People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1897 — DONE BY CHECKS. [ARTICLE]

DONE BY CHECKS.

The Actual Cash Does Not Often Pass in Business Transactions. [Gath’s New York letter.] There are few groups of men that cannot be instantly interested by chat about large sized bank checks or large sums of money that nave passed between men in business transactions. In a gathering recently of five or six gentlemen, most of whom, at least, are reputed to be wealthy, doubt was expressed by each one if there is a man in New York who could draw his check for 81,000,000 and have it honored in actual cash. One of the gentle men, an eminent financier, said: “If you will take up the bank reports and run over the figures you will be astonished to see how few banks have actually 81,000,000 in cash on hand. That tells the story at once of any man’s ability to check out 81,000,000. We are in the habit on this side of the -water of thinking that the accumulation of money in London is greater than in New York. I know of an instance not long since which is a fair illustration of these milliondollar checks. A London man had a business transaction in which a payment was to be made to him of £68,000. For business reasons he did not wish the checks to be passed as in ordinary business transactions. A check had been given to him on Mills, Glynn, Currie & Co., who are the recognized outside bankers of the Bank of England. He went to them and demanded the cash for the check. They had not so much money on hand, and were obliged to ask him to wait until they could go to the Bank of England and procure it. When he had secured the cash he went to another banker to make a deposit. The second house refused to accept the money on deposit until he explained to them in xhe fullest manner where he got it. They had never heard of so large a de posit being made in cash at one time. They would not accept it without knowing where it came from, and looked on him with suspicion. Of course the Bank of England had money enough to meet such a check or a much larger one, the same as the United Stales treasury would be able to meet a great demand. But the fact that £68,000 should be a stumper for two of the biggest banking establishments of Loudon indicates how small a part, actual cash plays in the business transactions of the day.

A howi comes up from the kennels of our three headed Cerberus, Monopoly, against the Free Distribution of seeds thro’ the Department of Agriculture. Whose business is Uncle Sam interfering with, now? It sounds very like the cry raised for the government to go out of the banking business. The politicians promised us good times as soon as the election was over. They did not say whom the times would be good for. They' have come all right, but they are not the kind of times the people were looking for. They are like the clown’s cat. He presented a cat to his sweetheart. She named it Julia. He was so indignant over this that he laid his troubles before his friend for consolation. He was reminded that there was no particular wrong about naming a eat Julia. “Yes, but calling that cat, Julia,” he remonstrated. “Why not that cat as well as any other cat?” was asked. “It wasn’t that kind of a cat,” he answered