Gilpin observer., 1902-06-05
THE LAUNDRY CHECK
ODD CHINESE BOOKKEEPING.
Identifies Customers by Descriptions
Instead Of Names-Receipts Are
After the Fashion Of the Old Legal
lndenture-Could an American Do
as Well in China.


lndenture-couId an. American Do
as Well in China.
The ingenuity Of the Mongolian mind
ls 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, it would be an excellent creation,
but they labor under many disadvan-
tages which arc unknown to the civil
lized people of the world. There are
no characters in Chinese for letters
or any such simple variations as Ro-
man and Arabic numerals. 1t is,
therefore, impossible to translate or
transliterate into Chinese such COM
mon marks as A, 1, or ~, q. In
place of this, the Chinaman uses the
ideographs for the commoner facts of
life, such as 'house," "moon," dog"
''lion," bear" table" chair" and
street"
In addition to these he employs the
numeral characters from one up to
100.
customer comes to laundry un-
able to speak Chinese, and delivers his
wash to man unable to speak Eng
lish. He receives in return n check
containing two characters. One rep
resents the day of the week or month,
and the second one of the facts men-
toned, such as moon" or "lion." The
slip is torn through the middle, upon
the principle of the legal indenture
1t is impossible to initiate the torn
piece so that it will fit 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 laun-
dered. He then takes down from a
hook a lot of muslin tags ON which
are written in indelible ink "moon"
or 'lion," /, 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 strong thread or cord tied
through the buttonhole in each article.
In addition to this they often put a
private mark upon the article to be
cleaned, although this is not very COM
mon. When the goods are washed and
ironed they are done up in a package,
and the day and special character
written on the outside. In addition to
this the half ticket is fastened to ii
Win a PM w lcll tle CustOlueE
ters he gives his half ticket up, and
if he is known by sight the package
is handed over, to him. If he is not
known, or is suspected Of being
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-
lient feature of the customers. In
doing this they manifest quick per-
ception and considerable humOr.
'Two-Gold-Tooth" appears on the
same page with "Red-Head- Scar
Cheek" 'Red-Nose Man" follows "Old
Woman with White Hair" MAN
Who-Looks-Like-H Horse "Man-With-
Much-Long- Hair" -Tall-Thin'
and "Man-Very- Fat-Jolly" are famil-
lar entries. Often the customer is
described by his calling. grocer, butch
er, policeman, carriage man or express
man; doctor and dentist are frequent
titles. Upon this system the little
laundryman transacts his business
with great smoOthness and satisfac-
tion. 1t may be asked if an American
would do as well in the Flowery
Kingdom?