF the ready reckoning of our an
cestors.
Lovely Woman.
The toast to "lovely woman" at the