The Omaha Sunday Bee
PART TWO
EDITORIAL
PAGES ONE TO FOURTEEN
PART TWO
SOCIETY
PAGES ONE TO FOURTEEN
VOL. XLIH-NO. 26.
OMA1H, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER U, 1013.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
Your Credit is Good in Omaha Until You Come to Die
.I! IlliiL!.!
OMAHA is a-ffood pfacs to live, bUt'Ts
not a good place to diex according to an
inquiry made by (t member of The Bee
staff. You can easily obtain, on credit
the necessaries and"evon the' lumtriiBpr
living, but when you approach' the uti
dertaker and the grave digger you must
go with some ready cash in yeur hand
0 DIE on credit is next to Impossible ti.
Omaha. It Is not so hard to live on
credit, for It one has a good from .
and knows his Btreet address and a
few other points the merchants want
to know about him, he can get credit
for the necessities of lifo. But to die
and be burled like a human being Is a costly operas
UojB and one for which It is difficult to obtain
crodlt. No, ono would bo'oxpectcd to trust a dead
mun to send lna check when a bill Is presented to
him, but then all dead men have to depend on
their friends or relatives to pax tho funeral ex
penses after they are gone.
Recently a man approached an undertaker In
Omaha on tho subject of obtaining credit for tho
burial of a destitute friend. There was a long
eesslon. Tho undertaker figured long and hard
with a pencil and found that the very least that
would cover the Job would be $125.
"Now, the only trouble,' he said, 'is that tho
delivery and tho grave must bo cash." .
"How much cash would that require?"
"Well, anyway C0. You couldn't gat out any
cheaper than that. We must have that much
cash."
"Well, If I could raise that much then what
timo could I have on tho other?"
"Well, wo must have at least $10 a month," tho
undertaker replied, "wo couldn't take the Job for
any less."
lir the course of tho conversation it was re
vealed that the cheapest coffin carried is $25. Tho
undertaker advised the patron not to use it as ho
aid it was a very common looking 'jox of soft
wood. He advised the next price, $50 as the low
est price of anything in the line of a coffin that
would be respectable.
But in the matter of sustaining life through the
ci edit system is somewhat easier. Many mer
chants a little time to look their customer up to
Feo that he is reasonably reliable fellow. Others
extend credit to him on the spur of the moment.
Mcst of them, of course, consult their "Blue book"
when asked for credit, to learn whether their cus
tomer is listed and what other merchants have said
rbout his reliability and his promptness in meet
ing obligations. Others rely partly ou the Judg
ment of their credit department. Still others put
in a hurry up call to the credit bureau of the Asso
ciated Retailers of Omaha.
Recently the association established direct tele
phone service between some fifteen of the leading
mercantile houses in the city. This is done so that
when a customer asks for credit at a store, the re
tailer can step into his office, take off the re
ceiver, and without waiting for central, can find
himself connected with the credit bur au of the
tellers' association. Tho secretary of tho associa
tion keeps an office force of from one to throu
girls Thus there Is always tonicone to answer th
.telephone the moment the buzzer starts. The girl
or- the secretary can refer to tho blue book and
to whatever other records the Associated Retail
ers have made up from their mutual experiences
with given customers. In less than m minute in
many cases this office can render the retailer an
expert opinion as to the reliability of a given cus
tomer. , . y
For the last four months tills association has
been busy compiling for tho use of the mimbers
a list of people in Omaha who are good pay or
poor pay, prompt or slow pay, a list that is to.
pupploment tho information contained In tho "Blue
Book" Issued regularly. Already the association
has 35,000 names listed, and it expects to have
45,000 or 50,00 before It finishes. Of courso it
cannot list the names of all the people in the city,
for not all the people buy on credit, and cone;
quently the association has no way of obtaining
Information about their credit.
To supplement all this information credit de
partments of the various mercantile houses often
call up close friends of customers to learn whether
or not the customer is reliable. The employer oi
the customer Is also often called up for Informa
tion as to whether tho felrow is apt to pay his
tills or apt to escape them.
