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THE CLEARING HOUSE / I Methods of the Big Bank Exchange In New York City. MARCH OF THE MESSENGERS. Ths Way Millions on Millions of Dollars In Chocks Changs Holders In a Few Minutes In the Daily Balancing of Accounts Between Banks. "Clearing!" That word Is the order for the shuffling of many feet and the pattering of thick envelopes upon hard wood. Men with leather bags hung against < their chests like bass drums pass up and down rows of desks at which other men sit and as they go by deftly hand out brown paper packages containing the equivalent of millions in gold. Thus do the banks of New York transfer money each business day. As vast as the figures Involved In the operation are. they do not make an impress upon the mind. One is more apt to wonder whether the gray haired messenger In the blue serge suit would succeed in disorganizing the line if he gave the wrong envelope to bank No. 49 and, if so, whether he wouia De condemned forever by his associates. But no one seems to make a mistake, and the visitor has no reason to worry about the possibility of misplacing $2S,000,000 even for half a second. The machinery of the clearing house is almost too perfect to slip a cog. The clearing house begins to show signs of activity as early as 9:30 o'clock, when the vanguard of bank runners makes its appearance. They travel in pairs and are mostly young men, although the veterans have not all retired. Their badge of office is a bag, any sort of bag, suit case, telescope, kit bag. canvas bag. Sometimes it has the name of the bank it came from printed across the end. More often it bears no distinguishing mark. Further, its identity is frequently hidden behind an exceedingly shabby exterior. That is perhaps a virtue. At all events, it is not considered good form in banking circles to be ostenta tious. A strong bag even though it be old and chafed is just as good a vehicle for a fortune as a new one and is less likely to produce burnings in the heart of a thug. So this is the reason why the young men who sweep up the marble stairs look as if they were carrying bags filled with their own clothing instead of other persons' checks. Self conscious they are not despite the loads they carry, and one might well imagine they were going upstairs to change their garments for gymnasium suits. But when the visitor reaches the floor above and climbs to the little gallery at one end he realizes that not basket ball, but another game, la to be played. Already the players are preparing to take their positions. At the side walls are benches on which delivery clerks are sitting, their bags at their sides, and opposite is a solid counter divided into about seventeen compartments, to the front of which are affixed, If occupied, the name plates of different banks. Beyond the first is a second counter and between the two a rack for hats and overcoats. A broad aisle with KAnoKne on/1 hntpflpbg cnnnrntps 1UV1C UVll\.UVO UUU uuviwvuw the two rows of counters from duplicates on the opposite side of the room. Settling clerks, who take their places on high stools behind the outer rows of counters, face the walls. Those at the Inner counters face the center aisle. At the elbows of the settling clerks stand their assistants, who are required to sign the exchange slips presented with each package of checks. As the clock ucars 10 one glances from the high dome, with its row of electric lights, to the scene below. The clerks at the compartments have made themselves comfortable. The messengers standing at case before them have slung their bags and are ready. A minute passes. A man appears at the rostrum in the gallery and rings a iromr twice. Eves below are uplifted as he makes an announcement about out of town banks that will hereafter clear through different correspondents. That is not of particular Interest, but he pauses briefly and then utters the magic word, "Clearing!" The messenger for bank No. 1 crosses the room at one end of the counters and takes the place of No. 97, who has moved down a pace. Simultaneously fifty other men have taken a step for,ward, and the tramping and scraping of feet come regularly. No. 1 has slapped an envelope down before the clerk at No. 97's compartment, dropped a ticket into a slot, offered an exchange slip for signing and passed on to No. 96 without uttering a word. Each of No. l's fifty associates has duplicated his performance in every detail, and go the exchanges, as they are called, have been fairly started. In the meantime the settling clerks are doing their share of the work. Long sheets of paper in front of them are being filled out with the total amounts of the checks presented by the men who are circling about the counters, making monotonous but not unpleasant sounds with their feet Suddenly, when you are Just beginning to understand what it Is all about, a halt Is called. No one says anything, but every one stops. You ask why, and some one says the exchanges have been completed. You ask how $300,000,000 can change hands Jn exactly fifteen minutes by the clock, and the same person looks at you with a pitying smile and remarks, "Why, you've just seen it done." There Is marked silence for a moment after the