The National Encyclopaedia of Business and Social Forms, Embracing the Laws of Etiquette and Good Society

$200.00.

Form of Note for Missouri.

ST. LOUIS, MO., June 1st, 1881. Three months after date, I promise to pay Thomas Jenkins two hundred dollars, for value received; negotiable and payable without defalcation or discount.

$500.00.

GEORGE HOLMES.

Note Payable in Merchandise.

VINCENNES, IND., June 1st, 1881.

Three months after date, we promise to pay Hughes, Jackson & Co., or order, five hundred dollars, in good, merchantable family flour, at our mill in this city, at the market value, on the maturity of this note. Miller, Wright & Co.

$100.00.

Married Woman's Note, in New York.

NEW YORK, June 1st, 1881.

Three months after date, I promise to pay David Lane, or order, one hundred dollars, with interest. And I hereby charge my individual property and estate with the payment of this note, SARAH JOHNSON.

THE following compilation of business law contains the essence of a large amount of legal verbiage:

If a note is lost or stolen, it does not release the maker; he must pay it, if the consideration for which it was given and the amount can be proven.

Notes bear interest only when so stated.

Principals are responsible for the acts of their agents.

Each individual in a partnership is responsible for the whole amount of the debts of the firm, except in cases of special partnership.

Ignorance of the law excuses no one.

The law compels no one to do impossibilities.

An agreement without consideration is void.

A note made on Sunday is void.

Contracts made on Sunday cannot be enforced.

A note by a minor is voidable. A contract made with a minor is void.
A contract made with a lunatic is void.

A note obtained by fraud, or from a person in a state of intoxication, canno be collected.

It is a fraud to conceal a fraud.

Signatures made with a lead-pencil are good in law.

A receipt for money is not always conclusive.

The acts of one partner bind all the rest.

"Value received " is usually written in a note, and should be, but is no! necessary. If not written, it is presumed by law, or may be supplied by proof. The maker of an "accommodation" bill or note (one for which he has re ceived no consideration, having lent his name or credit for the accommodation of the holder) is not bound to the person accommodated, but is bound to a other parties, precisely as if there was a good consideration.

No consideration is sufficient in law if it be illegal in its nature.
Checks or drafts must be presented for payment without unreasonable delay.
Checks or drafts should be presented during business hours; but in this country,
except in the case of banks, the time extends through the day and evening.

If the drawee of a check or draft has changed his residence, the holder must use due or reasonable diligence to find him.

If one who holds a check, as payee or otherwise, transfers it to another, he has a right to insist that the check be presented that day, or, at farthest, on the day following.

A note indorsed in blank (the name of the indorser only written) is transferable by delivery, the same as if made payable to bearer.

If time of payment of a note is not named, it is payable on demand.

The time of payment of a note must not depend upon a contingency. The promise must be absolute.

A bill may be written upon any kind of paper, either with ink or pencil.
The payee should be named in the note, unless it is payable to bearer.
An indorsee has a right of action against all whose names were on the bill
when he received it.

If the letter containing a protest of non-payment be put into the post-office, any miscarriage does not affect the party giving notice. Notice of protest may be sent either to the place of business or of residence of the party notified.

The holder of a note may give notice of protest either to all the previous indorsers or only to one of them; in case of the latter he must select the last indorser, and the last must give notice to the last before him, and so on. Each indorser must send notice the same day or the day following. Neither Sunday nor any legal holiday is counted in reckoning time in which notice is to be given. The loss of a note is not sufficient excuse for not giving notice of protest. If two or more persons, as partners, are jointly liable on a note or bill, duc notice to one of them is sufficient.

If a note or bill is transferred as security, or even as payment of a pre-existing debt, the debt revives if the note or bill be dishonored.

An indorsement may be written on the face or back.

An indorser may prevent his own liability to be sued by writing "withou recourse," or similar words.

An oral agreement must be proved by evidence. A written agreement proves itself. The law prefers written to oral evidence, because of its precision.

No evidence can be introduced to contradict or vary a written contract; but it may be received in order to explain it, when such explanation is needed.

Written instruments are to be construed and interpreted by the law according to the simple, customary and natural meaning of the words used.

The finder of negotiable paper, as of all other property, must make reasonable efforts to find the owner, before he is entitled to appropriate it for his own purposes. If the finder conceal it, he is liable to the charge of larceny or theft. Joint payees of a bill or note, who are not partners, must all join in an indorsement.

One may make a note payable to his own order and indorse it in blank. He must write his name across its back or face, the same as any other indorser. After the death of a holder of a bill or note, his executor or administrator may transfer it by his indorsement.

The husband who acquires a right to a bill or note which was given to the wife, either before or after marriage, may indorse it.

"Acceptance" applies to bills and not to notes. It is an engagement on the part of the person on whom the bill is drawn to pay it according to its tenor. The usual way is to write across the face of the bill the word "accepted."

Matters Belating to Interest.

A Simple Rule for Computing Interest.

To find the interest on any amount at 6 per cent. for any number of days:
Multiply the amount by the number of days and divide by sixty.
EXAMPLE. Find the interest on $354.50 at 6 per cent. for 30 days.

$354.50

6,0)106350,0

$1.77.25 Interest for 30 days.

At 6 per cent. per annum the rate per month (30 days) is one-half of one per cent., and hence 1 per cent. for sixty days. The example proves itself, for the interest is just one-half of one per cent. of the principal.

The interest at any other rate than 6 per cent. can be readily found by this rule. After finding the interest at 6 per cent.,

The following tables will be useful to those who desire to ascertain the amount of the interest upon a given sum without the trouble of making the calculation :