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THE TELLER’S TRIALS
Some Feminine Eccentricities Before His Window.
“Many amusing as well as trying in
cideuts happen at the teller's window
every day, and a bank teller must be
a born diplomat as well as a careful
business man to be able to cope with
the situations in which lie finds him
self placed, especially when dealing
with women,” said the obliging man
behind the window grating the other
day.
"All sorts, kinds and conditions of
people follow each other in rapid suc¬
cession In front of our window, and
where w& have to use tact in dealing
with people whose experience in bank
ing methods has made them careless
as to their own interests or the bank’s,
we have to keep a sharp lookout all
the while to prevent any one of the
numerous sharpers from taking advan
tage of us. Most of the well-known
sharpers, however, are carefully de¬
scribed now, and their methods are
all on record, so that if one of the old
ones try It on us it is a pretty difficult
thing for him to make away with it.
There are new ones coming out all
the time, though, and they are the
ones that tax the shrewdness of the
teller to the utmost, for the sharpers
know that it takes something pretty
smooth In these days to get- by the
modern teller. But besides the occa¬
sional joker who comes In and asks
me to give him two tens for a five, I
haven’t had a single experience with
a sharper for the last six months—let
me rap on wood," he hastily said, as
he realized that his last statement had
been somewhat of a boast.
“Is there any one class of people
Tv ho give you especial trouble?" asked
the interviewer, sympathetically.
“No,” said he, smiling, “it Isn't a
matter of class at all. It is wholly a
matter of sex. I don't know why It is,
but women are notoriously the worst
offenders against the banking rules.
It is most likely that a great many
women have had little or no experi¬
ence with business affairs, and they
have hard work learning them. Don't
think for a minute that all of them are
that way, for some of our largest cus¬
tomers are women—business women—
and for shrewdness they are hard to
beat. But the average woman, when
she has any money in the bank, is like
a sailor on land.
a Not very many days
ago a young
woman with the gold band still new
on the third finger of her left hand,
came into the bank, looked around
carefully, went over to the desk in
the corner and began to write some¬
thing, Presently she finished and
made her way over to my window,
then very daintily she handed me the
pink check that she had been making
out. I didn’t remember having seen
her before, and so I looked at her a
mon>nt longer to see if I could place
her before I looked at the check.
Then I really did get a shock. The
name signed at the bottom of the
check was that^ of a prominent, busi¬
ness man around town whom I knew
well, and who had recently taken to
himself a wife. The check was made
out in the right order, but the name
signed was surely never written by
him, so I asked the lady, ‘Who signed
this?'
i " ‘Why, I did.’ answered she, with a
blush, but no signs of hesitancy. That
took me hack for a moment, for I had
never had any experience with a per¬
son quite so nervy before, but then
she went on, ingenuously:
“‘You- see, we were married a cou¬
ple of weeks ago, and as Jack has al¬
ready told me that everything that is
his is mine, too, I thought I would
draw some of his money to shop with
today.’
“This was a poser and no mistake.
I knew that she would never under¬
stand if I tried to explain all the de¬
tails of (he banking business, and that
Jack would he In for all sorts of trou¬
ble when he got home that evening,
so I just went into the next room and
called up her husband, who bad an of¬
fice only just around the corner, and
told him all about it. He had a good
laugh about it over the ’phone and
then hurried around to the bank. He
arrived before his wife had begun to
get impatient about the money, and,
pretending innocence, asked her what
she was doing there.
“Of course she told him all about It.
and then, after , telling , her that , there
might sometimes be a little trouble
about her getting money that way,
fixed her up with a little bank account
of her own to check ^gainst as she
pleased. 1 She went out as happy as
could be, but we might very easily
have caused them considerable trou¬
ble and lost a good customer, if we
had not been awful careful.
“Not quite so cheerfully did the
troubles of one girl prominent afteV in the
younger set turn out her father
bad had to leave town on business.