A glimpse of the routine is shown In tho case
cf a young man who recently stepped into a large
men's furnishing storo In Omaha and asked for
credit for a suit and an overcoat. Without giving
him a chance, to select the garments first, tho clerk
hurried upstairs to the credit department. The
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TRADESMEN generally will take a
chance on a stranger who can tell them
a straight story and will let him have
goods on credit xoi'.h little or no inquiry
as to his standinj or h8 responsibility
credit man having been introduced, ho asked the
prospective customer bis initials and street ad
dress. "Do you own your own home where you live? '
he then asked.
"Whero do you work?"
"How long have you been In tho city?"
"Oh, you are quite an old settler if you havj
'men hero two years."
"Do you want to refer us to anyone?"
"Who are they? What business are they In?
Have you worked for thoin long?'
"How long havo you worked where you are
now employed?"
The credit man of the store mado careful nolo
ct all the answers to these questions on a llttl"
jellow pad about the size of a cigarette paper, He
stuck li on a beak,
"All, right," he said, "we want to look you
up a llttlo and then we will know."
"What will you havo to do?" asked tho pros
pective oiiHtomor. "Will you look me up in tho
Bluo Book?'"
Well, yes, but that Is only one of tho several
moans wo havo of looking a man up, Did you
vant to make n selection today of tho clothes?"
"Not necessarily."
"Well, thon call us up In a half hour. Wo will
know by that tlmo."
In a half hour the customer called up ou the
telephone "What have you found out?"
"It's all right, sir. Come right along and got
nothing you want. Wo called up Mr. , and
ho spoko vory highly of you." The customer
loarnod later that his employer had also been
called about tho matter besides the man to whom
l,o had referred the merchant.
Again stepping Into a homo furnishing store a
customer asked for credit for a base burner.
"How high priced a baso burner did you wnnt? '
he was asked.
"About $CC," wbb the reply.
"Would you like to pay for it in installments?"
"Well, rouybo that way when I havo the money,
and maybo I would need several months on It be
fore paying anything."
"All right, help yoursolf. When you get ready
to plait out one come In.".
This placo did not oven ask the name of tho
BLUE BOOK records are kept. by the
Retailers Association for the purpose
of keeping track of such customers as
do not faithfully observe obligations to
promptly discharge their indebtedness
customer,: nor refer him to tho credit dopartment,
II Indued thcro Is such u department in tho estab
lishment. Again nt a.furgo dopartment storo a customer
bought $1 worth of goods, and thon fumbled in
varloiiB pockets In vain for monoy. Tho customer
bh forced to nsk for credit, and wus sent to tho
credit mun In tho store.
"What Is your name and whoro do you work?"
woro tho questions askod. v.
"All right, tnko It along," wus tho vordlct, aa
l oon na tho crodlt man learned tho customer was
employed by a woll known and reliable man In tho
city.
At ono of tho largo grocery houses In the city
crodlt was askod and tho clork hustled to tho near
out tolophono girl who phoned the uamo of tho
customor upstairs to tho credit dopartment., Thero
tho "Bluo Book" and othor records were searched,
and tho crodlt was grunted. If tho "Bluo Book"
does not givo a mnn'B credit a good mark, tho
crodlt men In tho lurgo grocery stores do not hesi
tate to tu,rn down a customer. Tho smaller gro
cery storos In tho outskirts of tho city and in tho
icsldenco districts, seldom havo a 'Bluo Book" in
tho house. Also they usually grant crodlt freely
to the wholo neighborhood without asking many
questions.
Coal dealers grant credit freely. "Hello, this
Is so-and-so. Do you want to send mo up seven
tons of coal and wait for your money a month or
two?" wbb the substanco of n recent conversation
over tho phono with a local coal dealer.
"What Is your address?" was the reply from
tho doaler. "Sure, do you want it today? All
right."
And tho coal was delivered, although the cu3
tumor had never soen a member of tho coal ftrm.
Credit may easily be established at cigar store
tnd salpons, although tho proprietors aro usually
soniowhat acquainted with the oustoiuers befora
credit Is asked for or granted lu these places