At the nature center where I volunteer, there is an old farmhouse. The other day, the head of our volunteer group was rummaging through the drawers of one of the original pieces of furniture in the house when he came across a stack of old letters. One of these letters was postmarked in Houston on June 5, 1923. That’s four years before I was born. The envelope contained a letter and a bill for $20.
This particular letter had a letter head of ‘Dr. Alvis E. Greer / Houston, Texas.’ The typed letter was an attempt by the good doctor to obtain payment of a ‘long past due’ bill from Mr. __________.
Today, when one hasn’t paid a bill he will get one or two notices that the payment is overdue. The second notice will probably say that the matter will be turned over to an attorney or a collection agency if payment isn’t forthcoming. (Often the attorney and collection agency are one and the same.) Then the bill collector phone calls start coming.
That’s not the way it was back in 1923 and that is why I have chosen to reproduce Dr. Greer’s letter.
737 Kress Bldg.
May 28th, 1923
Mr. E. A. __________
Kemah, Texas
My dear Mr. __________
Having received no response to statements sent you covering your account with me I am venturing to write you to ask if you cannot arrange to pay at least a small amount and to come in and make definite arrangements with me for further payments on the remainder in accordance with your ability to pay. You need to feel no embarrassment whatever in doing this, for it is my desire to treat you with the utmost consideration.
Please be assured that I have no disposition to unduly press you, nor to put you to any inconvenience, but the high expense of maintaining the character of service we strive for in this office makes it imperative for our fees be paid within a reasonable time, and as your account is long past due I feel that you should now make an effort to pay it, unless there exists extenuating circumstances which prevent it.
In any event, please let us get together and make a definite arrangement entirely satisfactory to you in order that you may be saved any further annoyance in this matter.
With kindest personal regards and the assurance of my highest consideration, I beg to remain,
Cordially yours.
/signed/ Alvis E. Greer
AEG-MP
What a very kind and considerate way of dunning a deadbeat for a ‘long past due’ bill. The letter is almost apologetic. That was then and this is now - them days are gone forever!
2 comments:
Interesting. I think more people probably at least attempted to pay their bills way back when. In rural America everybody knew everybody and your word was your bond and you did your best to pay your bills.
May I additionally suggest that back in those days the head of a volunteer organization probably wouldn't have been rummaging through old drawers in a house (abandoned or otherwise) which he himself didn't own.
The times they are a changin....
Centurion, you may have misread this posting.
The farmhouse was donated to the nature center many years ago. Nobody lives there! The house and all its contents are the property of the nature center.
The volunteers are responsible for maintaining the farmhouse. Every once in a while we find things left behind by the long-deceased owner. The implication that it was wrong to rummage through the furnishings is not valid. We freqeuntly have to make repairs to the house and its furnishings, and anything we find, like the letters, will remain on the premises as historical exhibits.
On the other hand, what you said about the old rural America is right on the mark.
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