Mail Carrier Gets Annual One Cent Check from Government

1903

Gets Checks for One Cent

Maurice Proctor of Mineral Point is said to receive the smallest checks drawn by the national government. The slip of paper with the seal of Uncle Sam on it calls for one cent, and it is paid annually.

It is in remuneration in full for carrying the mails from Mineral Point to Dodgeville. A twelve month ago, when the bids were made for the contract there was a deal of rivalry between a dozen or more of those who wished to serve the government in this capacity, and Proctor, who is wealthy and does not need the money, offered in due form, faithfully and promptly to perform the task for a penny a year.

Government officials investigated, found he was financially responsible should it become necessary to sue for the penalty and awarded him the contract. Proctor received the first check a short time ago and sold it for $36, and he now has an offer of $25 for the next one when it comes to hand.

Employees of Proctor carry the mails twice a day between the two points rain or shine, and the government is getting fine service for what would appear to the ordinary workman to be very poor compensation. — Tribune-Telegraph.

Refused 15 Cents Refused 15 Cents For Haircut, Man Asks For Divorce

La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1917

James B. Taylor is what some women would call a "model husband." He admits that every month he brought home his pay envelope to Friend Wife, whom her fond parents had christened Rena, and it seemed natural to him that he should have some rights with respect to the contents of the package for which he worked hard six days of the week, but—

She refused to give him 15 cents for a hair cut and once she hit him over the head with a book because he failed to account for 80 cents of his wages.

Those are the allegations which he makes in a divorce complaint filed in circuit court here Monday. James charges his wife with being "penurious, stingy and miserly" and nagging him for eight years. On top of that he charges that she admitted being in love with one Joe Crockeroff and also names one Louis Kinnear. both non-residents. The complaint recites that she left her husband to keep house for an uncle at Kendall, telling her provider that she "could not live with him if he was the last man in the world."

—The La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, Wisconsin, January 23, 1917, page 1.