Pay Up, You Deadbeats!

Yes, I'm following William Witt's life story. Some of these Ainsworth connections are ridiculously remote, and then sometimes I drop all pretense that a topic has anything to do with Ainsworth and just write about it because, well, this is my blog and I can write about whatever I want.

William apparently wanted to raise money in the autumn of 1916. We've already seen him sell his team and equipment. And as winter came on he started pressuring his debtors to pay up. A late December issue of the Gazette carried his polite but firm request: "Those who have borrowed money in various amounts from [me] are requested to pay same within 30 days or action will be started to collect same."

When we hear from him next, in early January, he sounds as if he's losing patience with the deadbeats: "Unless those having borrowed money from me settle very promptly, I will be compelled to take legal action to collect the same. Nothing but a settlement will suffice."

Around the end of the year he and his father had paid a brief visit to some Chicago relatives. William had earlier gone to Chicago for treatment of pain in his amputated arm. I wonder if the treatment was continuing, and that's what he needed money for.


Sources:
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 5 Jan. 1916.
♦ "Notice to Those Concerned." Hobart Gazette 22 Dec. 1916; 5 Jan. 1916.