He deposited the money for her allow¬
ance for the time he would be gone,
and showed her how to make out her
checks, and told her to be very
ful how she made them out, and also
to be sure and not overdraw her
count. She promised to be careful—
j go checks far so began good—but to in a in few with days alarm- her
come
j ing frequency. They were all made
i out in perfect form, and there was no
doubt about her signature, so there
was onthing for us to do but pay them,
She had run her account down pretty
low. when one day she came in her¬
self with a check to be cashed. It was
a large check, and I thought that it
wouldn't do any harm to say a few
words about how near she was to
overdrawing her account. I did so as
carefully as I could, and she turned
i her face toward me full of amazement,
‘ ‘What.?’ she sa i U. ‘I. about to over
draw my account? Why, this is the
very first check 1 have drawn. There
must be a mistake somewhere. You
must have mistaken me for someone
else, * 9
“It was my turn to be astonished,
for if we really had made a mistake,
as she said, it would be a pretty big
mistake. So I asked her if she would
mind waiting a few minutes until I
could get the checks that we had cash
ed. She waited, and I hurried through
the book and found the checks in a
very short while; for I was beginning
to feel rather pale, I tell you.
“ ‘Why, where did you find these?’
she asked, Innocently, as I laid them
out before her.
“‘Do you recognize them?’ I asked,
feeling rather relieved.
“ ‘Why, yes, Indeed,’ said the fair
one, not at all abashed. ‘These are
the checks I wrote out just for prac¬
tice, and I thought they had all been
burned up.’
“What would you do in a case like
that? When I explained to her that
we had cashed the checks, as they had
been made out in regular order, and
that she would have to stand for it,
she was perfectly furious and insisted
that as she had only made out the
checks ‘for fun,’ that the bank ought
not to take her money.
“Of course, we couldn’t do anything
like that, and so she departed In a
rage, saying that she was going to tel¬
egraph her father and he would sure¬
ly do something awful.
“Her father did try to make trouble
for us, too, but we managed to explain
it more to his satisfaction and we fi¬
nally discovered how the whole affair
came about. It seems that the young
lady had a maid who, when she was
given the checks to throw out, had
recognized their value and had at once
made use of them; then, seeing that
she was in danger of getting into trou¬
ble over it, had quietly disappeared
leaving no trace.
The girl had been identified a short
while before by the cashier, so that
was all right, and I glanced over the
bunch of checks which she handed me.
They were mode out right, but every
one was made out to helf. Wonder¬
ing why she had taken the trouble to
make out so many when one would
have answered the purpose just as
well, I made bold to ask her. ‘Make
out one check?’ Why, the idea had
never entered her head, She had
made out a list of the various things
she intended to buy while she was o^it
shopping and so what was more natu¬
ral than that she should write a check
for the estimated cost of each, article.
“I tried to explain to her how easy
the other way would have been, but I
couldn’t seem to get her to catch my
idea. Finally she got angry with me,
and left the window in high dudgeon,
crying, ‘Now you’ve mixed me all up,
and I think you are < perfectly horrid.’
“I. was running into hard luck that
day, for right, behind her was a lady
whom I had never seen before. Yes,
I have a very good memory and
rarely mistake a face once it has been
presented at the window for identifi¬
cation. But this one was a perfect
stranger to me, and when she present¬
ed a check on an out-of-town hank I
knew that I should have to refuse her.
She seemed to be highly insulted at
my refusal to take her word for who
she was. I replied that personally I
would be only too glad to take her
word, but that the bank as an institu¬
tion could not very well afford to do
so.
“ ‘Why, I have all sorts of letters
and cards with me to show that I am
Mrs. ,’ and then she brought out
her purse, and took out some cards
and handed me one. I took it and
glanced at-the name. It was not the
name on the check, however, and I
mentioned the fact to her.
“ ‘Why,’ she began in confusion, as
j if ‘why* she 1 had have just i list thought been married of something, again;
I 1 !iat * tor ® ottei1 ,liat tbe clieck was in
1 my former name, but you see that
J check is alimpny from my former hus¬
band, and he always uses the other
uairie.’
“But she couldn’t get over the fact
that I couldn’t cash the check for
her. And saying that I was not a gen¬
tleman, she left.”—Washington Star.
How it Happened.
“True, the night was dark, but he
#
appeared to jump deliberately in
front of the automobile.”
