The Debtor's Daughter CHAPTER 3.
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It required a strong effort on the part of Mr. Wilkins, to subdue the agitation towards which his mind was constantly tending, as the hour for meeting his creditors approached. Nothing but a feeling of integrity sustained him.
"I have not designed to wrong any one," he said to himself, as he felt his heart shrinking from the trial through which he was about to pass, "Why, then, should I fear to meet these men? Let a sense of rectitude bear me up; and fortitude enable me to endure the pain without a murmur."
With these words in his heart, the debtor entered the room where were assembled some twenty of his principle creditors. Some bowed to him formally; some recognized him with a smile; some took him cordially by the hand; and some looked at him with stern eyes and compressed lips.
"Gentlemen," said Mr. Wilkins. His voice was unsteady, and his lips trembled. "Gentlemen," he repeated forcing a more composed expression, although the words came deep from his throat. "I have called you together in order to place before you a statement of my affairs, which, I deeply regret to say, are seriously embarrassed. Many causes have tended to this; not the least effective of which have been losses through bad debts. Were it possible to collect all that is outstanding, I could show a handsome surplus. But, as this cannot be done; the deficit, I fear will be serious. For your benefit, I am prepared to make an assignment of everything."
Mr. Wilkins would have said more; but the tremor in his voice returned; and, not wishing to display an unmanly weakness, he closed and sat down.
"Have you a statement, Mr. Wilkins?" asked one of the creditors.
"Oh, yes." And he drew forth a small package of papers and laid them on a table at which two or three were sitting. One of those present was appointed to read these papers aloud. After the reading, there was a silence.
"A pretty full statement," remarked a gentleman.
"Debts of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars," said Mr. Putnam, "assets a hundred and seventy thousand, including fifty thousand bad and doubtful claims."
"That will leave cent per cent for creditors."
"Cent per cent!" growled Putnam. "You'll never see fifty cents on the dollar."
"Give me the settlement of the business, and I'll bring it so near to one hundred cents," said Mr. Wilkins, quickly, "that no creditor will feel that he has cause of complaint."
"No, I'll not agree to that," replied Putnam. "It is enough for me that a man once mismanages his business. If he is not able to conduct it successfully, he will not be able to settle it to the best advantage."
Mr. Wilkins, who had risen, sat down instantly, while a slight pallor overspread his face.
No one spoke for some moments. Some felt with Mr. Putnam, but, not knowing how many others were on their side, they did not feel bold enough to commit themselves to like sentiments. Others were hurt at the unkindness of the remark, as well as at the manner of its utterance; and the feelings of such, went naturally to the side of the debtor.
"I am for whatever arrangement is best for all parties, Mr. Wilkins included," said one, breaking the silence that followed the words of Mr. Putnam.
"So am I," added another.
"And so am I," repeated a third.
"I don't see," remarked Putnam, "that Mr. Wilkins has any interest in the matter whatever. According to his own showing, there will not be enough to pay his debts. The property, therefore, is ours; and it is for us to get the most out of it we can. He says that he is ready to give up all. And I am ready to take him at his word, and take all."
"And fully release him from every obligation?" said a gentleman present.
Putnam compressed his lips quickly and shook his head.
"I didn't say that. How can I release a man from an obligation. If you owe me a dollar, you owe it; and the debt remains until the dollar is paid. An obligation is an obligation, and, until wiped off by a just return, remains in full force. Isn't this so?"
"We may relinquish any claim that we have against another," was replied to this.
"You may do so. But to me there is no abstract justice in the thing. If a man is your debtor — he ought to pay the debt."
"Suppose he is not able to do so?"
"If not able in the present, he may be in the future. The obligation must forever stand against him, and, if he is governed by an honest principle, he will pay it off in the end. This forgiving thousands and thousands of dollars, annually, in our city, by over-merciful creditors, is working greatly to the detriment of a healthy state of business. Men fill up every channel and avenue of trade, struggling against each other, diminishing prices and dividing business, with a recklessness about results which is astounding to a merchant of the good old school principles. If they succeed, well; if not, why they call a meeting of creditors, make an assignment of their bad debts and bad stock, get everybody to sign off, and then begin the same thing over again. Now, gentlemen, I for one, am tired of this too oft repeated game of chance, played against my fair accumulations; and I mean to set a face of steel against it. I release no man who goes in debt to me."
"Your remarks, Mr. Putnam," said a friend of the debtor's "bear unjustly upon Mr. Wilkins. He has played no such game as the one you censure."
"I don't know," muttered Putnam, in an undertone. "I'm not so sure of that."
The words reaching the ears of Mr. Wilkins, he arose instantly, and said with some warmth.
"I must beg leave to repel the gentleman's insinuations. I believe, that I have conducted my business as fairly and as honorably as any man in the city. And, as for a release from my obligations, I have not asked, nor do I intend asking that. If I live and have my health — I will pay up every cent that my property fails to divide. If not, the loss will have to be shared by my creditors."
"Our friend," remarked Mr. Putnam, rising as Mr. Wilkins sat down, and speaking in a tone which the latter felt to be insulting; "assumes that his business has been conducted on fair principles. From this view, I must beg to differ with him. We find, in this statement, some fifty thousand dollars of bad debts, some of them against men long known in the trade to be of doubtful credit — men who could only buy from those who were over-anxious to sell, and who were thus enabled to divide the business with good and substantial traders in various parts of the country."
"Name the men to whom you allude," said Mr. Wilkins.
Putnam took the debtor's statement from the table, and, after glancing over it, repeated the names of Parker and Krane.
"They owe twenty thousand dollars," said he. "Men to whom I refused credit four years ago!"
"Has anyone here lost by this firm?" asked Wilkins.
"I lost by them," replied one.
