Used Up
I am tempted to believe, that few--very few men can start in the
world--say at twenty, with a replete invoice of honesty, free and
easy--kind, generous--good-natured disposition, and keep it up, until
they greet their fortieth year. There are, doubtless, plenty of men--I
hope there are, who would be entirely and perfectly generous-hearted,
if they could, with any degree of consistency; and I know there are
multitudes w
o wouldn't exhibit an honorable or manly trait, of any
human description, if they could. That class thrive best, it appears to
me--if the accumulation of dollars and dimes be Webster, Walker, or
Scriptural interpretation of that sense--in this sublunary world.
Meanness and dishonesty win what good nature and honesty lose, hence the
more thrift to the former, and the less gain, pecuniarily considered, to
the latter. The subject is very prolific, and as my present purpose is
as much to point a humorous sketch as to adorn a moral, I needs must
cut speculative philosophistics for facts, in the case of my friend John
Jenks, an emphatic--"used up" good fellow.
Jenks started in this world with a first-rate opinion of himself and the
rest of mankind. No man ever started with a larger capital of good
nature, human benevolence, and common honesty, than honest John. Few men
ever started with better general prospects, for "a good time," and
plenty of it, than Jenks. He graduated with honor to himself and the
Institute of his native State, and with but little knowledge beyond the
college library and the social circles of his immediate friends. At
twenty-three, John Jenks went into business on his own hook.
Of course John soon formed various and many business acquaintances; he
learned that men were brothers--should love, honor, and respect one
another, from precepts set him at his father's fireside. He formed the
opinion, that this brotherhood was not to be alienated in matters of
business, for he never refused to act kindly to all; he freely loaned
his autograph and purse to his business acquaintances; but, being
backed up by a snug business capital, he seldom felt the necessity of
claiming like accommodation, or he would have gotten his eye teeth cut
cheaper and sooner.
"Jenks," said a business man, stopping in at Jenks' counting room one
September morning, "Perkins & Ball, I see, have stopped--gone to
smash!"
"Have they?" quickly responded Jenks.
"They have, and a good many fingers will be burnt by them," replied the
informant. "By the way, Barclay says you have some of their paper on
hand; is it true?" continued the man.
"I have some, not much," answered Jenks--"not enough at all events to
create any alarm as to their willingness or ability to take it up."
But in looking over his "accounts," Jenks found a considerably larger
amount of Perkins & Ball's paper on hand, than an experienced business
man might have contemplated with entire Christian resignation. The
gazette, in the course of a few days, gave publicity to the smash of
the house of Perkins, Ball & Co. There was a buzz "on 'change;" those
losers by the smash were bitter in their denunciatory remarks, while
those gaining by the transaction snickered in their sleeves and kept
mum. Jenks heard all, and said nothing. He reasoned, that if the firm
were smashed by imprudences, or through dishonest motives, they were
getting "an elegant sufficiency" of public and private vituperation,
without his aid. Though far from his thoughts of entering into such
"lists," and inclined to hold on and see how things come out--Jenks,
for the credit of common humanity, seldom recapitulated the amount, by
discounting, &c.--he was likely to be in for, if P. & B. were really
"done gone." This resolve, like some rules, worked both ways.
As "honest John" was drawing on his gloves to leave his commercial
institution, after the above occurrences had had some ten days' grace;
one evening, the senior partner of the house of Perkins & Ball came in.
