Many tradesmen formed slate-clubs—­goose-clubs, turkey-clubs, whisky-clubs—­in the autumn, for Christmas.  Their humble customers paid so much a week to the tradesmen, who charged them nothing for keeping it, and at the end of the agreed period they took out the total sum in goods—­dead or alive; eatable, drinkable, or wearable.  Denry conceived a universal slate-club.  He meant it to embrace each of the Five Towns.  He saw forty thousand industrial families paying weekly instalments into his slate-club.  He saw his slate-club entering into contracts with all the principal tradesmen of the entire district, so that the members of the slate-club could shop with slate-club tickets practically where they chose.  He saw his slate-club so powerful that no tradesman could afford not to be in relations with it.  He had induced all Llandudno to perform the same act daily for nearly a whole season, and he now wished to induce all the vast Five Towns to perform the same act to his profit for all eternity.

And he would be a philanthropist into the bargain.  He would encourage thrift in the working-man and the working-man’s wife.  He would guard the working-man’s money for him; and to save trouble to the working-man he would call at the working-man’s door for the working-man’s money.  Further, as a special inducement and to prove superior advantages to ordinary slate-clubs, he would allow the working man to spend his full nominal subscription to the club as soon as he had actually paid only half of it.  Thus, after paying ten shillings to Denry, the working-man could spend a pound in Denry’s chosen shops, and Denry would settle with the shops at once, while collecting the balance weekly at the working-man’s door.  But this privilege of anticipation was to be forfeited or postponed if the working-man’s earlier payments were irregular.

And Denry would bestow all these wondrous benefits on the working-man without any charge whatever.  Every penny that members paid in, members would draw out.  The affair was enormously philanthropic.

Denry’s modest remuneration was to come from the shopkeepers upon whom his scheme would shower new custom.  They were to allow him at least twopence in the shilling discount on all transactions, which would be more than 16 per cent. on his capital; and he would turn over his capital three times a year.  He calculated that out of 50 per cent. per annum he would be able to cover working expenses and a little over.

Of course, he had to persuade the shopkeepers.  He drove his mule to Hanbridge and began with Bostocks, the largest but not the most distinguished drapery house in the Five Towns.  He succeeded in convincing them on every point except that of his own financial stability.  Bostocks indicated their opinion that he looked far too much like a boy to be financially stable.  His reply was to offer to deposit fifty pounds with them before starting business, and to renew the sum in advance as quickly as the members of his