The Dolores star., 1902-06-06
THE LAUNDRY CHECK
ODD CHINESE BOOKKEEPING.
Identifies Customers by Descriptions
Instead Of N.mes-Receipts Are
After the Fashion Of the Old Legal
indenture-couId an American Do
as Well 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
iiZed people of the world. There are
no characters in Chinese for letters
or any such simple variations as Ro-
man and Arabic numerals II is,
therefore, impossible to translate or
transliterate into Chinese such com
mon marks as A., /. or ", 6. 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 n laundry un-
able to speak Chinese, and delivers his
wash to Il man unable to speak Eng
lish. lie receives in return II 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-
i,Ia l,ft J,
dcred. He then takes down from Il
hook a lot of muslin tags on which
are written in indelible ink moon"
or Lion" ], ., 3, 4 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 buttonlole in each article.
IN addition TO this they often put Il
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 package,
and the day and special character
written on the outside In addition to
this the half ticket is fastened to il
with a pin. When the customer en-
tiers 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 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
mali, 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 "RedHcad-S Scar
Cheek "Red-Nose Man" follows "Old
Woman with White Hair" MAN
Who-Looks-Lik Horse" "Man-With-
Much-Long- Hair Very -Tall-Thin"
and "Man-Very-F 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?