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document, and the lawyer who drew it knows nothing more about it.

Many men leave their wills with their lawyers. If this should not be done, then it would be well to keep it in the safe of the bank in which the testator has his account.

But whether in these places or another, there should be no doubt as to the existence of a will, or the place in which it may be found.

Only the last will should be kept; all preceding wills should be destroyed.

CARE OF PAPERS

While writing about the care of wills, we are struck with the recollection that wills are not the only papers of value that are apt to be mislaid or lost.

Never pay out money without taking a receipt, and never receive money without giving one.

You are not responsible for the care of the receipts you give, but you certainly are for the receipts you receive.

The trained business man has a place for everything, but there is no reason why the man not so well trained should have to turn his shop or his home upside down every time he wants a paper that proves he has paid a bill, which he must pay again if that receipt is lost.

Everything may be regarded as “lost” that cannot be found, even if you are sure “it is about somewhere.”

No valuable paper should be “about.” The only place for it is just where you can lay your hand on it when wanted.

In addition to keeping your papers where they can be found the instant they are wanted, see to it that every paper is self-explanatory and clear of meaning on the face of it.

CHECKS AND STUBS

It has been advised that the stub be always filled out before the check, and that the check be then copied from the stub. This course will greatly lessen the chances of disagreement between the two.

When the last check in the book has been filled and torn out, do not throw away the stubs. They contain important data and may be of use in proving payment should a question arise.

In like manner, never destroy the cancelled checks handed you by the cashier when your bank account has been balanced. Each of these checks, if drawn to order as it should be, is a receipt, a voucher, for some payment that may possibly be demanded again.

Be on the safe side.

SENDING AWAY MONEY

It may be well to repeat again, in more condensed form, just how money may be safely sent to a distance.

1. By bank draft, payable to your order and endorsed over to the person whom you wish to pay. The party receiving the draft must endorse it before he can collect, and this endorsement is a receipt for the money, as the cancelled draft must eventually come into your possession. 2. You can buy an express order up to fifty dollars, but you may send money in a package to any amount. Only banks or large dealers in money do this. Like the bank draft, the express order must be endorsed by the receiver, and the express company returns it to you, when it becomes a receipt. 3. By post office orders, up to one hundred dollars. 4. By postal notes, in small amounts. 5. By telegraph. 6. By transmitting a personal check. 7. By a trusted messenger authorized to get a receipt.

The bank draft is the very best way of transmitting money.

As has been said, drafts can be bought at any bank, and they should always be made payable to your order.

You want to pay a bill of goods to Lloyd, Smith and Company, New York, so you sign on the back of your draft for the amount:

Pay to the order of Lloyd, Smith and Company, Henry C. Robbins.

Lloyd, Smith and Company must endorse the draft before it can be cashed. The draft, after payment, is returned to you, and it becomes the best form of receipt.

LOST IN MAILS

Were you ever at the Dead Letter Office in Washington? If you have never paid such a visit, you can form no conception of the tons, the hundreds of thousands of letters and parcels that are lost every year in the mails.

Unaccounted for drafts, checks, postal orders, books, jewelry, medicine, everything, indeed, that the mails will agree to carry, may be found piled in that cemetery of lost communications, the Dead Letter Office.

Have you added to the mortuary list?

All these deaths, like many of living creatures, are due to carelessness.

As a rule, the sender is to blame. He has misdirected. He has placed papers not properly folded in the envelope and then neglected to seal it. He has neglected to write any address at all, and dropped the letter into the box. Again he has addressed the parcel, but neither men nor angels can decipher the writing.

MORE ABOUT NOTES

The note, as has been said, is one of the most usual forms of obligation, yet misunderstandings often arise as to its settlement.

Here are the points that must be attended to, nor shall we offer any excuse for repeating them collectively:

1. The date and amount must be so plainly written as to leave no doubt as to either. 2. The rate of interest, if any, must be clearly expressed. 3. The post office address of the signer or signees must be written opposite the name. 4. The note should be made payable at a definite place and on a definite date. 5. In taking a note or other obligation from a person who cannot write, be sure to have his “x” mark witnessed.

