of residence, he deserves little consideration, and it would seem that any such means are justified to obtain the end.
Let me close this discussion of personal collections with an illustration of a collector’s ingeniousness. The debtor in this particular case was tricky, made endless promises to pay but never made any attempt to keep them, always giving instead a new promise. The collector one day met a friend of his, a salesman of rather large build, about six feet tall, with a deep bass voice, whom he had not seen for some time. Possibly from thinking of the account so much, possibly from no particular reason at all, the collector suddenly had an idea and explained it to the salesman, who, from the very humor of it, agreed to do what was asked of him. They proceeded to the debtor’s store and while the collector went in, his friend remained outside. The collector presented his bill again, which was again refused, and he then informed the debtor that patience had ceased to be a virtue and his em- ployers refused to wait longer for the money justly due them. The debtor became a little uneasy, but only in- ‘ wardly, and decided to see what would happen. The col- lector went to the door, and called his large proportioned friend, who immediately produced paper and pencil and to all appearances began taking inventory of the merchant’s stock of goods. Although the merchant still had no def- inite idea as to just what the object was, and who the stranger was, and what his authority, the comedy worked to perfection, and the debtor hastened to write out his check for the bill, which incidentally was not a large one. When once outside the two friends laughed heartily over the episode.
