'I"!1*
A FLAW IN THE PLAN
; By G. F. FERRIS. ^
The decision to steal came to Davis
as the result of months of reflection.
It could not be said to be the result
of impulse. There was not the slight
est extenuation. Calmly and method
ically Davis made up his mind to take
the five or six thousand dollars’ worth
of bills which would pass through his
hands on the following Saturday.
The money was taken out of the
bank on Saturday morning and placed
in the safe. During the morning Da
vis and Harvey, the cashier, made out
the envelopes. Harvey handed Davis
the bills to place in each envelope.
Harvey was short-sighted, and there
was a card index box between them.
Nothing would be easier than for Da
vis to place the empty envelope in the
safe and slip the bills into his pock
ets. The salaries would be paid be
tween four and five. Davis’ theft j
would remain undetected from one,
when he went out to lunch, till four.
Davis was not a bad man, but his
mind was warped. He believed him- j
self to be the victim of social in
justice. He had laid his plans with '
the utmost assurance. At one he
would leave the office, at 2:30 he would
sail on board the Boadicea for Bu
enos Aires. "With the last penny of
his savings he had engaged a passage
for England on board the Laodicea,
which left at three. He had lingered
just long enough in the steamship of
fice, and asked just enough questions
to impress his identity upon the clerk,
and raise a lingering interest which
might, under circumstances, become
an active suspicion.
.uavis was twenty-nine, and ne naa
been with the corporation seven
years, waiting patiently for his chance.
Cohen, the present manager, had told
Davis in strict confidence that he was
leaving; he had had a better offer.
“Say, Davis, know why old Krebs
turned you down before?” he asked.
“Spruce up, old man. Don’t be a slov
en. Get a fifty-dollar suit and tickle
the old man’s pride. And, say! Ever
notice that your cuffs are frayed?
Tickle the old man, make him think
he's paying you fine wages, if you
want to get on his right side—”
Davis repulsed Cohen’s confidences.
He was too bitter just then to think of
flattering Krebs. Besides, he had al
ready begun to formulate his scheme.
He bought the new suit, however.
That was part of the game. They
chaffed him on his spruce appearance
at the office on the Saturday morning,
but Davis said nothing. He hung up
his coat, put on the old office one, and
set to work.
He was in high good-humor, and pos
sessed by a sort of reckless audacity
which made the carrying out of the
plan easy. He almost laughed as he
adroitly slipped the bills into his
pockets under Harvey’s very eyes, and
placed the empty envelopes in the
safe. By noon, when the cashier went
out to his lunch, he had amassed near
ly five thousand dollars.
He waited till Harvey returned;
then he went out of the cage into the
president’s room.
"I am thinking of leaving you short
ly, Mr. Krebs,” said Davis.
“All right,” said Krebs.
Davis was taken aback.’ Krebs had
scored there. Davis stood looking at
him uneasily.
“I wish I could stay, sir,” he con
tinued, “but I have the offer of a po
sition in Cuba, to manage an estate,
and it is too good to refuse.”
Krebs seemed to wake up at that.
His eyes .began to bulge. He looked
at Davis as if he wondered at the
transformation in the slovenly clerk’s
appearance. Krebs hated losing men.
“Wait a minute!” he said. “See
here, young man. If you go to Cuba
vou’lL get malaria, and, yellow fever.
and dfe. T was thinking of making
you an offer. Mr. Cohen is leaving us
next month. I was counting on you to
fill his place. How much is your new
position worth?”
‘‘I’m not at liberty to say,” said Da
vis. “I’m sorry, sir, that I can’t recon
sider the matter.”
Krebs reddened and glared at him.
“What do you mean, you ‘can’t recon
sider’?” he growled. “Mr. Cohen is
getting twenty-five hundred. How
would that sum appeal to you?”
“It wouldn’t appeal at all,” said Da
vis, enjoying his triumph. “You’ve
ground me down for years and paid
me a dog’s wages. You are an in
fernal old skinflint, and I wouldn’t
work fpr you for twice that money.”
Davis withdrew. He knew that
Krebs would be gnawing his nails
with rage that night when he dis
covered the amount of the loss.
He had recovered his good humor by
the time he was in the street. He
made his way direct to the wharf,
picked up his suit-case en route, and
boarded the “Boadicea” five minutes
before she sailed.
He stood beside the rail looking
back at the receding panorama of New
York. He lit a cigar.
“I’ll take a deck chair, steward,” he
said.
“One dollar, please,” said- the stew
ard.
Davis felt in his pockets. He fished
up a dime and a nickel. He telt for
a bill. His pockets were empty.
He had left the coat with the bills
in the office, in the cashier’s cage.
(Copyright, 1915, by McClure Newspaper
Syndicate.)
