The Cairo bulletin., 1910-10-28
currency. fat or asset, present or

Today. In the year Of Light 500
with quest ons of apples passed w
to Burbank. aud of serpents to Bos.
co, a lineal descendant of father
Adam. and a grand nephew of I'm,
! Gle Abel. stands. in the sane attitude
to discuss with you two problems,
iof the former of which ne knows
! mighty little and of the latter. moth
ing.
Invoking first thea. for our guild
ance, that repository OF all human
wisdom, the Century Dictionary. we
find that banking In defined as "tne
business OF conducting banking op.
erations' all Of which surpries, even
jolts me. I mad all confidence that
the thing would be set forth as "the
profession of pnilanthronic endeavar'
or at least the practical promotion
OF puh'ic ut lity," and find it Is
ONLY q business tolerated In the ten,
Piles UP TO about 1880 years ago,
/ digress a bit at this moment to
inquire as to the meaning of the term
"rrofession." since t seems that we
are not a profession at all. but hurry
through HE like CANNES with suitable
attachments. having merely sore,
thing to do. In this great secret So
C ety, known as life, over whose
rough and rugged ways We are rush
ed blindfolded, a few men have AFRO
rated to themselves TIE thirty-thir-
leoree. md they 'iN eNselves in
~ o cfnresa d who's ~'bo as the lear
A actessicr OF law. medicine and
'heo ogv. As sunal. the lowers re-
I'9 on TIE front seats, and the min s.
trations OF the clergy follow those Of
medicine.
The question seems TO be-where
do we get off att A friend of mine
up in the sand hills mourns tnat he
lost ais case N court, though he had
all the honest men in town and the
two bankers as witnesses" Another
friend says If ne is ever sentenced
to rinety days in Jail he wants a
banker to do it, because a bankers
ninety days rolls around before you
know its started, while thirty days
seeems like day before yesterday.
And sc, with all these slanderous
compliments, we may as well, per
haps, find spiritual c%onso'ation in
that good old Methodist hymn clos
ling.
Earth is but a desert dreer
am a stranger here,
Heaven IS my home"
Far be it from my purpose, how
lever, to claim too much for the
bank man, or to give u~tterance to the
~extrayagant praise which is strug-
Cling within him for expression, and
Which he has been waiting for a like
wise waiting world to set forth. |
know his follies ami his discounts,
and admit that his net worth is some
what leg than his face. Quite FREE
q~ueuntly a country banker, to which
division I have the honor to belong.
says that he has been running his
bank for twenty-three years and has
never lose but $500. This is very
cheering news to one who has been
stung so often that he has gotten used
10 II, but when I think OF his rich
and stable country community where
in by no power or ingenuity he could
not 60 very far wrong. | am reminded
that his virtue Is very much like that
of an austere maiden lady of un-
blem shed probity-she has never
been tempted.
Again, | hear the boast of him
whose reserve never gets below IS
per eent-he dumps some paper on to
his city correspondent when it does,
and ! am reminded of the early bird
and the worm- But father" said the
son, "it's all right for the BIRD, but
how about the worm?" | see him. a
mariner upon the ocean of finance,
his craft rising and falling with the
great wave of credit that sweep the
mar t~hought'ess alike of the siren
sun of rising prices, and of the mae
strom Of fury Of falling values, all
unknownig the Fundamental princi-
pies of the currency and of the svs-
tenn Of which he Is a component part.
The corhty blacksmith, or the v'liaoe
"cbhler NAV understand these things
as we'll