“Force of habit. The poor fellow
an actor, and naturally dived'for
j the spotlight.’ Kansas City Journal,
PRACTICAL ADVICE ABOUT
DIVERSIFIED FARMING
• ♦-
Mixing a Track Fertilizer.
Fish scrap has about the same per¬
centage of nitrogen as cottonseed
mpal, no potash, and more than twice
as much phosphoric acid as the cot¬
tonseed meal. The meal will have
nearly two per cent, of potash, which
^he ECra P lucks. But in making
a mixture of acid phosphate and pot¬
ash you will not need this additional
phjpphoric acid, and can get more
potash in the meal. But if you use
the muriate of potash to make I
a fertilizer mixture, you will not j
need the potash in the meal,
and It is probable that if you
use sbeh a low grade article for pot¬
ash as kainit it would be better to
use the meal as an additional source
for potash. Your soil needs a good
percentage of potash, and it is diffi¬
cult to get a large percentage in the
fertilizer if kainit is used. For
truck purposes I have found that the
following is an excellent mixture:
Acid phosphate, 900 pounds, cotton¬
seed meal 600 pounds, nitrate of so¬
da 100 pounds, and muriate of pot¬
ash 400 pojunds. To get the same
percentage of potash in kainit, you
would have to use nearly 1600
pounds. It is cheaper to get potash
in the muriate than in kainit, as
you need to buy so much less. Kain¬
it is a poor article for truck crops,
especially near the sea, where you
have salt enough already, and kainit
is mainly salt, while the muriate is
half potash.—Professor Massey.
Southport Globe Onions.
Connecticut’s famous Southport
Globe onions stand unsurpassed
among popular Amerlccan varieties
of the onion. They are in high favor
in some of the finest commercial
onion growing districts of Ohio and
New York and during a few years
past have made a steady advance in
standing everywhere as a highly bred,
perfect onion. Eastern onion growers
use the red and white Southport
Globes to produce the exceptionally
i
W V n
m m
■
Southport White Globe.
large, solid, beautifully formed bulbs
that bring top prices in New York
City markets.
Besides the two varieties named,
there is a yellow Southport Globe
that resembles the others in shape
and general character, but is of a rich
yellow color.
The white is one of those beauti¬
fully white, perfectly globe shaped
onions that take the eye and bring
highest price in any market. Its skin
is thin and paper like, the flesh fine
grained, crisp and mild flavored. Add
to this that it is a tremendous crop¬
per, and it represents almost an ideal
product in its line.—Weekly Witness.
The Home Grounds,
The home grounds may be com¬
pared with a picture in which the
lawn forms the canvas, with the
house the principal centre of interest.
Viewed in this way the house should
not be hidden behind a yardful of
trees, but should, at least, have the
front facing an open stretch of lawn.
Trees, if planted near the house, are
preferably placed at the side and
rear, so as to form a setting and a
b/ 3 kground for it. The usual prac¬
tice of planting several rows of trees
running from the front of the house
to the street is only conducive to
monotony in effect and furthermore
it is very difficult to establish and
maintain a lawn under such circum
stances.
, The most appropriate places for
large trees are along the boun- j
daries of the grounds. The most j
pleasing way to place them is not >
in straight lines, but in groups, with j
lower-growing kinds in front and to
ward the centre of the grounds.
A stronger massing of trees and
tall shrubs may be used in the prop
er position to shield the house from
the prevailing winds. By using a
variety of trees with tall shrubs next,
and smaller shrubs in front, a most
effective wind break may be formed,
and by planting the latter in irregu
lar groups a much more pleasing
effect is possible than where all are '
placed in formal rows.
Evergreen trees are most desirable
on the north and west, because of
their effective wind-break qualities
in winter. They are not suitable
trees for the south side of a house
or in front of windows, In winter
the sunshine should be given a free
chance to enter the windows and
thereby greatly add not only to the
cheerfulness of the rooms, but also
to the lowering of the fuel bill.
The smaller shrubs and flowering
annuals are best placed in the cor
ners bv the porches, along the base
of the house wall and in frant of the
larger plants at the sides of the lawn.
Groups of such plants on either side
of the entrance gates are usually
very pleasing.—Southern Cultiva
tor.
How to Cultivate Sweet Potatoes.
