Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-10-29
EXCHEQUER TABLES.
Barbaric system of Accounts Ling
cred in England Till Recently.

Barbaric System of Accounts Ling
cred in England Till Recently.
The abrogation of the long-establish
ed British law forbidding marriage
with "a deceased wife's sister, is in.
Of other time-hallowed customs of thai
country, says the Indianapolis News
Among these was the final giving ur
of the exchequer tallies, an ancient
mode Of keeping accounts in the Brit
ish exchequer long after better modes
were In use everywhere else. Macau
lay, referring TO this, said: ages age
a savage mode Of keeping accoSnts or
notched sticks was introduced into the
court Of exchequer and the account.
were kept much as Robinson Crusoe
kept his calendar on the desert island
Arithmetics and arithmeticians,
multitude of accountants and book
keepers lived and died-"still officia.
routine inclined to these notched sticks
as If they were the pillars of the con
stitution and still the exchequer ac
tain splints of elm wood called tai
lies
"In the reign of George III. an in.
curry was made by some revolutionary
spirit whether, pens, ink and paper
and states and pencils being in exist.
ence, This obstinate adherence to an
obsolete custom ought to be continued
and whether change ought not to be
effected. All the red tape in the coun-
try grew redder at the bare mention
of this bold and original conception
and it took until 1926 to get these
sticks abolished. In 1884 it was found
that there was considerable accumula-
ton of them. The question arose as
to what was to be done with such
WORKOUT, worm-eaten, rotten old bits
of wood The sticks were housed at
Westminster, and it would naturally
occur to any intelligent person that
nothing could be easier than to allow
them to be carried away for firewood
by the miserable people who lived in
that neighborhood. However. they
never had been useful and official rou-
tine required that they never should
be. So the order went forth that they
were to be privately and confidentially
burned
1T came to pass that they were to
be burned in a stove in the house of
lords The stove, overgorged with
these preposterous 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 commons the
two houses were reduced to ashes.
NOW, we may reasonably remark,
in conclusion, that all obstinate ad-
herence to rubbish which the time has
long outlived, Is certain to have in the
soul of 1t more or less than is PERM
cious and destructive, and that will
some day set fire to something or 9TH
er, which, If given boldly to the winds,
would have been harmless, but which,
obstinately retained, is ruinous"
There is, or was, kind of rational
ity in the tally-stick system, one stick
being for the creditor, the other for
the debtor, and the tallying of the
notches proof that both were genuine.
In Scotland even as late as half
century ago, ii was customary for the
bakers lad TO bring what were called
"the nick-sticks' with his bread,
notch being made for each loaf that
was delivered. While the notches on
his stick correspondent with those on
the one he had left, both parties were
satisfied that the account was truly
kept.