Greetings were cordial, and in the private office of Jenks, an hour's
discourse took place between the merchants; which, in brief
transcription, may be summed up in the fact, that Jenks received a
two-third indemnification on all his liabilities for the smashed
house of P. & B., which the senior partner assured him, arose from the
fact of his, Jenks', gentlemanly forbearance in not joining the clamor
against them, in the adverse hour, nor pushing his claims, when he had
reason to believe that they were down; quite down at the heel. Jenks
"hoped" he should never be found on the wrong or even doubtful side of
humanity, gentlemanly courtesy, or Christian kindness; they shook hands
and parted; the senior partner of the exploded firm requesting, and
Jenks agreeing, to say every thing he could towards sustaining the honor
of the house of P. & B., and recreating its now almost extinguished
credit. Those who fought the bankrupt merchants most got the least, and
because Jenks preserved an undisturbed serenity, when it was known that
he was as deeply a loser, they supposed, as any one, they were staggered
at his philosophy, or amused at his extreme good nature. This latter
result seemed the most popular and accepted notion of Jenks' character,
and proved the ground-work of his pecuniary destruction.
The firm of Perkins & Ball crept up again; Jenks had, on all occasions,
spoken in the most favorable terms of the firm; he not only freely
endorsed again for them, but stood their referee generally. In the
meantime, Jenks' celebrity for good nature and open-heartedness had
drawn around him a host of patrons and admirers. Jenks' name became a
circulating medium for half his business acquaintances. If Brown was
short in his cash account, five hundred or a thousand dollars----
"Just run over to Jenks'," he'd say to his clerk; "ask him to favor me
with a check until the middle of the week." It was done.
"Terms--thirty days with good endorsed paper," was sufficient for the
adventurous Smith to buy and depend on Jenks' autograph to secure
the goods. When in funds, Bingle went where he chose; when a little
short, Jenks had his patronage. Jenks kept but few memorandums of acts
of kindness he daily committed; hence when the evil effects of them
began to revolve upon him--if not mortified or ashamed of his
"bargains," he at least was astounded at the results. Brown, whose due
bills or memorandums Jenks held, to the amount of seven thousand
dollars, accommodation loans, took an apoplectic, one warm summer's
day, after taking a luxurious dinner. Jenks had hardly learned that
Brown's affairs were pronounced in a state of deferred bankruptcy, when
the first rumor reached him that Smith had bolted, after a heavy
transaction in "woolens"--Jenks his principal endorser--Smith not
leaving assets or assigns to the amount of one red farthing.
"By Jove!" poor Jenks muttered, as he tremulously seated himself in his
back counting room--"that's shabby in Smith--very shabby."
The next morning's Gazette informed the community that Bingle had
failed--liabilities over $200,000--prospects barely giving hopes of ten
per cent, all around; and even this hope, upon Jenks' investigation,
proved a forlorn one; by a modus operandi peculiar to the heartless,
self-devoted, they got all, Jenks and the few of his ilk, got
nothing!
For the first time in his life, Jenks became pecuniarily moody. For the
first time, in the course of his mercantile career, of some six years,
the force of reflection convinced him, that he had not acted his part
judiciously, however "well done" it might be, in point of honor and
manliness.
The next day Jenks devoted to a scrutiny of his accounts in general with
the business world. He found things a great deal "mixed up;" his
balance-sheet exhibited large surplusages accumulated on the score of
his leniency and good nature; by the credit of those with whom he held
business relations. A council of war, or expediency, rather,--solus,
convinced Jenks, he had either mistaken his business qualifications, or
formed a very vague idea of the soul--manners and customs of the
business world; and he broke up his council, a sadder if not a wiser
man.
"By Jove, this is discouraging; I'll have to do a very disagreeable
thing, very disagreeable thing: make an assignment!"
"Who'd thought John Jenks would ever come to that?" that individual
muttered to himself, as he proceeded to his hotel. And ere he reached
his plate, at the tea-table, a servant whispered that a gentleman with a
message was out in the "office" of the hotel, anxious to see Mr. Jenks.
"Mr. Jenks--John Jenks, I believe, sir?" began the person, as poor
Jenks, now on the tapis for more ill news, approached the person in
waiting.
"Precisely, that's my name, sir," Jenks responded.
"Then," continued the stranger, "I've disagreeable business with you,
Mr. Jenks; I hold your arrest!"
