The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1918-01-26
A Good-Hearted
Man
Scopyrisht, 1911. western Newspaper uaioa.
3, ALAN HlNsDAH

business and we set up hardware
store. Not having uny custom to start
on / went out beating up trade. leav-
ing Jim In the store to do the inside
work. was pretty good salesman,
II I say 1t myself. but Jim made
mess Of his part Of the business. He
did not keep at the financial part Of
1t 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 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 a neighboring town and !
went to work trying to get In the bad
debts he had made.
There were 80 many Of them. large
and small, that 1t would take me a life
time to run them all down. So l hired
a collector. paid him n hundred dol
lars a month and at the end Of the
first month he turned In $75. This
was not paying. SO I dismissed him
and hired another collector. He made
q worse failure than the other man.
hired five men in succession. then
switched of and n woman having APP
piled for the position l engaged her.
Since Miss Julia Sparks had a 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 5000. the
second month $1,000 and the third ST.
300. She continued her work tilr 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
one Of them and the case went against
me. 80 1 was liable for them all.
II WONDER" said Miss Sparks one
day, "if couldn't collect those debts
for your brother, 30 as to enable him
to pay them to you"
"If you can and WILL" I replied. II
will grant you any favor you ask"
swell, I'll try" she snid. "Can you
give me q list of themT
I gave her the list and she started
out to see what she could do. She
found It very hard work. The debtors
were 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 were
skinflInts, who never paid until they
were 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 n
young sport who got rid Of 1t the same
day at pool. I 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 Mt poker the
night before and she caught him in
the nick of time. Three days later she
got in two amounts totaling eight dol
hrs. 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 80 per cent Of the amount.
Is per cent having been paid directly
to Jim. The remaining rs 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
I, upon his promise to turn a deaf ear
to applicants for loans and sell only
good buyers. take him back into the
tirm. After refusing for some time I
1t last gave in. was puzzled to un-
ierstand why she was interested in
Inns reinstatement.
She came into the store the next af-
ternoon with 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
tor the amounts paid him and found
that he had loaned or given away
.very cent that had been paid him.
Her interest in Jim and her connec-
ion with this matter remained to be
cleared up. She and Jim were old ac-
He had loaned her
80 that she WINS one of the
1ebtors. She had fallen In love with
him, and knowing Of his difficulties
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.
"If you hadn't got stuck on Jim," I
said, II would ask you to marry me.
You've not married Jim, have your"
eyes, have" was the reply.
swell, you and Jim come in here. Jim