A holder for ice cream cones has
been invented that enables them to
be filled without danger 01 oreaking.
Eleventh Grade School,
Foliowing is a list of those who
have contributed to the $700.00
fund necessary for the purpose
of aading the eleventh grade to
our high school next year and to
increase the term to nine months:
W. E. Jelks, $100.00
H. Arnof, 100.00
Dr. G. B. Fakes, 70.00
C. W. McCrory 50.00
L. W. Sturdivant, 25.00
J. R. Taylor, 25.00
T. W. Woodbury, 25.00
W B. Kyle, 20.00
Miss Nell Stewart, 12.50
C. Crotzer, 10.00
C. B. Cook, 10.00
R. L. Johnson, lO^JO
G. W. Barber, 10.00
C. T. Willis, 7.50
June Dallas, 5.00
Miss Mattie Wells, 5.00
Miss Ethel Johnson 5.00
Miss Ruth Best, 5.00
Walter W, Raney, 5.00
Total $500.00
J. O. Raymond will leave next
week for Hot Springs to spend
a few wreeks for his health.
Farm Demonstrator R. H. Ab
bey and Canning Demonstrator
Miss Eileen Critz spent yester
day at Bullville and are spending
today at Hunter.
Lee Douglass and two daugh
ters, little Misses Velma and
Mary, arrived today, Friday, for
a visit to his mother, Mrs. Re
bekah Douglass, who is ill.
OUR PUBLIC FORUM
IV—F. A. Vanderlip
On The Business of Banking *
The farmers of this nation to come into their 0WD
must study business. We must, as a class, understand
the fundamental principles that underlie every industry
its functions to society and its relation to agriculture for
there can be no intelligent co-operation without under
standing. Mr. F. A. Vanderlip, president of the National
City Bank of New York, when asked, “What is a bank?”
said in part:
“The first and most familiar function of a bank is
that of gathering up the idle money of a community
small sums and large, and thus forming a pool or reser
voir upon which responsible persons may draw as they
have temporary use for money. It is evident that this makes large sums in the
aggregate available for the employment of labor and the development of the
community. But much more is accomplished than the use of the money
actually deposited in the banks, for by the use of drafts, checks and bank
notes the efficiency of money is multiplied several times over. A very large
business, for example one of the great beef packers, may use very little
actual money; on one side of its bank account will be entered the checks
and drafts it is daily receiving from everywhere in payment for meats
while on the other side will be entered the checks it draws in payment for
cattle, etc., its only use of money being for small payments, to labor and
otherwise.
If there were but one bank in a community and everybody paid all
bills by drawing checks on th£t bank, and everyone receiving a check imme
diately deposited it in the bank, the amount of money in tl*e_bank evidently
would not change at all and the entire business of the community would be
settled on the books of the bank. And the situation is but slightly changed
when there are several banks, for they daily exchange among themselves all
the checks they receive on each other, which practically offset themselves,
although the small balances are paid in cash. This is called ‘clearing' and
in every large city there is a ‘Clearing House’ where representatives of the
banks meet daily to settle their accounts with each other.
A bank is constantly receiving from its customers, particularly those that
are shipping products to other localities, drafts and checks drawn on banks 1
in other cities, which it usually sends for deposit to a few correspondent
banks in the central cities with which it maintains permanent accounts. In
this way these scattered credits are consolidated and the bank draws upon
these accounts in supplying customers with the means of making payments
'■away from home. As each local community sells sfcid buys about the same
amount abroad in the course of a year, these payments largely offset each
other. It is evident that the banks are very intimately related to the trade
and industry of a country. The banker is a dealer in credit much more than
a dealer in money, and of course his own credit must be above'question. He
exchanges his credit for the credits acquired by the customers, and lends
credit for their accommodation, but he must conduct the business with such
judgment that he can always meet his own obligations with cash on demand. *
This is the essential thing about bank credit, that it shall always be the
same as cash.”
G. W. BARBER
NOTARY PUBLIC
AND INSURANCE
W. D. .Mathis of Hunter, agent
for the Overland car, is here to
day, Friday, and has sold a Si
lent Knight Overland to J. H.
Crossett. Also H. D. Swayze
has purchased an Overland. Mr.
Mathis stated that he had sold a
car to F. H. Cole of Hilleman
and one to J. D. Nix of Hunter.
Watch for the Overland ad to ap
pear in this paper.
T. T. McFall
AUTO
LIVERY
DAY OR NIGHT
Office at Waverly Hotel
PHONE 18.
Heart* In Connectlen
Established 1*W
H. T. RANEY
V j
Undertaker and Embalmer
COFFINS, CASI^TS AND ROBES
WcCRORY, •••••!•• ARK*