The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1917-11-28
A Cood-Hearted
Man
By ALAN HINSDALE


on ! went out beating up trade. leav-
ing Jim in the store to dc the inside
work. | was n pretty good salesman,
II l say II myself, but Jim made u
mess Of his part Of the business. lie
did not keep ut the financial part of
IL ut 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 20 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 of To neighboring town and I
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 hired
collector. paid him u hundred dol
lars a month and AT the end of the
first month he turned in SO. This
was not paying. so | dismissed him
and hired another collector. He made
worse failure than the other man.
I hired five men In succession. then
switched of and woman having APP
piled for the position | engaged her.
Since Miss Julia Sparks had win
some way with her | believed she
would succeed where others had
failed. And she did The first month
she worked for me she got in $500. the
second month 81 900 and the third ST.
200. She continued her work till she
had got in every outstanding debt.
Jlm'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
one of them and the case went against
me. So | was liable for them all.
II wonder" said Miss Sparks one
day, III | couldn't collect those debts
for your brother, so rs TO enable him
To pay them TO you"
"If you can and WILL" | replied. 81
will grant you any favor you ask"
swell. 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 IL very hard work. The debtors
were mostly "dead-beats." who had
imposed on Jims good nature, and
some of them had no money to pay
xtsfth rhnGn KK~bn huH th.
skinflints, who never paid until they
were compelled TO at the end of a law
suit
Miss Sparks started out on her work.
The first day she succeeded in getting
three dollars that Jim had loaned Il
day ut pool. think he must have
gone sweet on the collector, or he
never would have paid the loan in the
world. Miss Sparks averred that he
had 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. but these were
small ones. All the large ones were
paid TO Jim.
At the end of three months hard
work Miss Sparks told me that she
had got in 20 per cent Of the amount.
% per cent having been paid directly
to 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 n deaf ear
TO applicants for loans and sell only
good buyers, take him back into the
firm. After refusing for some time
at last gave in. | wis puzzled To I'M
derstand why she was interested in
Jim's reinstatement.
She came into the store the next af-
tcrnoon with a 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 to Jim
for the amounts PAID MN ana tounu
that he had loaned or given away
every cent that had been paid him.
Her interest In Jim and her cOnnec-
ton with this matter remained Ia be
cleared up. She and Jim were old ac-
qualntances. He had loaned her
money, so that she was one of the
debtors. She had fallen in love with
him, and knowing of his difficulties
resolved TO get him out of them. She
had collected all the slow debts he had
made for the firm, and then had TO get
TO work ON the amounts he had loaned.
She was much crestfallen at the re-
suit.
III you hadn't got stuck on JIM" l
said, 81 would ask you to marry me.
W