AN ENTERPRISING BOOKKEEPER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 227, 20 September 1878, Page 3

AN ENTERPRISING BOOKKEEPER.

The man who usually attends to the Daily Post business counter went on a pic-nic oh Saturday, and everybody else being engaged the P.P. Man was assigned to look after the rush of advertisements. The first customer was a lady who had lost a pet kitten. She wanted to know what it would cost to have it inserted. The P.P. Man was struck. He wanted to know whether she meant the kitten or the advertisement. She said the advertisement, which he told her was lucky, for the kitten would have been pied in going through the press. He said it would cost her fifty cents a line, but this horrified her. She claimed that for a feline he ought not to charge such a fee per line, so he made her an offer. He told her he would put it in every day for three' years, ten cents a line, and this seemed more reasonable. She paid the sum 109 dolls. 50 cents, being 30 cents a day for 365 days, including Sundays, in advance, promising to pay for the other two years as soon as she found the kitten. At the end of the year the P.P. Man will pass off an old cat on the lady, and claim the balance of his advertising bill. She had hardly passed out when another lady came in. She had found a kitten. In the kindness of his heart the P.P.M. called after the old lady, and said the kitten had already been found. She came back in great haste and was overjoyed to recognise it as hers. She was about to pass out when the P.P. Man called her back. - { You owe the establishment two hundred and nineteen dollars," he said blandly. ** How so ? " she inquired. " You were to pay for the other two i years as soon as you found the kitten."

-.** Yes, but you have not put the ad-, vertisement in yet." ** Quite true," he said, smiling, " but the fact remains that you were to pay when you found the kitten. We have a great paper. It is not necessary to insert the advertisement. You have but to pay for its insertion and the finder turns up at once. Did you ever hear tell ot Edison?" She said that she had not. " Well," continued the P.P. Man, --ho has invented a phonograph for printing offices. As soon as you paid for the advertisement and mentioned the word kitten, the. sound struck the finder, and she at once turned up with the lost pet." ** But the kitten isn't worth so large a sum," she murmured. •* Ah, of course you're the best judge of ( that, bnt that alters not the case. A contract is a contract, even in Camden. The regular man who waits upon this counter is away, and let me tell you, my dear madam, this is fortunate. Were he here, I am confident that he would have charged you 500dols. for such an ad. As it is, I am letting you off cheap. ..Your case is one of many. You shewed your disposition to pay several hundred dollars for the finding of the cat. Having found it through the agency of our widely-circulated journal, you now hesitate, aye, madam, you murmur. Such is woman. Woman is frail, but I did not think 'twould come to this. Well, madam, do you refuse to pay for the other two years ? If so I must hold the kitten as security." At this the old lady began to weep copiously, and in the humility of her heart, she apologised again for her insincerity. She paid the sum and departed, with the kitten in her arms. The other old lady claimed 25d015. reward for bringing back the kitten, was readily paid by the " other old lady," and both were gone. These two customers of course occupied the P. P. man's time for the whole morning. Trade was dull during the afternoon. He only sold seventeen thousand copies of the paper, and the entire amount received for advertisements did not reach a thousand dollars. When the regular man came back he asked the substitute how he had made out. " Took in thirty cents for a lost kitten ad," he replied, " and sold 5000 copies of the paper." " What!" shrieked the regular man, ** is this the result of your day's work ? I vow I'll never go on another picnic as long as I live. I might have known that such a num-skull, without any knowledge of the business, could not attend to the advertisements." The P. P. Man said he couldn't help it. He handed over the thirty cents and the money for the papers. The rest he claims as his commissions, and he earned them by dint of harti work~and ho is entitled to them by all the laws of the commission business. You can see him about the office any time waiting for the regular man to go on another picnic.— Camden Post.