RETROSPECTIVE.
Mr. Merritt was a mechanic. By industry and perseverance he had gained
step by step, until he was the possessor of a comfortable property. Mr.
Warden, the merchant, had been his neighbor for several years, and was
engaged in a flourishing business. Now Mr. Merritt being one of those
amiable dispositions that could never say “No,” when asked a favor; it
consequently happened that when Mr. Warden wanted a small discount at
bank, and requested Mr. Merritt to lend his name, merely for form’s
sake, as the laws of the institution required several signatures, (a
very troublesome law, as Mr. Warden remarked, for it obliged him to tax
the friendship of his neighbors, but he would be happy to reciprocate at
any time that Mr. Merritt might wish an accommodation,) he, Mr. Merritt,
signed it without hesitation—and not only one, but several.
The first note became due, and Mr. Warden paid it. The second matured,
and in the mean time Mr. Warden’s speculations having failed, he was not
in funds, and Mr. Merritt received a notice of protest.
It was then that Mr. Merritt began to reflect upon the possible
consequences of lending a name. He urged Mr. Warden to make some
arrangement by which he would be released from the indorsements. The
merchant apologized to Mr. Merritt for the accidental protest, which had
happened entirely through an error of the clerk’s in entering the note
on his bill-book; that functionary having made it fall due about two
weeks subsequent to its actual maturity; and therefore Mr. Warden had
not prepared to meet it. He felt extremely pained, he said, that his
valued and esteemed friend should doubt his solvency, or for an instant
imagine him so base and devoid of honor as to involve _him_ in loss,
even though he should fail to meet other obligations. The mechanic was
satisfied with this explanation, and regretted that he had spoken to Mr.
Warden on the subject. But there came another protest, and others again
in quick succession; and now Mr. Merritt felt real alarm. He saw the
merchant once more, and begged of him security to the amount of his
indorsements. Mr. Warden sincerely regretted that it was out of his
power to do so, as he had just made a conveyance of all his effects to
the bank!
The mechanic was thunderstruck. This was indeed a cruel blow. There was
but one other indorser with Mr. Merritt, and they were on Warden’s paper
for ten thousand dollars; one half of his _all_ gone at a single stroke.
Yet there are hundreds who, not knowing what they do, are every day
lending their names for no better consideration, and are reaping the
same bitter repentance as did Mr. Merritt.
This, then, was the situation of the mechanic at the opening of this
history.