Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-02-14
EXCHEQUER TABLES.
Barbnric System of Accounts Ling
cred In England Till Recently.

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
teresting in recalling the abandonment
of other time-hallowed customs of that
! country, says the Indianapolis News.
Among these was the final giving up
Of the exchequer TALES, an ancient
mode of keeping accounts in the Brit
ish e%xchequer long after better moGes
were in use everywhere else. Macau-
lay, referring to this, said cages ago
a savage mode Of keeping accounts on
notched sticks was introduced into the
court of exchequer and the accounts
were kept much as Robinson Crusoe
kept his calendar on the desert island"
Arithmetics and arithmeticians, a
multitude Of accountants and book
keepers lived and died-"still official
routine inclined to these notched sticks
as if they were the pillars of the con-
stitution and still the exchequer ac-
1 counts continued to be kept on GER
tain splints Of elm wood called tai
lies
'1n the reign of George III. an in
quiry 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 a charge 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 1896 to get these
sticks abolished. In 1884 It vas found
that there was considerable accumula-
| ton Of them. The question arose as
to what was to be done with such
worn-out, 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 frewood
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.
"It came to pass that they were &c
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. : =
s.New, we may reasonably remark,
in conclusion, that all obstinate adj
ference to rubbish which the time has
long outlived, is certain to have in the
soul of it more or less than is perni-
cious and destructive, and that will
some day set fire to something or 9TH
er, which, if given boldly to the winds,
would AVE been harmless, but which,
obstinately retained, is ruinous."
There is, or was, a kind of rational
ity In the tally-stick system, one stick
being for the creditor, the other for
the debtor, and the ta1lying of the
notches a proof that both were genuine.
In Scotland even as late as half q
/ century ago, 1t was customary for the
bakers lad to bring what were called
.the nick-sticks' with his bread, a
notch being made for each loaf that
was delivered. While the notches on
his stick correspondent with those on
the n he had left, both parties were
satisfied that the account was truly
ksg&