"Good God!" exclaimed Jenks; "my arrest? What for?"
"There's the writ, sir; you can read it."
"A writ? Why, God bless you, man, I don't owe a dollar in the world,
but what I can liquidate in ten minutes!"
"Oh, it's not debt, sir; you may see by the writ it's felony!"
If the man had drawn and cocked a revolver at Jenks, the effect upon his
nervous system could not have been more startling or powerful. But he
recovered his self-possession, and learned with dismay, that he was
arrested--yes, arrested as an accessory to a grand scheme of fraud and
general villany, on the part of Smith, a conclusion arrived at, by those
most interested, upon discovery that Jenks had pronounced Smith "good,"
and endorsed for him in sums total, enormously, far beyond Jenks' actual
ability to make good!
It was in vain Jenks declared, and no man before ever dreamed of
doubting his word, his entire ability to meet all liabilities of his own
and others, for whom he kindly become responsible; for when the bulk
of Smith's paper with Jenks' endorsement was thrust at him, he gave
in; saw clearly that he was the victim of a heartless forger.
But his calmness, in the midst of his affliction, triumphed, and he
rested comparatively easy in jail that night, awaiting the bright future
of to-morrow, when his established character, and "troops of friends"
should set all right. But, poor Jenks, he reckoned indeed without his
host; to-morrow came, but not "a friend in need;" they saw, in their
far-reaching wisdom, a sinking ship, and like sagacious rats, they
deserted it!
"I always thought Jenks a very good-natured, or a very deep man," said
one.
"I knew he was too generous to last long!" said another.
"I told him he was green to endorse as freely as he did," echoed a
third.
"Good fellow," chimed a fourth--"but devilish imprudent."
"He knows what he's at!" cunningly retorted a fifth, and so the good
but misguided Jenks was disposed of by his "troops of friends!"
But Perkins & Ball--they had got up again, were flourishing; they, Jenks
felt satisfied, would not show the "white feather," and the thought came
to him, in his prison, as merrily as the reverse of that fond hope
made him sad and sorrowful, when at the close of day, his attorney
informed him, that Perkins & Ball regretted his perplexing situation,
but proffered him no aid or comfort. They said, sad experience had shown
them, that there were no "bowels of compassion" in the world for the
fallen; men must trust to fortune, God, and their own exertions, to
defeat ill luck and rise from difficulties; they had done so; Mr.
Jenks must not despair, but surmount his misfortunes with a stout heart
and a clear conscience, and profit, as they had, by reverses!
"Profit!" said Jenks, in a bitter tone, "profit by reverses as they
have!"
"Why, Powers," he continued to his counsel, "do you know that if I had
been a tithe part as base and conscienceless as they are now, Perkins
& Ball would be beggars, if not inmates of this prison! Yes, sir, my
casting vote, of all the rest, would have done it. But no matter; I had
hoped to find, in a community where I had been useful, generous and
just, friends enough for all practical purposes, without carrying my
business difficulties to the fireside of my parents and other relations.
But that I must do now; if, if they fail me, then---- I cave!"
Two days after that conference of the lawyer and the merchant, "honest
John" learned, with sorrow, that his father was dead; estate involved,
and his friends at home in no favorable mood in reference to what they
heard of John Jenks and his "bad management" in the city.
John Jenks--heard no more--he "caved!" as he agreed to.
We pass over Jenks' Smithsonian difficulty, which a prudent lawyer and
discerning jury brought out all right.
We come to 1850--some fifteen or eighteen years after John Jenks
"caved." The John Jenks of 183- had been ruined by his good nature, set
adrift moneyless, in a manner, with even a spotted reputation to begin
with; he "profited by his reverses," he was now a man of family--fifty,
fat, and wealthy, and altogether the meanest and most selfish man you
ever saw!
Jenks freely admits his originality is entirely--"used up!" The reader
may affix the moral of my sketch--at leisure.