Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1917-11-29
A Cood-Hearted
Man
tcopyrIrht. ls7. we.,ern Nsrrpapsr unIor
By ALAN HRsDALE

on i went out beating up trade, leav-
ing Jim In the store to do the inside
work. j was a pretty good salesman,
IL l say Il myself, but Jim made a
mess of his part of the business. He
did not keep at the financial part Of
It at all. He would trust any one, and
the consequence was that we were
soon loaded down with bad debts.
One evening after business hours
we figured up and found that we
couldn't go on. Jim had advanced
money to certain parties who had
played upon his feelings. He agreed
to go out Of the concern, assuming
those debts and leave me to try to
wind up the concern. He took him
self Off to a neighboring town and 1
went to work trying to get in the bad
debts he had made.
There were so many Of them, large
and small, that 1t would take me life
time to run them all down. So 1 hired
a collector. paid him hundred dol
lars a month and at the end of the
first month he turned in $50. This
was not paying, so l dismissed him
and hired another collector. He made
a worse failure than the other man.
I hired five men in succession, then
switched Off and woman having APP
piled for the position 1 engaged her.
Since Miss Julia Sparks had a win
some way with her l believed she
would succeed where others had
failed. And she did. The first month
she worked for me she got in 5000, the
second month $1,000 and the third ST.
300. She continued her work till she
had got In every outstanding debt.
Jim's assuming the loans he had
made didn't help me at all. He could |
neither collect them nor pay them |
himself. was sued as his partner on
)ne of them and the case went against |
ne. So was liable for them ALL
81 wonder" said Miss Sparks one
lay, "if 1 couldn't collect those debts
or your brother, so as to enable him
% pay them to you"
''If you can and WILL" l replied, II
will grant you any favor you ask"
swell, I'll try" she said. "Can you
1--WE me list of themT
l gave her the list and she started
tut to see what she could do. She
'eund it very hard work. The debtors
we're mostly "dead-beats," who had
on Jim's good nature, and
Ome Of them had no money to pay
With. Those who had the money were
who never paid until they
we're compelled to at the end of law
uit.
Miss Sparks started out on her work.
he first day she succeeded in getting
hree dollars that Jim had loaned a
Dung sport who got rid of it the same
lay at pool. think he must have
one sweet on the collector, or he
ever would have paid the loan in the
World. Miss Sparks averred that he
ad won some money at poker the
light before and she caught him in
he nick of time. Three days later she
ot in two amounts tOtaling eight dol
lrs. The amounts she collected were
Ometimes paid to her, but these were
mall ones. All the large ones were
aid to jim.
At the end of three months hard
FORK Miss Sparks told me that she
nd got in 80 per cent Of the amount,
) per cent having been paid directly
0 jim. The remaining % per cent
'as uncOllectable, either because the
ebtors were without any means
yhatever or could not be found. The
mount Miss Sparks had collected
lxteen hundred dollars-she turned
1to me. She asked me, should Jim
urn In the amounts paid to him would
upon his promise to turn deaf ear
D applicants for loans and sell only
God buyers, take him back into the
rm. After refusing for some time
( last gave In. 1 was puzzled to I'M
erstand why she was interested In
inns reinstatement.
She came into the store the next af-
ernoOn with a pair Of red eyes, show
ne that she had been weeping. When
asked her what was the trouble
he told me that she had gone to Jim
Or the amounts paid him and found
hat he had loaned or given away
very cent that had been paid him.
Her interest in Jim and her cOnnec-
on with this matter remained to be
feared up. She and Jim were old ac-
He had loaned her
honey, so that she was one Of the
ebtors. She had fallen In love with
i'm, and knowing Of his difficulties
esolved to get him out of them. She
ad collected all the slow debts he had
,ade for the firm, and then had to get
D work on the amounts he had loaned.
he was much crestfallen at the re-
ult.
"If you hadn't got stuck on JIM" I
aid, II would ask you to marry me.
'ou'ye not married Jim. have youf"
eyes. 1 have" was the reply.