feet have stopped moving. The crowd In the room begins to thin out. for the delivery clerks are going, taking with them the packages of checks which have been deposited with the settling clerks. The latter Still have work to do. Their assistants rescue the little tickets from the compartments into which they were dropped, and the settling clerks scan the amount of them to see If they agree with the totals on the exchange slips. When first he entered the room the settling clerk gave the proof clerk In the' manager's gallery the amount of the checks he brought with him. Now he ascertains the total of the amount deposited with him. Soon he Is able to tell whether his bank has a debt or credit balance, and this information he communicates to the proof clerk. Then the clearing bouse knows exactly how win Koffa fn Vu* mnrwl from U-IUVJLI tuou nm untv iv vv , bank to bank in adjusting balances. Forty-five minutes is limit allowed for making the exchanges and proving the balances, and fines may be imposed If the allotted time Is exceeded. But It is rarely necessary to Impose fines, so rapid is the work of the messengers and so simple the system of exchange. Most of the work is done before the messengers get to the clearing house. The checks for exchange with other banks are inclosed in separate envelopes, and these envelopes are arranged in consecutive order in the delivery clerk's bag, so all needless delay in depositing them Is eliminated. To make the clearing finally complete It Is of course necessary to exchange the cash. "Accordingly," says James G. Cannon In his book on "Clearing Houses," "before half past 1 o'clock each debtor bank, in compliance with the requirements of the constitution, pays into the clearing house the amount of Its debit balance and obtains a receipt for the same signed by the assistant manager. After half past 1 o'clock the creditor banks receive at the clearing house their respective balances and give their receipts for the same In a book provided for that purpose. but in no case cap a creditor bank receive its balance until all the debtor banks have paid In."?New York Post. A MARKFT IN MOROCCO. " The Best Place to Study the Ways of the Wily Natives. The place of all places to see the Moorish people Is at their markets, for every class and kind of them Is there, and when you have seen one market you have seen them all, for there Is a racial similarity in the Moors the world over. The first thing about a Moorish market that attracts the attention of a traveler is the farreaching odor or. rather, the multiplicity of odors, for there is a composite character about the smell of a Moorish market that cannot lie equaled anywhere outside of China. Before you can even hear the continual wrangle and Jangle of the market place you can smell it Once there the interminable jumble of things and folks is disconcerting, and the evidence of dirt everywhere takes from an American all desire to deal in eatables, for the Moors seem to be wholly insensible to dirt of any kind and every kind and have no objection to fruit and berries that have come I mllna nf rliiatfT nnrl ill UU^lUlt*\;iC\\ V?Cl uhivj V* uuuij ?"V sandy roads. These people are natural traders, second to none In their ability to obtain the highest possible price or equally ready willingness to let the article go for a mere pittance rather than miss making a sale. They will begin the price of n lamp at .1 shillings and after a little haggling will come down to 1 shilling, but if you move on they will thrust the lamp into your hand and ask you to give them anything for it that you will, and it is a sale, no difference how small may he your offer. In nearly all countries the everywhere present and always the same donkey is an inevitable adjunct of a Moorish market. The whole animal kingdom would he senrched through in vain to find any creature more wholly devoid of Impulse and sentiment than this imposed upon little beast. ljike a rniausi. pmiusupuer, ub is wholly resigned to the order of things, and nothing can cause hlin to stir from the even tenor of his ways. Caressing and even food do not seem to add any to his satisfaction, and beating and abuse do not detract from his tranquillity. His features are perfectly Immobile. As he stands in the market place one may pet him and give him bits of grass or fruit and he will not raise his head or even open his eyes. lie Is the supreme, Ineffable resignation in flesh and blood. And no Moorish market is complete without him by the score.? World's Events Magazine. I f I BR I I 8 T I I Mixed in perfect prim m I Give us want and w< > for you. / . No matti j_^,better || lets?we giv || pression wl ? phone on th | We do I* everywhere, pies cheerfu S We are I but we woul job of printi li The : Prir J Chronicle Buildi liiimiwiiiiMwn { 1 AIN . ^ A I 11 U YPE proportions f ting. the idea of wf 2 will print it c< t \ / % sr what it is 4ieads, circulars e it that anirm lich acts like c e crowd. printing for ' Estimates ar lly furnished. pretty busy ju d like to figure ng you need. Strick iting C ng, CHER/ ?M1 is i s I H I <4 ! >roduce I lat you I Directly I --plain I 3, book- S ~ ited ex- I i mega- | people I id sam- | stinow, | on tnat | I fO. I VW, S. C. I ?J