Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — THE SMALL-CHANGE POCKET. [ARTICLE]

THE SMALL-CHANGE POCKET.

It Breeds Profligacy and There-Should Be a Crusade Against It. “A ‘Congress to Abolish the SmallChange Pocket’ would be an appropriate way in which to wind up the series ofmeetiigfl uncfer Bonney, ,r remarked a sad-eyed man at Chicago. “There is nothing in the world that tends more in the direction of profligate expenditures. The Sherman law has had the major part of the burden of hard times laid upon its shoulders, but no greater evil to the prosperity and financial well-doing of humanity exists to-day than the little receptacle on the right-hand side of a man’s coat, where the stray nickels, dimes, quarters, and halves find their way when a large bill is changed. From the moment the coins drop into the pocket they might as well be charged up to dead loss,-for the owner loses their identity right then and there, so far as value is concerned. It is so easy, when passing along through the streets, in the shops, or the many places where there are opportunities to spend money in little driblets, to dip into this pocket, and it is cleaned out before one has any notion of it. To the change-pocket also I lay the blame to a considerable extent of the increase in the drink habit. Many a man has indulged himself in a cocktail simply because he had the price so handy, whereas had he kept it in a purse he might have thought twice before drinking. I might go on enumerating the evils growing out of the small-change pccket system, but I have told enough to show that the time has arrived to take up the cudgel against it and begin the crusade for its abolishment.”