But the clerk with stern probity declined, and said magnificently, “I am glad you have done the right thing: it is what you ought to have done twenty years ago.” The man he had evidently converted to a partial recognition of the value of Holy Matrimony, but he saw that the lady was hopeless from the first. The Savings Bank is evidently a powerful lieutenant to the Church in its insistence on the commercial benefits to be derived from baptism and matrimony.
The lost book is often a fruitful source of curious explanations and experiences. The moment when we start saving any money is of course one for much personal satisfaction. In some cases it may even induce wild exhilaration. A lady wrote to the Controller this delightful letter: “Having joined your Bank I put my Bank Book in the fire. Will you please see to it.” Another depositor writes: “My wife and me was having some words and she broke the book in pieces.” And yet another in the same vein: “Through a falling out with my wife she tore the Bank Book. I enclose the Relics.” The husbands, however, do not always have it their own way, and one wife writes as follows: “I had a quarrel with my husband on the day I lost the book. He stole my book once before. He denied the same as he does now.” We must admit that the evidence against him is merely circumstantial. Another man takes a morbid view of the characters of church-goers. “As I left it in church I do not expect ever to get it back with some other matters.” People have often complained of the want of privacy at our post offices when we desire to transact confidential business there. But we do not all suffer from shyness or modesty. A lady writes: “I was not aware that any leaves came out of my book. I was travelling about so much that I sewed it up in my stayes, and I never took it out except in the Post Office.”
An old lady informed the Department that she had lost her book, which she said stood in her maiden name. When asked for her marriage certificate, she said she was not married, and explained, “I used to take very strong tea, which has made my memory bad.” Perhaps it was a case of love's old dream.
Then the explanations which have to be furnished for differences of handwriting are often very human and amusing. For instance: “I am instructed by my Father to write and state the difference between his handwritings may have been the cause of his rheumatics.” Those who saw the handwriting were not surprised. Another writes: “The difference in the riten is that I have been promoted.” He was clearly not examined in orthography before his advancement. Another application for an explanation of difference in handwriting was met in a rather cryptic fashion. A medical certificate was forwarded: “This to certify that J. S., residing at——, is suffering from an inflamed foot.”
I have given enough instances to show how closely the Savings Bank comes into touch with the people. Indeed it is the most human, in its relations, of all the departments of the General Post Office. It looks more closely into the inner life of the man and woman: it possesses also the people's secrets, which are safe in its keeping.
Efforts have often been made to compare the saving habits of the British people with those of other countries, but little reliable guidance can be obtained from the comparative statistics of the various Postal Savings Banks. In some countries, there are more facilities for saving money in private institutions and public concerns; in others there are considerably less than in England. Still it is to be feared that the younger generation, especially in our large towns, do not save to any great extent. The temptations to spend are at every corner, and perhaps the best recommendation of the Post Office Savings Bank, in the eyes of the masses, is that withdrawals are easy. Many people would, however, like to see the old idea of a Savings Bank more strongly emphasised, not only by the people, but by the management. But this is a question of policy with which we have no concern.
I ought to add that the example of Great Britain in establishing Post Office Savings Banks has been followed in our colonies and in foreign countries. Many countries have systems modelled largely on our own, and in the case of several of our colonies, arrangements exist by means of which accounts can be transferred from the Savings Bank of the mother country to that of the colony.
Nor must I omit to mention the introduction of “Home Safes.” The depositor places his small savings in the safe, the key of which is kept at the post office. When the amount has reached a substantial sum it is deposited in his Savings Bank account. This means increased opportunities for saving to the depositor, and economy to the Department.
CHAPTER XI
THE TELEGRAPH
The modern world is almost losing its capacity for astonishment. The rapid advances of applied science, more particularly in the manipulation of that force to which we have given the name of electricity, but the origin and essence of which are unknown and wrapped in the deepest mystery, almost took away the breaths of a previous generation, but they leave us comparatively unmoved. We feel, perhaps, that we are only on the eve of still more astounding discoveries.