The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-05-12
PHILLIPS FINANCIERING.
By WALTER LEON SAWYER.

Observation-Disclosures
He's all logged out, what?" said
Uncle Bishop, nodding toward the or
namental young man who had just
passed up the board walk.
Don't look as if he had to work
very hard" Grandfather Lane COM
mented, straining his eyes for a final
survey of the tall hat and the gloves.
Abner Mitchell, the storekeeper,
sent gleeful chuckle after the re-
treating figure
Philips speciality is workin what
he calls his BRAIN" the storekeeper
answered. "He never went in for
the kinds o. labor that get We all
dirty and het up. Likely you don't
know Philly as well as I do, beins
you live over It the East End, but I've
kept an eye on him these seven years,
since he was twenty or whereabouts,
and I'm free to say that if he ever
does get muscle-bound, it'll be round
the jaw.
He was full-grown and big as any,
body when he was twenty, and
cal'late by that time he'd read more'n
a grown persons share of these
newspaper yarns that tell how smart
men start out with lead nickel and
buy marble palaces and steam-yachts
or somethin' to that effect. Philly
figured that the whole trick was in
keepin' all your money in sight, and
keepin' it moving so fast that other
folks would be kind o. dazed, and
see double. OF course, if you had
two dollars, and people thought you
had four, you could trade four dol
lars worth, or maybe six, under
stand?
Well, bout the time his twin,
that's Peter, started in easy and mod
est in the hen business, Philly got
a job clerkin' over at the country
town. | guess there was no great
margin betwixt his salary and his
board bill. What there was, he put
into clothes-and I'm finding no
fault with that, mind We, for young
man in shop ought to look as if the
world was usin' him we'll But he
didn't seem to get anything to branch
out on, as We might say, till his Great
Uncle Butler died and left him and
Peter a hundred and fifty dollars
apiece.
Peter knew what he wanted to do
with his, and he bought an incubator
and brooder and some fancy hens
and some wire fencing. Philly didn't
have quite enough capital to carry
out his plans, so he borrowed fifty
of ont ia41
Squire Lazenby-and then what you
s'pose he did with that two hundred?
He plunked it right into the bank
over there, jest SOS he could get a
.check-book.
Mind We, I'm not denying, nuth-
err, that check-book's a good invest
ment, always allowin' you don't over
work it, Pay bill with your own
check, and the man that gets it he
doesn't know how much you've got
IN the bank, whether it's ten thou
sand dollars or seven dollars and a
BALI; and if you look pretty pros
porous, he's most likely to lean to-
wards ten thousand.
But until you get used to the
check-book, sort o. bridle-wise, you're
likely to rare and jump and throw
yourself round amazin'. Just writin'
a few words on a piece of paper
doesn't seem, somehow, like handin'
out real money. And besides that, it
tickles We to see how glad people
are to get them pieces of paper; and
since they're so easy to make, and
you feel so rich while you're maxim
'em, you're likely to be generous
with EN-"
The storekeeper paused a moment.
gulped as if swallowing hard, and
scowled at the hitching-post across
the street. But he did not wish to
cherish such an unpleasant recollec-
ton as this evidently was, and a mo-
ment later he was once more en-
barked upon his tale:
We'll, folks that was placed so
they could keep posted tell me that
Philly never really got used to his
-bank-account, for all he was SO
neighborly with it. Bout as often
as Peter raised another chicken, they
say, Philly'd put out check. He
= paid his board that way. He dished
'em out to people that wanted to
send money by mail and didn't want
to squander their substance on regis
tering the letters. Ask Philly to lend
We dollar and he'd give we check
for it. Cal'late the clerks in the
bank had to hump themselves to
keep up with him-but their work
didn't put any money in Philips
pockets.
Mind We, Philly hadl It any bad
habits. and as far forth as his &C
commodatin' other folks would let
him, he tried to keep up that two
hundred he started out with Every
Sat'day noon he'd carry his seven
dollars salary to the bank and dump
her in, and every few days he'd be
cartin' over some little bo,rowin's
that somebody had paid bsak. But
Squire Lazenby's interest wes eatin'
in all the time, and PhiIly he bought
more or less truck he z:dn't really
need, jest because, as told We
minute ago, it's so terrible easy to
make out one O. them little slips
The storekeeper stopped abruptly
and scowled into more vacancy.
s'Yes?" Uncle Bishop suggested.
Il bate vel" the storekeeper re-
sponded, feelingly. For few sec
ontis there was silence.