The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-22

quired if the brakes ever broke or lost
their hold.
Not often said Mac, holding the
steering gear with his knees while he
rolled a cigarette. Busted with me
once over near Fort Wayne. L was
trying to break the Chicago-New York
record with a big Thomas. Brakes
went wrong and we landed in a ditch.
MUssed up the machine something
awful, and 1 spent six weeks in the
hospital with a few ribs and things
caYed in
Whereat I began to look for a soft
place in the cobble stones further
down the side of the hill. But nothing
/ happened.
One of the first things noticed by
even a casual observer of san Francis
co customs is the fondness of the peo-
pie for handling actual money, particu-
larly gold money. Checks are used ex-
tensively, of course. but not so univer-
sally as in the east. Go to Mr.. Smith
! of Chicago or St. Louis with a bill for
hundred dollars. Ninety-nine times
out of q hundred Mr.. Smith will reach
for his check book; or he will tell you
that a check will be mailed on d GER
tain day Go to Mr.. Jones of San Fran
cisco with similar bill, and the
chances are about even that he will go
to the safe, take out bag of gold, and
pay the hundred dollars in coin.
Currency is rarely used. and such
paper money as finds its way into cir
culation, usually through eastern peo-
pie, very soon gets to the banks and
it's circulation is halted Your aver
age Californian dislikes paper money,
and regards it with suspicion. For
many years national banks We're kept
out of the state by discriminatory leg
islatiOn, which arose from the fear that
| these banks would circulate too much
of the unpopular currency. Even at
this day the national banks rarely pay
their own currency over the counter
/ but send 1T chiefly to their correspon-
dents in the country towns, where the
prejudice is not so pronounced.
Gold is the most universal medium
The bulk of the cash deposits received
| in the course of a days work was gold
coin, mainly twenties; about one-eighth
was silver coin and perhaps a tenth
paper money. This fairly illustrates
the relative popularity of the various
mediums. The custom of the clearing
! house is to pay all balances in gold. or
in, gold certificates. For year after
the fire the American National bank
gave temporary shelter to the clearing
house, and 1t was a common thing to
see dray wagon back up at the door
and discharge q load of gold, which
stopped the shoulders of the bank mes
seDSers who carried it. Then present.
| ly another dray wagon would arrive
with other messengers who would take
the gold in their own sacks and convey
it to another bank. This daily shifting
about of heavy metal may seem cum
! berSome and unnecessary, viewed from
| the eastern standpoint, but II is the
custom here, and San Francisco is
wonderfully tenacious of her customs
An instance of this is the survival of
! steamer day" which discovered
when L inquired the reason for a sud
den swelling of deposits on the 18th of
| the month. Away back in the fifties.
| long before there was a transConti-
mental railroad, the departure of the
| mail steamer for New York, via Pana-
ma. was an event of much importance
| in San Francisco. Business men who
| had engagements to meet sent remit
! tanceS by steamer, and 1t was often
necessary to collect all the money they
/ could to square their own obligations.
Alert creditors stood on the dock to in
/ tercept any careless or dishonest debt
ors among the passengers bound for
| eastern states. Thus it gradually
| came about that steamer day. be-
| came recognized as a collection dav
As conditions became more settled the
mail steamers sailed regularly on the
| 18th and 2Sth of the month, and on
these days all business concerns sent
out their collectors. The same days are
still set apart for collections, and stiIl
designated steamer days" although
for nearly forty years the fast mail
| train has superseded the sea-goine
! craft, and many steamers arrive and
| depart daily unnoticed. So strong a
| thing is custom.
After the fire an effort was made
with partial success. TO abolish Steam
er day." which everybody admits IS an
i-antiquated relic. but it chung in some
quarters with the tentacles of long
practice, and it may take another
| earthquake to shake it loose. some
people now try to call II collection
! day" but that is an unfair repudia-
| ton of an ancient and honored title.
Efforts are being made to reform the
method of collecting which now pre-
walls in San Francisco. Each business
house sends collectors to call person.
ally on all debtors, no matter how
sound their credit. Payments are fire.
quently made in gold coin, and there is
probably more money carried about
through the streets Of San Francisco
than in any other city of equal size in
the United States. Hold-ups and high
way robberies are, however, exceeding
ly infrequent.
The use of the automobile in baulx
ing cannot be regarded as a permanent