Show FINANCIAL AFFAIR I Tho IJrfMiiarkablo Success of Bertio and tho Secret of It When Bertie Fitzmordaunt Townsend I I brought his dull blase manner his English En-glish accent his craventan gloves hi II I carefully creased twentytwo inch trousers trou-sers and his enameled leather shoes with spotlessly white overgaiters into the office of Lewis Haydock it is needless to say i that he created a profound sensation The porters always took off their hats to him and country customers mistook him for a I special partner However all this gorgeousness gor-geousness cost the house only the mere triflo of 3 per week I Bertie was a young gentleman of wealthy I and aristocratic antecedents He had been rusticated from Harvard where he had I done his best to convincQ his father that a son at college was nearly as expensive a luxury as a steam yacht and had been placed with us in order to give him a chance to form some idea of the laboriousness i laborious-ness of the money getting process I Mr Lewis said lie was cheap at any i price for whenever he felt blue over the drop in Astrakhans or the slow sale of I dress goods he had only to look at Bertie i t and a fierce desire to get up and kick Jilin I would arise and sweep from his mind all I gloomy and depressing thoughts r By way of a start Bertie was detailed to look after thesmaller city collections and we used to picture to ourselves the consternation con-sternation of the tradesman whose little shop was invaded by so overpowering a j personage But we soon had reason to admit that he was not so stupid as he looked for the small bills were henceforth collected with unusual ease and rapidity I Delinquent debtors paid up long standing stand-ing accounts in a manner that was truly marvelous But the climax was reached when Bertie turned in the sum of S475 which he said was in settlement of tho five years old account ac-count of Mrs Mary McGee No 4765 Third avenue IOn I-On this occasion Mr Lewis called him 1 I into tho private office and congratulated him on his success remarking that if he kept up this creditable display of business i enterprise he would unquestionably develop de-velop into a future A T Stewart I But the crash was to come One day i Mrs McGee came into the store and as a J necessary preliminary to obtaining more i i goods offered to pay her last bill The 1 bookkeeper looked the matter up and told her it was paid in full She said it was not He insisted that it was and a wordy discussion dis-cussion ensued which resulted in her putting put-ting her money in her pocket and departing j depart-ing with a happy grin on her face i When Bertie came in from his rounds the bookkeeper tackled him Isnt Mary McGees account settled I Certainly returned Bertie But she was in today and wanted to payitWell 1 Well its paid ye know I ought to know ye know forah I ah paid it me self bah Jove F You paid it yourself Yaas I got tired of going to see the beggah the lahdy I meanand I paid it myself to save bother An investigation proved that Bertie had pursued this course wherever collections were difficult and his brilliant financial career came to an abrupt and untimely close Harry Romaine in Life |