Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-11-23
A LITTLE LECTURE
ON A TIMELY TOPIC
Ruth Cameron Makes an In.
tGrGStiRg Talk.
(By Ruth Cameron.)

A complaint has been registered with
me today to which I'm more than glad
to give all the publicity 1 can.
1t is against that class of people who
through sheer carelessness. rather
than lack of money, let their bills lie
three or four months before attending
to them.
This true story accompanies the
complaint:
Il know a music teacher who hae
the support of a family consisting OF
any invalid sister and two little child
rem. The first of every month she
makes out her bills and sends them 10
the parents of her pupils. The I'M
derstanding when she took the pupils
was that she should do this-she did
not add that she hoped the bills would
be paid promptly for she knew they
were all fully aware that she was the
only bread-winner for the family.
If ONE happened to let the bill
run a month or two she could get
along all right, for she earns enough
for a comfortable living, but when
AS is frequently the case-not just
one, but all forget or neglect TO pay
for several weeks, or even a month,
| it places her in a very trying posi-
ton. Just this present month on the
tenth of the month not one cent on
a bill had been paid and had it not been
that she had credit at the grocery the
family would have actually suffered.
But even though it did not come to
actual suffering, eyeny houselleeper
knows the discomfort of having a lit
tie ready money on hand. There is the
lwasherwoman to pay; the crock of but
| ter comes in fro mthe country, the
! farmer comes with vegetables, out she
can only send to the grocery, instead
of buying at a saving as she ought to
and could if people would only pay
her the money she has worked 50 hard
to earn.
And the most trying part of it all
is that they might pay promptly il
they only would The payments come
in checks, with hardly an exception
and often after such a message, as
VIII you please send me another DBL?
think the maid must have burned
Igour other; | left it on the mantel, but
it is gone or Your bin entirely slip
ped my mind until today and now il
is nowhere to be found Time is
money to this little woman, ana
it takes hours of it to make out bills"
What one of US moufln't tell OF
some case more or less like this one
Myself, l am thinking of a dress
maker who has her invalid husband
and two children to support. she was
employed in a large dressmaking es-
Establishment and did such beautiful
work that customers of the establish
| ment persuaded her that she must set
up for herself. She sorely needed the
money and after much elaboration she
took this step At first | heard she
was doing splendidly Later ! was
| much panied to learn that she Lad
been been obliged to go back to her
former position at a reduced salary
Inquiry revealed the fact that she had
failed through no lack of ability on
her part, but simply because her Gus
tomers-most of them rich women
were so tardy about paying their bills
that with her limited capital she was
unable to keep the business on a pay
ing basis.
"A good part of the dressmaker's
profit, you know, comes from buying
her customers trimmings, etc. at
wholesale prices, and she cannot do
that unless she is able to settle her
store bills promptly.
Everyone ought, of course, to be able
to pay all his bills at the end of the
month. But even the people who
can't do that, can at least select the
bills they will pay promptly that those
who are forced to wait for their money
will be people with capital and not
people who would suffer as this W.
man and million others like her do
And as for the people who have
plenty of money to pay their bills and
only delay because they let it Slip
or don't think''-wen, / have always
had an idea that he'll was paved with
didn't thinks, quite as much as with
good intentions.