The Wahpeton times., 1917-12-27
A Good-Hearted
Man
By ALAN HlNsDALE
Copyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union

lily brother Jim and inherited
enough money from father to 90 into
business and we set up a hardware
store. Not having any custom to start
on l went out beating up trade, leav.
Ing Jim in the store to do the inside
work. I was pretty good salesman,
If I say it myself, but Jim made
mess of his part of the business. He
did not keep at the financial part Of
it ut all. He would trust any one, and
the consequence was that we We're
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 neighboring town and
went to work trying to get in the bad
debts he had made.
! There were so many of them, large
aud small, that it would take me IL life.
time to run them all down. So hired
Il collector. paid him IL hundred dol.
lars a month and ut the end Of the
first month he turned in $50. THIS
WAS not paying, SO l dismissed him
and hired another collector. He made
Il worse failure than the other man.
l hired five men in succession. then
switched off and a woman having ap.
! piled for the position l engaged her.
Since Miss Julia Sparks had Il win.
some Way With her l believed sh.
would succeed where others had
failed And she did The first month
She orked for me she got in 5000. the
sero1 Il month ~ GOO 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 ut all. He could
neither collect them nor pay them
himself. was sued as his partner on
one of them and the case Went against
me. So was liable for them ali.
II WONDER" said Miss Sparks one
day, "if I couldn't collect those debts
for your brother, SO as to enable him
to pay them to you."
IF you can and WILL" replied, 81
will grant you any favor you ask"
"Well, I'll try" she said. "Can you
give me list of them?"
gave her the list and she started
out to see what she could do. She
found it very hard work. The debtors
We're mostly "dead-beats," who had
imposed on Jim's good nature, and
some of them had no money to pay
with. Those who had the money We're
skinf1ints, who never paid until they
We're compelled to at the end of law
suit
Miss Sparks started out on her work.
The first day she succeeded in getting
three dollars that Jim had loaned Il
young sport who got rid Of it the same
day at pool. think he must have
gone sweet on the collector. or he
urvcr would have paid the loan in the
world. Miss Sparks avcrrcd that IL"
lad won some money at poker the
night before and she caught him in
the nick of time. Three days later She
got in two amounts totaling eight dol
lars. The amounts she collected were
sometimes paid to her, hut these We're
small ones. All the large ones We're
paid to Jim.
At the end of three months hard
work Miss Sparks told me that she
had got in 80 per cent of the amount,
p per cent having been paid directly
ito Jim. The remaining % per cent
was uncollectable, either because the
debtors were without any means
whatever or could not be found. The
amount Miss Sparks had collected
sixteen hundred dollars-she turned
into me. She asked me. should Jim
turn in the amounts paid to him would
|. upon his promise to turn a deaf ear
to applicants for loans and sell only
good buyers, take him back into thu.
firm. After refusing for some time l
Mt last gave in. was puzzled to un-
derStand why she WAS Interested in
Jim's reinstatement.
She came into the store the next af-
ternoon with Il pair Of red eyes, show
ing that she had been weeping. When
| asked her what was the trouble
she told me that she had gone I" Jim
for the amounts paid him and found
that he had loaned or given away
every cent that had been paid him.
Her interest in Jim and her c"nncc-
tiOn with this matter remained To he
cleared up. She and Jim w"r" old ac-
qnaiiltances. He had loaned her
money. so that she wHs one "f the
debtors. She had fallen in l"v" with
him, and knowing of his difficulties
resolved to get him out Of the:'. She
had collected all the slow debts he had
made for the firm. and then had I" get
to work on the amounts he hal loaned.
She was much crpStfAlien ut the re-
suit.
IF you hadn't got stuck on JIM" l
said, II would ask you TO marry me.
You've not married jim. have youY'
"Yes, have" WAS the reply.
"Wcll, you and Jim come in here. jim
can be salesman under you. y"m to de-
eide whom to trust. Ill J." outside
man. How does that suit y"u?"