The .first thing is to select a
smooth piece of land not too rich,
commencing not later than March
and keep it well plowed and dragged
until time to transplant the slips;
in dragging with a split-log drag with
the split side down.
Next, lay off the rows three and a
half feet wide; avoid turn rows as
much as possible; list with a turn
plow and follow with scooter in same
furrow. Drag off list with light poll
before setting out slips. Set out the
slips sixteen inches apart. Use a sack
of good guano per acre, Do not use
any top dressing as it makes the vines
root too much in the middles. Run
rows so as to have a little drain to
avoid the covering up of the vines
and preventing them from taking
root in the middle, Cultivate shal
low and fast and lay by early, using
a small turn plow and an eighteen
inch scrape in laying-by.
About the middle of October is the
time to dig and put away potatoes.
In determining when the potatoes
are ripe, cut one and let lay in sun
a day; if the potato dries white it is
ripe. Dig when the ground is dry;
hill up and cover at once. A very
important thing is not to pull off the
small strings as it sometimes makes
the potato rot.
Avoid bruising the potato as much
as possible, by using sacks in the bas¬
ket you carry the potatoes in. Put
coriistalks next to potatoes, a little
dry grass, just enough to keep the
dirt from running through to the
potato, then put on dirt nearly on
top of hill and spread sacks over
top with dirt on edges. Stay in this
way until cold weather and then fin¬
ish covering. Judge for yourself the
thickness of the dirt.
Another very important thing is
the sheltering of the hill. Now the
way to have your cornstalks is to cut
them this winter and “put in a dry
house and use them next fall. In
this way I have always been success¬
ful in keeping my sweet potatoes.—
W. J. McDaniel, in Southern Cultiva
tor.
Put a Crop Between Clover and To¬
bacco.
There is a prejudice among the
growers of bright tobacco against
either clover or peas preceding to¬
bacco, while growers of dark tobac¬
co in Virginia depend almost entire¬
ly on clover to make their tobacco.
And yet even the growers of bright
tobacco value a soil that has a good
deal of humus in it and will clear up
a pine thicket to get this. While clo¬
ver immediately preceding bright or
mahogany tobacco may not be advis¬
able, I would nevertheless use crim¬
son clover and peas, too, in the im¬
provement of land for tobacco, but
would always pdt another crop in be¬
tween these and the tobacco. I sup¬
pose that in your section you grow
the mahogany leaf, and in that case
I would not advise you to sow clover
this fall on land to go in tobacco
next spring. But I am' sure that by
a good rotation of crops and the im¬
provement of the soil through the
use of legumes you can increase the
amount and improve the quality of
your tobacco. If I could not do this
I would drop the tobacco and grow
crops that would let me improve the
soil.—W. F. Massey.
Soda on Millet and Corn.
it may pay to scatter seventy-five
to 100 pounds of nitrate of soda on
the millet after it is up and when it
is dry from rain or dew to prevent
scalding the leaves. I never have
used a plow in the corn field for
many years and never used nitrate
of soda on corn, and do not believe
it will pay. Corn should be planted
on a well manured clover sod. Then
the winter grain following will need
only acid phosphate and potash, to
be followed by peas and crimson
clover and then back to the corn
with the clover and manure.—W. F.
; Stay on the Farm.
It requires a strongeh head *and
a stronger heart to take charge of
farm than to go to town and
become a part of the machinery. If
are a weak-minded’.young man,
have not the courage to do a
woi-k, it will of course be
for you to go to town and be a
in one of the little town machine
You will be soon forgotten
and your failure will scarcely
noticed.—Farm and Market.
OPEN DEALING IN PAINT.
Buying paint used to be li the
proverbial buying of a .. Pt* . In
poke. #» Mixtures In whirl) chalk, t
ground rock, etc., predominat "ere
marked and sold as ’•Pure White
Lead,” the deception not be;
parent until the paint and th. n,,,
Ing were paid for. Th,is deception i
still practiced, but we have ) ned
to expose It easily.
