Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-08
By Norman HI. Crowell

THE banking business. like all Others, has
its pitfalls and unexpected angles. which
must be learned by hard work and patient
application. The average man regards the
banking vocation quiet and resttul pur-
suit, followed by well-fed men whose main
care in life is to appear with fresh shave
every morning. This idea is never wholly
dispelled unless the skeptic engages in the
business himself.
All bankers, at one period OF their life,
were new at the business. In later years all
bankers look back at that period and smile
as they recall their shortcomings. They be-
gin to know why it was that Others smiled
then.
The ways and means whereby new bank
clerk can make himself grievously amusing
are so manifold that it is idle to attempt
catalogue of them. From the turn of the
KEY in the lock in the morning until the
merciful shades of evening sweep down and
conceal him, the new clerk is playing losing
game with the risible Fates. Older officers
and clerks neglect their duties to watch
him. They feel in duty bound to get all the
fun out of him they can as revenge for the
trials suffered by themselves at an earlier
date.
The First Break
SEVERAL years ago went into the bank
- ing business as the bank president,
but as the new clerk. The bank was in a
country town, and the force consisted of the
cashier and the new clerk. Between the two
of us we managed to get the books and cash
safely slowed away before supper time each
night.
I had been banking nearly week when
the cashier got hurry call to lodge BAN
quet at a neighboring town. In the hustle
of preparation he went away without lock-
ing the timelock on the money chest. In
about an hour he called me up by phone
and said:
"Put the timer on the safe!"
Before could ask him to explain the pro-
cedure he rang off. As l had never heard of
a timelock before. his order had me puzzled
completely. As | was cogitating on it my
eye caught the big eight day clock hanging
over the vault. | saw at once what he
wanted. l accordingly took the clock down,
carried it into the vault, and stood it on top
of the safe. 1t was laborious task, and
felt rather petulant over the cashier sudden
regard for that clock.
Next morning noticed him taking several
extensive looks at the clock in its new loca-
ton. Then he surveyed me with deep inter-
est He went into the back room and was
gone for nearly ten minutes, returning much
exhausted and red in the face. He then let
me into the secret of timelocks and their
uses.
Reciprocal Sentiments
A FTER l had been running the bank
for few weeks and imagined l had
learned the business from A to Z. was sur
prised one morning when telegram from
a Chicago bank was handed to me which
read:
You are NANCY mongrels. We detest abso-
lutely.
1 looked at the message again more
closely; but my eyes had not deceived me.
Here was our Chicago bank addressing us
in most unmistakable terms! Even if l was
a new clerk, | did not consider it good form
to wire man that he was NANCY mongrel,
and l felt indignant at once. l carefully
concealed the insulting missive from the
cashier, as he was trife irritable anyway
and did not know what he might do if he
saw it. l had an idea that could handle
that case to perfection. l wired back in
these words:
Charming sentiments received and are
heartily reciprocated. See letter.
l was deep in the throes of the letter
referred to when the cashier happened
to get his eye on the original telegram.