"And so did I," added another.
"When did they fail?" was inquired.
"Three months ago," answered Wilkins.
"I would have sold them up to the day I heard of their stoppage," remarked a gentleman, who had before said nothing.
"And you would have deserved to lose your bill;" retorted Mr. Putnam, in rather an ill-natured tone of voice.
"This is little better than trifling," said one of those present. "Let us come to the work on hand, and do it like men and Christians; not like eager self-seekers and oppressors. A fellow merchant has fallen into difficulties, and we who are most interested in his affairs, he calls together, and says, openly and honestly — 'Gentlemen, I have met with losses which have embarrassed, and rendered it impossible for me to meet my payments. Here are my effects; I surrender all into your hands. I will not stand between you and a dollar that I have called my own. Now, gentlemen, when a man who owes me does this, I am disarmed. If I lose by him, I am not angry. When I hear my child lisping the prayer so beautifully given in these lines —
'The mercy I to other's show,
That mercy show to me.'
I feel an instant desire to have implanted in my heart, all humane principles. We should be merciful to others — as we would hope to obtain mercy from Him to whom we are all indebted beyond our ability to pay."
These words produced a strong effect, and, were instantly responded to in a similar spirit, by several of those who were present.
"Unless you desire me to remain," said Mr. Wilkins, at this time, "I will retire and leave you to discuss the whole matter in the most perfect freedom. Act, gentlemen, with a view to your own interests in this matter. I ask of you nothing, but to believe that I have meant to do right."
No one expressing a wish to have him remain, Mr. Wilkins left the room, and returned to his place of business. An hour afterwards, two gentlemen who had been appointed by the meeting, waited upon him for the purpose of ascertaining many particulars not fully explained in his statement, and also to confer with him about the winding up of his business.
"What has been done?" asked Mr. Wilkins, with a strong manifestation of interest.
"Nothing," was replied. "Some were for extending your time, that you might recover yourself, some for winding up the business, leaving it in your hands, as the agent of the creditors; and some for taking the assignment, and excluding you from all agency in the settlement. Mr. Putnam says that he, for one, will be satisfied with nothing less; and there are a number who go along with him."
"You must act as you think best," said the debtor, with a sinking in his voice. "Though I am well satisfied that if I were permitted to settle everything, I could make it pay much better than if placed in the hands of men who are strangers to my business, and who would have far less interest than myself in the result."
This was readily assented to by one of the men, but received coldly by the other. They represented the two opposite parties among the creditors. After obtaining all the information they sought, they went away.
On the next morning, another meeting was held; but without arriving at a definite decision in regard to the debtor. His friends and those who thought a humane course the wisest and best — were strongly opposed by Mr. Putnam and those who, like him, narrowed down their views to the little circle of self-interest.
Finally, it was decided to accept the assignment offered, and to take the business out of Mr. Wilkins' hands. Then came up the question of a release for the debtor, who was present during the discussion that followed.
"I release no man," said Mr. Putnam, the moment it was proposed to free the debtor from all remaining obligations.
"In Heaven's name!" exclaimed a gentleman, when this remark was made. "Let us act towards a fellow man in misfortune — as we would have others act towards us, were we in the same unhappy condition!"
"When I get in such a condition, I'll ask no man to release me. Never will I stoop to that," said Mr. Putnam.
"Gentlemen," said the debtor, rising, "I thank such of you as meditate the kindness and consideration proposed — from the bottom of my heart. I have not asked this, and I did not mean to ask it. But, I will deal frankly with you as to my purposes for the future. When I go out from here, I go out penniless and creditless. Possessing ability to do business, I will have no means to work with; yet, will there still rest upon me the burden of a family. The natural needs of my wife and children, I must supply as before. They will have the first claim upon my efforts, and I shall feel in duty bound to pay the claim. When that is done, if I have anything over, it will go to meet whatever deficit may remain after this business comes to a final settlement. If I am released from all legal obligation, I will be freer to enter into any business that may offer. I will have a chance to get on my feet again. If you believe me to be an honest man, it will be wise for you to release me; for then I will be better able to pay whatever remains to be paid."
"When my debt is paid, I will give a release — and not before!" replied Putnam to this. "I have set my face against this sympathy-system."
"It pains me to hear any man express such sentiments," said one of the creditors in answer to this. "It is always best to lean, if we lean at all, to the side of mercy."
"Gentlemen! All I have to say in this matter, I have already said," retorted Putnam. "I will not sign a release until every dollar is paid. Mr. Wilkins stands my debtor, and as such, I will hold him. You can act perfectly free so far as your own interests are concerned; and I will do the same so far as mine are concerned. You can act upon your sympathy-system, and I will act according to my own views of right and wrong. And now, gentlemen, as I have other matters to see after, I will leave you."
And, with this, he departed.
There were several who thought and felt with Mr. Putnam, though they were less ready to avow as boldly their sentiments. These raised many questions and doubts, and asked for a longer time to consider. The result was, an adjournment of the meeting without any decision of a matter so vital to the future well being of the debtor. The spasmodic sympathy excited in his favor, gradually died away from this time. His assignment was accepted, but no formal release followed, and as his friends came not forward to effect this important object for him, the debtor shrank from any attempt to carry it through himself. And thus was he left a prey to any eager extortioner of a creditor, who might happen to find him in possession of a dollar that he could wrest from him by legal process.
"You should see to this matter, Mr. Wilkins," urged one lukewarm friend and another.
"The creditors had the question before them, but did not grant the blessing," was his only reply to this.
"But you may get a release if you go vigorously to work to obtain it. Might be still further urged."
"Do you think I can go to a man and ask him to forgive me a debt? No! My sense of obligation is too acute."
With such a reply, Mr. Wilkins generally silenced all these suggestions.
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