National Lead Company. th< !Hre.
est makers of genuine Pure White
Lead, realizing the Injustice thr "’33
being done to both property owner*
,and about honest to make paint paint manufacturer's,* buyim
They now first famous adopted “Dutch-Boy a trade’murk’th« 9
p a . nter,* #
and put this trade mark. fts a, gij ar
anty of purity, .
on every package o*
their White Lead. They then set
about familiarizing the public with
the glow-pipe test by which the Puri¬
ty and genuineness of White Lead
may be determined, and furnished a
blow-pipe free to every it. one who
would write them for This ac¬
tion was in itself a guaranty of the
purity of National Lead Comrianv’a
White Lead.
As the result of this open dealing
the paint buyer to-day has only him¬
self to blame if he is defrauded, For
test outfit address and valuable bookiet Com" on
painting National Lead
pany, Woodbridge Bldg., New York.
One idle man can keep several per¬
sons from doing the work they want
to do.
REMOVES CORNS WITHOUT PAIv,
Abbott’s east Indian coax paint removes
corns, root and all, without cutting or burn¬
ing and leaves no soreness. It cures soft
corns between the toes, bunions or sore
callous spots. It cures all quick and per¬
manent. Get it at your druggist or send
25c. to The Abbott Co., Savannah, Ga.
Hot weather suggestion—Get your
best girl miffed, then there will be a
coolness between you.
Hicks' Capudine Cures Headache,
Whether Strain. from No Cold, Heat, Stomach, oi
Mental Acetanilid or dangerous
drugs. It’s Liquid. Effects immediately,
10c., 25c., and 50c„ at drug stores
Old Schoolmates of Theirs.
A conductor sent a new brakeman
to put some tramps off the train; they
were riding in a box car. The brake
man dropped into the car and said,
I Where are you fellows going?” “To
Atchison. »» “Well, you can’t go to
Atchison on this train; so get off.”
it You get,” same the reply, and as the
new brakeman was looking into the
business end of a gun he took the ad¬
vice given him and “got. ' • He went
hack to the caboose, and the conductor
asked him if he had put the fellows
off. H No,” he answered, “I did not
have the heart to put them off. They
want to go to Atchison, and, besides,
they are old schoolmates of mine.”
The conductor used some very strong
language, and then said he would put 1
them off himself. Ha went over to
the car and met with the same ex¬
perience as the brakeman. When he
got, back to the cabocse the brakeman
said, “Well, did you put them off?”
“Naw, they’re schoolmates of mine,
too.”—Washington (Kan.) News.
Yield of an Indiana Honey Tree.
The first “bee tree’’ found in this
part of the State for many years was
discovered yesterday near Merom by
James Edmondson, a Terra Haute
man, who, with a fishing outfit, is
floating down the Wabash River.
After cutting down the tree and
smoking the bees out, Mr. Edmondson
got thirty pounds of fine wild honey.—
Sullivan correspondence Indianapolis
News.
FRIENDLY TIP
Restored Hope and Confidence.
After several years of indigestion
and its attendant evil influence on the
mind, it is not very surprising that
one finally loses faith in things gen¬
erally.
A N. Y. woman writes an interest¬
ing letter. She says:
“Three years ago I suffered from
an attack of peritonitis which left me
in a most miserable condition, For
over two years I suffeied from ner¬
vousness, weak heart, shortness of
breath, could not sleep, etc.
“My appetite was ravenous but I
felt starved all the time, I had
plenty of food but it did not nourish
me because of intestinal indigestion.
Medical treatment did not seem to
help, I got discouraged, stopped medi¬
cine and did not care much whether
I lived or died.
“One day a friend asked me why I
didn’t try Grape-Nuts, stop drinking
coffee and use Postum. I had lost
faith id everything, but to please my
friends I began to use both aud soou
became very fond of them.
“It wasn’t long before I got some
strength, felt a decided change in my
system, hope sprang up in my heart
and slowly but surely I got better.
could sleep very well, the constant
craving for food ceased and I h av -
better health now than before the at
tack of peritonitis.
“My husband and I are still using
Grape-Nuts and Postum. •‘There’s
a Reason.” Battle
Name given by Postum Co.,
Creek, Mich. Read, The Road to
Wellville,” in pkgs.
. Ever read the above letter? A J,e ‘ v
one appears from time to time, They
are genuine, true, aud full of human
interest.