Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1898 — BUSINESS WAS BUSINESS. [ARTICLE]

BUSINESS WAS BUSINESS.

How a Navy Paymaster Took a Fall Out of the Bank of Kngland. The late Paymaster Clark, of the United States navy, of Delaware, was attached to one of the ships on the European station during the period of the civil war. It may have been the Kearsarge, but it its not important. She was an armed vessel and had been long at sea, and came In for coal, provisions and to give the men a liberty day on shore. To meet these and other expenses it was necessary to have some £B,OOO (men are paid in the currency of the country they may be in when on foreign staitions), and Paymaster Clark drew sight drafts on the subtreasury of New York through the Government agents, J. S. Morgan & Co., bankers, in old Broad street, London. Accompanied by the vice consul he went to the Plymouth branch of the Bank of England, and presenting his drafts, asked to have them changed for notes and gold. The bank manager, not content with exercising proper commercial scrutiny, was very nasty, and finally said: “Well, I do not know the subtreasury. Ido not know the paper nor you, and I have never had business with the gentleman who is United States vice consul here, so I won’t cash your drafts. You say J. S. Morgan will indorse them. You had better go up to London and let him cas.i them.”

Mr. Clark went out to the telegraph office, put himself In communication with Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Morgan went to the Bank of England in London, the manager sent word to the Plymouth branch manager, and that gentleman came personally to the Royal Hotel and, with his hat in hand, begged to be of service to Paymaster Clark In any way that gentleman wobld suggest. The apparently placated paymaster, accompanied by his clerk, accompanied the bank officer to the bank. The drafts were duly passed over and a large bundle of Bank of England notes placed before the paymaster. “What are these?” said Clark. “Those are Bank of England notes.” “Yes, I see they are notes signed by Frederick May that the bank will pay bearer, etc. Well, I do not know Mr. May, and, of course, I do not know you. This paper may be good, but I have no assurance otf that. I’ll trouble you for the gold.” The humiliated bank manager had to hunt It up, and Paymaster Clark carried it down to the boat in triumph. “I would have preferred part of the money in notes,” he said, “hut I couldn’t refuse the chance of getting even.”

A feature of the population statistics of western Australia is the large proportion of males to females. The disparity is maintained in the arrivals by sea. At present there are forty-flyp females to every 100 males.