Should you receipt certificates of stock as security for the payment of a note, or the payment of any other debt, be sure to notify the company issuing them.

In giving this notice, which should be done at once, state clearly the number of shares you hold, the number of the certificates and to whom issued.

The enforcement of this rule will depend altogether on the character of the person with whom you are dealing.

Never, if you can help it, buy a past due note, especially if it is not secured by a mortgage.

If a note, which a third party has endorsed, becomes due, never agree to an extension of time without getting the written consent of the endorser.

Many men have lost through their ignorance of this essential transaction.

CHAPTER XXVI LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP

We are not quite through with the note.

When making a payment of principal or interest on a note, be sure to take a receipt for the amount, stating specifically what the payment is to be credited to. In addition, if it be possible, see that the sum paid be endorsed on the back of the note itself.

The endorsement of the sum paid on the back of the note bars its being negotiated for more than the amount actually due.

Sometimes the owner and the maker of a note live at points some distance apart. If you were the maker of the note, and wanted to make a payment, but wished to avoid the expense and annoyance of a trip, what should be done?

In this case a good plan would be to write to the owner of the note, asking him to send it by a certain bank in your neighborhood where you can pay. The bank will receive the cash, make the endorsement in your presence, and then send its check for the amount with the note to the owner.

You must pay the cost of this transaction.

Or you may send the amount to be credited on your note, through a bank draft, as already indicated.

Never destroy a cancelled note.

NOTES IN BANK

If you have money at a bank your note will form the chief evidence of indebtedness and be the paper for which the security is pledged.

Keep careful track of the date of payment and the amount. There must be no neglect or carelessness.

Never permit your note to go to protest.

If for any reason payment cannot be made at the time fixed, then the better way is to go, as soon as this is learned, to the bank or other holder of the note, and frankly explain the situation.

Bankers are not shylocks. They realize that good and responsible men are often disappointed in their collections, or in the payment of a sum on which they depended for the settlement of their account with the bank, and in such a case they are usually willing to grant an extension.

Private individuals, as note holders, should be treated in just the same way.

WELL TO KNOW

When calling at a bank for your note, always give the exact date on which the note falls due.

If the note belongs to another party, and is held by the bank for collection, then mention the name of the person to whom it was originally given.

If the bank has sent you a written notice about the note, take the notice with you. It will be found to contain all the desired facts.

Banks keep their own notes in one place and those of their customers in another.

Banks keep each date by itself, and can so find required notes more readily if the owner’s names and the dates are given.

DISCHARGING LIENS

Remember a mortgage is a lien or security given for the payment of a note.

If you get a mortgage, have it recorded at once.

If you pay off a mortgage, take it at once to the office of record and have the discharge of the instrument properly entered on the folio in which the mortgage is recorded.

Many lawsuits have resulted from the temporary neglect of this important duty.

BE PROMPT, BUT NOT TOO PROMPT

Sometimes a man will give a number of notes and secure them by one mortgage.

The notes may pass into the hands of a number of people.

Let us suppose that you hold one note and the mortgage, and that the mortgagee comes to you and tenders the amount of your note, should you then surrender the mortgage to him?

By no means, until the last note is paid that mortgage remains as security, and the holder of it is responsible for its safety to the holders of the other notes.

In such a case it is better to have the mortgage held by one party for the protection of all.

BE IN NO HASTE TO INVEST

When a person not accustomed to managing money comes into the possession of a sum that it is not safe to carry about in the pocket, what should he do with it?

Obviously the first answer to this question must be “He should put it in the bank.”

We have already given hints as to investments, and to these it is not necessary to refer again, we are now considering another and not an unusual phase of such a case.

Young men and women of all ages are very apt to be inexperienced in these matters. As soon as it becomes known that such people have come into the possession of a goodly amount of cash, which they are not considered competent to manage, it is surprising how past acquaintances suddenly pose as old and unselfish friends, each with a scheme for doubling the money while the owner is looking at it.

Now, there may be good, honest friends who are eager to advise and help in a case of this kind, but they are sure to be outnumbered by advisers who have their own little axes to grind.

Our advice is “Don’t be in a hurry to invest. Your cash is quite safe while in bank.”

But no matter how promising, do not invest your

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