The Lawyer, the Boy, and the Five-Cent Lesson
A shrewd Seattle attorney tests a boy’s integrity with a lesson in promissory notes and the value of a promise.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A local lawyer was called on some time ago by a boy, who inquired if he had any paper to sell. The lawyer, with a keen way of appreciating a joke, and moreover, a method of pulling out a large drawer, if in want of waste paper, asked, 'Will you give me two for that?' The boy looked at the paper doubtfully, hesitated, and offered fifteen pence. 'It’s a bargain,' said the lawyer, and the paper was quickly transferred to the buyer. But before the boy had safely stowed it away, he had to announce that he had no money. 'No money! Do you expect to buy paper without money?' 'Not prepared to state exactly the amount,' the boy made no reply. 'Do you consider your note good?' asked the lawyer. 'Yes, sir.' 'Very well, if you say your note is good, I will just take it. If it isn't good, I don't want it.' The boy affirmed that he considered it good, whereupon the lawyer wrote a note for fifteen pence which the boy signed cheerfully, and lifting the bag of papers, trudged off. Soon after dinner the little fellow returned, and, producing money, announced that he had come to pay his note. 'Well,' said the lawyer, 'this is the first time I ever knew a note to be taken up the day it was given. A boy that will do that is entitled to note and money too,' and, giving him both, sent him on his way with a smiling, happy heart.
“A boy that will do that is entitled to note and money too.”
While legal and financial systems in 1870s Seattle were informal and based on personal reputation, today's credit economy operates through automated, rigid systems. This story captures a moment when 'a man's word' was the bedrock of commerce, a concept that feels both charming and archaic in our era of algorithmic lending.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.