The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [136]
He was in business. The business of a bank is to take folks’ money and keep it safe and pay interest on it by loaning it out at a higher rate of interest to other folks. Whom did John know who would like to borrow some money? Well, there was a feller who wanted very much to take out an automobile loan so he could get him a Model T, or better. Feller named John Ingledew. “John, how much do you need for this loan?” John asked him. John told him. “That’s quite a lot. Are you a upstandin citizen of the community, and a good family man?” John asked him. “Some has been known to say so,” John modestly replied. “What is your occupation?” John wanted to know. “Why, I’m the pressydunt and cheerman of the board of the Swains Creek Bank and Trust Company,” John replied. “Do tell? Sir, it’s an honor to do business with such a tycoon. Your credit with us is always good. But I ought to point out, sir, that a Model T is the common man’s vee hickle, and a gentleman of your position ought to git hisself a better car.” “Is that so? Well, I will certainly have to give thought to that. Thank you for your advice. And thank you for the loan.” “You’re welcome. Come again, sir.” John opened the vault and took out the money for John’s automobile loan, and John put it in his pocket, closed the bank, and went off to Springfield and bought himself an Overland six-cylinder sedan, took an hour of driving lessons, and drove it home.
The people of Stay More believed it when they saw it, and were very much impressed. Willis was not impressed. John hoped that Willis would turn green with envy, since the Overland was such a better automobile than the Ford Model T. But since nobody believed that Willis had a Model T, he felt there wasn’t any point in his being envious of an automobile that was better than one that did not exist. Denton Ingledew said to his brother Monroe, “Wonder whar ole Doomy got the money?” Monroe replied, “Aw, bankers is all rich, don’t ye know that?” John parked his Overland in front of the bank, where it remained a symbol of affluence and an object of admiration. The doctors and dentists of Stay More felt that they too ought to have Overlands, and they applied to the bank for automobile loans, but John would not loan them enough for Overlands, and they had to settle for lesser cars, the financing of which emptied John’s vault, so that when Willis came to the bank and said to John, “How ’bout payin me back the money I lent ye fer the steel door and see-ment?” John had to put him off until another day.
John decided that he had better get out into the hills and go to work on some of the misers. Stay More had a number of these. They did not hide their money in the piano or under the mattress; they buried it. John drove his Overland right up to their dooryards, if they could be reached; if not, he tried to leave the car within distant view, so the misers could be impressed by the sight of it. He intimated that if the misers would deposit their money in his bank and let it accumulate interest, the misers too could afford an automobile some day. But the misers did not like the thought of having their coins and bills all mixed together with everybody else’s; they didn’t like the thought of exchanging their savings for a slip of scribbled paper. Only they knew where their money was buried, not even their wives and children, so it was safe.
“Maybe it’s safe, yeah,” John agreed. “But don’t you know that the cost of everthing is goin up, and when prices rise, the value of the money goes down. So you might think you got a hunerd dollars buried out yonder behind the corncrib, but when you go to dig it up and spend it, you might discover it’s only fifty dollars.” Some of the misers could not resist this logic, and they yielded, grabbing