The Meeker herald., 1902-06-07
THE LAUNDRY CHECK
ODD CHINESE BOOKKEEPING.
Identifies Customers by Descriptions
Instead Of k-mes-Reeeipts Are
Aftsr the Fashion Of the Old Legal
lndsnture-couid an American Do
~ We'll in China.


The Ingenuity of the Mongolian mind
Is well displayed in their system of
accounts and checks in the laundry
business. If their written language
were as scientific and accurate as our
own, 1t would be an excellent creation,
but they labor under many disadvan-
tages which are unknown to the civil
lized people of the world. There are
no characters in Chinese for letters
or any such simple variations as Ko-
man and Arabic numerals. 1t is.
therefore, impossible to translate or
transllteratc into Chinese such com
mon MARKS as A., 1, or ~, 6. In
place of this, the Chinaman uses the
ideographs for the commoner facts of
life, such as house" MOON" dog"
Lion" hear" table" Chair" and
street"
In addition to these he employs the
mineral characters from one up to
100.
A customer comes to n laundry I'M
able to speak Chinese, and delivers his
wash to man unable to speak Eng
lish. He receives in return u check
containing two characters. One rep
resents the day of the week or month,
toned, such lis moon" or lion" The
slip Is torn through the middle. upon
the principle of the leg.l indenture.
1t Is impossible to initiate the torn
piece 80 that it will tit the half re-
tained by The laundry. Then upon the
day book of the laundry the proprie-
tor enters under the day of the week
or the month the Telegraph moon or
lion assigned to the customer, and be-
meath this the articles left to be laur
dered. lie then takes down from Il
hook lot OF muslin tags ON which
are written in indellble ink moon"
or "liOn,' 1, 2, 3, and SO on. One
Of these tags is affixed TO each article,
excepting the cuffs and collars. To
these one tag is fixed, which is fas-
tened by Il strong thread or cord tied
through the buttOnhole In each article:
In addition to this they often put II
private mark upon the article to be
cleaned. although this is not very COM
mon. When the goods are washed and
ir0ned they are done up in IL package.
and the day and special character
written on the outside. In addition to
this the half ticket is fastened to 1t
with pin. When the customer en-
tiers he gives his half ticket up. and
II he is known by sight the package
IL handed over to him. II he is not
known. or is suspected of being II
confidence operator. his half ticket is
fitted to the laundry half ticket before
the package is handed over.
The day book Is often amusing read
Ing. 1t is difficult to write Western
names in Chinese characters. and in
most cases impossible. The laundry
man, therefore. writes down some sa-
lent feature of the custOmer's. In
doing this they manifest quick per-
ception and considerable humor.
.1,wo-Gold-T Tooth appears on the
same page with "Red-Head- Scar
Check lied Nose Man" follows ''Old
Woman with White Hair" "Man-
Who-Looks-Like-H Horse" .Man-Witll-
Interchangeable" "Very-rall-Thin''
and "Man-Very- Fat-Jolly" are famil-
| lar entries. Often the customer is
described by his calling, grocer, butch
err. policeman, carriage man or express
man: doctor and dentist are frequent
titles. Upon this system the little
laundrynan transncts his business
with grcIt smoothness and satisfac-
ton. II may be asked If an American
would do as well in the Flowery
| Kingdom: