State

$7,000 in Cash in His Mail Bui Tom Ellis mailed every penny off il back — the history of the biggest response any IVorth Carolina story ever had. By BILL SIIAKPE Since wc were looking for odd sights in Orange County, naturally Oscar Coffin and myself dropped in to see Tom Ellis at Cedar Grove, the book¬ keeping wizard of small-town America. He invented an economical bookkeep¬ ing system for small businesses, but what interested O. J. and myself was the abacus Tom was playing with. If you think an abacus — "Chinese counting beads" — is a toy. you’re sad¬ ly mistaken. The Chinese didn't invent it. cither. Apparently it was a Greek device — little beads strung on wires in a frame, and serving as a calculating machine. Since the abacus drifted to the Ori¬ ent and retained favor there, a good portion of the world’s figuring is Mill done on the machine. Fast Machine Ellis hunted for an abacus a long tintc. and finally ran one down in San Francisco. It came to him with a book of instructions, which he is studying. "I can multiply on this thing faster than on that business machine over there." he said, and proceeded to mul¬ tiply 136 by 15. He didn’t do it as fast as the machine, but a Chinaman prob¬ ably could. Tom says the abacus will add. mul¬ tiply, divide and do almost any other mathematical task ... a sort of slide rule for arithmetic. Man of Parts It just happened that Tom Ellis was working an abacus when we dropped in to say hello. Me might have been playing on his Hammond organ, which is installed in his office. Whenever Tom gets fed up with his abacus, his slip-stick and his battery of IBM equip¬ ment. he sits down to his organ and plays himself a little tunc. He once played at the meetings of Cyclone Mc¬ Lendon. a South Carolina revivalist Tom Ellis and his organ. The two young ladies help in the unique business developed at Cedar Grove, in Orange County. of the last generation, and helped edit the fire-eater's vitriolic newspaper. Among the other things which he has caused to happen in Cedar Grove was to set a record for mail to be re¬ ceived for a North Carolina story. This was when Carl Sink, then with the State Advertising Division, wrote a story about the Ellis bookkeeping sys¬ tem and tax service. It was published in the Saturday Evening Post, and within three weeks Ellis received near¬ ly 10,000 letters as a result. That mail contained over $7,000 in cash. too. The letters drifted in for a long time — they still trickle in — and Tom figures the cash finally amounted to $10,000 or more. Unfortunately, all of it had to be mailed back to the senders. The Story The story was like this: A long time ago, Tom saw how small business men were struggling to keep books, so he invented and patented the "$l a week system." The customer each week fills out a simple form and mails it to the Cedar Grove man. At the end of each month, the client receives a (rial bal¬ ance. and at the end of the year, his income tax statement. Anybody can fill out the forms, and Tom docs the rest. This sen ice costs $1 a week, and appeals to an awful lot of people, with TUB STATE, Vol. XXI; No. IS. Entered a* ifiond-cUu matter, June I. 19». at Ihp Pottoffice л« KatelKh. North Carolina, undrr the act оГ March J. III». I’ubllthrd by Sharpe PubUshinc Co.. Inc., Lawyers llldc.. italeiih, N. C. CopyriCht, I9SJ. by the Sharpe Piibllthtnc Co., Inr.