A first important note is that the narrator of "My Financial Career" by Stephen Leacock is unreliable, and as the story is told in the first person, his impressions of other characters, including the manager, are equally unreliable. The narrator is unreliable because he is extremely nervous, which is established at the beginning. The narrator describes how "everything" in a bank makes him nervous, from the bank clerks, to the teller's windows, to the money itself. The narrator says himself that as soon as he enters a bank he becomes "an irresponsible fool."
As such, when the nervous narrator has to explain himself to the account he was initially meant to speak to he finds himself overwhelmed, and instead asks to speak to a manager alone. This is a somewhat unusual request, and leads the manager asks the narrator if he is "one of Pinkerton's men," referring to the historic Pinkerton detective agency. The narrator then has to explain that in fact that he is present in the bank to deposit money, which is a very common activity. The manager then asks the narrator if he will deposit a lot of money. The narrator wishes to deposit 56 dollars a month, which is not a lot of money (around 1500 dollars today). This is not an outrageous amount of money, and is instead a very common bank transaction.
The manager's expertise is therefore not required, so the manager calls the original accountant and explains that the narrator is present to deposit fifty-six dollars. The narrator describes the manager as saying this in a way that is "unkindly loud." Although the manager could be irritated by the narrator wasting his time with a very common request, it is also likely that the narrator assumed the manager was being unkind due to the narrator's own nervousness and unreliability, and not because of any actual ill-will on the part of the manager.
The bank manager is obviously annoyed because the narrator causes so much trouble about opening what is a very small account. The narrator, presumably Stephen Leacock himself, only wants to deposit fifty-six dollars and then another fifty dollars a month. Leacock claims to be totally ignorant about banking matters. He should have gone directly to one of the tellers, or else to one of the clerks. Instead he asks to see the manager and gets conducted into that man's private office because it is assumed that he is there on a very important matter. The manager himself assumes that Leacock is an operative from Pinkerton's, a famous private-detective agency which was heavily involved in protecting banks in Leacock's day. (Ben Price, the detective in O. Henry's short story "A Retrieved Reformation," evidently worked for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.) The manager feels alarmed by Leacock's mysterious manner.
“You are one of Pinkerton’s men, I presume,” he said.
When Leacock tells him he is not a detective but simply wants to open an account, we read:
The manager looked relieved, but still serious; he concluded now that I was a son of Baron Rothschild, or a young Gould.
Sir Nathan Rothschild (1840-1915) was a member of the enormously powerful Rothschild banking family in Europe. Jay Gould (1838-1892), one of the American "robber barons," was among the richest men of his era. He made his fortune in railroad development. Leacock is obviously young, so the manager might take him for a junior member of the Rothschild or Gould family. When the manager finds out that the narrator is only bringing fifty-six dollars to his imposing institution, he shows his annoyance by his body language and tone of voice.
The manager got up and opened the door. He called to the accountant.
"Mr. Montgomery," he said, unkindly loud, "this gentleman is opening an account; he will deposit fifty-six dollars. Good morning."
"Good morning," I said, and stepped into the safe.
"Come out," said the manager coldly, and showed me the other way.
Leacock is so befuddled after his embarrassing interview with the bank manager that he causes more trouble when he is turned over to one of the clerks. The narrator ends up depositing his fifty-six dollars and then inadvertently writing a check to withdraw the entire amount. At the end of the story he tells us:
Since then I bank no more. I keep my money in cash in my trousers pocket, and my savings in silver dollars in a sock.
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