pure dumb luck.’
`Nor did my mother, because she always did her banking in a teapot on the top
shelf.’
‘Father accidentally did something like that. He left Mother a four-month allowance,
in cash, in four sealed envelopes, each with a date. He took with him cash, in gold,
in a money belt. And he left money behind – whatever it was beyond what we needed –
in a lockbox, again in gold.
`Nelson, he told me later that he had not guessed that banks were about to fail; he
did it just to annoy Deacon Houlihan – Deacon Hooligan, Father called him. Do you
remember him? President of Buder State Bank.’
`No, I guess he died without my permission.’
`Father told me that the Deacon had remonstrated with him for drawing out cash. The
Deacon said it was poor business practice. Just leave instructions to pay Mrs Smith
– Mother I mean – so much each month. Father should leave his money where it was and
use cheques – the modern way to do business.
`Father got balky – he’s good at that – and consequently the bank failures never
touched him. Nelson, I don’t think Father did business with any bank after that. He
just kept cash in a lockbox in his surgery. I think. Although with Father one is
never sure.’
Page 97
Heinlein, Robert A – To Sail Beyond the Sunset.txt
We had a conference about it when we got home, Brian, me, Nelson, Betty Lou. Nelson
told them what had happened. ‘Getting money out of that bank was like pulling teeth.
This boiled shirt certainly did not want to part with Mo’s money. I don’t think he
would have done so if I had not made a loud, obnoxious nuisance of myself. But that
is only partly the point. Mo, tell ’em about Uncle Ira and a similar case.’
I did so. ‘Dears, I don’t claim to know anything about finance. I’m so stupid that I
have never understood how a bank can print paper money and claim that it is just the
same as real money. But today felt like 1893 to me… because it is just the sort of
thing that happened to Father just before the banks started to fail. He didn’t get
caught by bank failures because he was balky and stopped using banks. I don’t know,
I just don’t know… but I felt uneasy and decided not to put my egg money back into
a bank. Brian, will you keep it for me?’
`Here in the house it could be stolen.’
Nelson said, ‘And if it’s in a bank, the bank can fail.’
`Are you getting jumpy, Nel?’
`Maybe. Betty Lou, what do you think?’
`I think I’m going to draw out my thirty-five cents and find a Mason jar and bury it
in the back yard.’ She paused. `And then I’m going to write to my father and tell
him what I’ve done and why. He won’t listen – he’s a Harvard man. But I’ll sleep
better if I tell him.’
Brian said, `Some others also we must tell.’
`Who?’ said Nelson.
`Judge Sperling. And my own folks.’
`We don’t want to shout it from the house tops. That could start a run.’
`Nel, it’s our money. If the banking system can’t afford to let us draw out our own
money and sit on it, then maybe there is something wrong with the banking system.’
`Tsk, tsk. You some kind of an anarchist or something? Well, let’s get busy. The
first ones in line always get the biggest pieces.’
Brian was so serious about it that he made a trip back to Ohio, expensive though it
was for him to travel without a client to pay for it. There he talked to Judge
Sperling and to his parents. I do not know details… but neither the Foundation nor
Brian’s parents were hurt by the Panic of 1907. Later on we all saw the United
States Treasury saved by the intervention of J.P. Morgan… who was vilified for it.
In the meantime the assets of Brian Smith Associates were not buried in the back
yard… but were locked up in the house, and we started keeping guns.