It is clear, therefore, that the Penny Bank reaches a class of persons
of very small means, whose ability to save is much less than that of the
highly-paid workman, and who, if the money were left in their pockets,
would in most cases spend it in the nearest public-house. Hence, when a
Penny Bank was established at Putney, and the deposits were added up at
the end of the first year, a brewer, who was on the committee, made the
remark, "Well, that represents thirty thousand pints of beer _not
drunk_."
At one of the Penny Banks in Yorkshire, an old man in receipt of parish
outdoor relief was found using the Penny Bank as a place of deposit for
his pennies until he had accumulated enough to buy a coat. Others save,
to buy an eight-day clock, or a musical instrument, or for a railway
trip.
But the principal supporters of the Penny Banks are boys, and this is
their most hopeful feature; for it is out of boys that men are made. At
Huddersfield many of the lads go in bands from the mills to the Penny
Banks; emulation as well as example urging them on. They save for
various purposes--one to buy a chest of tools, another a watch, a third
a grammar or a dictionary.
One evening a boy presented himself to draw Ll 10. According to the
rules of the Penny Bank a week's notice must be given before any sum
exceeding 20s.
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