When the owners of the E.J. Bowman House Bed & Breakfast offered one of their guests — a bonsai artist — a weekend stay in the house's luxury suite in exchange for his bonsai skills, the artist thought they were joking.

E.Y. Murphey and his wife, Alice Murphey, owners of the 19th-century, Italianate-Victorian house in Neffsville, were not kidding.

Their Web site invites barter propositions, proclaiming, "Give us your best barter. We're listening ... maybe we can help each other."

Since they opened their inn in 2000, the Murpheys have traded gift certificates and B&B stays for plumbing and electrical work and even discounts on dental work. Artists, they say, have been particularly open to the bartering concept, and have paid the Murpheys with quilts, painted silks and other art pieces.

E.Y. Murphey (who prefers to be called by his surname) extols the benefits of bartering. "You personalize the contact. You've exchanged something that's important to both of you," he said, adding with a laugh, "I'm still waiting for PPL and UGI to cop to this."

Utility companies may prefer ordinary forms of payment, but bartering appears to be drawing interest from Americans wrestling with a difficult economy.

The Internet offers a wealth of bartering opportunities on sites such as JoeBarter.com, SwapThing.com, and U-Exchange.com. According to press accounts, bartering postings on Craigslist have increased 100 percent since last year.

Russ Gillespie, the classified advertising director for Lancaster Newspapers, said the company plans to start a barter classification in the papers' classified ads starting May 5.

The barter classification will be adjacent to the Bargain Counter in the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday newspapers, he said.

The time seems right to launch a barter classification, Gillespie said.

"When money gets tight, rather than exchanging cash, exchanging goods and/or services for someone else's goods and/or services might make a lot of sense," he said.

A local newspaper is an ideal place for people interested in bartering to connect, Gillespie maintained, noting that 67 percent of adults in Lancaster County regularly read the Lancaster newspapers. "Craigslist doesn't come close to that," he said.

Needs dental work
One recent post on Craigslist was from a Lancaster County resident, seeking to exchange handyman services, a mountain bike or woodworking tools, for dental work. "I really need some work done on my teeth and I can't afford it," wrote the local resident.

That plea was redolent of a Depression-era kind of desperation.

But there are differences between modern-day bartering and the bartering of the past, said Bryant Simon, author of books including "A Fabric of Defeat," which examined the politics of South Carolina textile workers in the early 20th century.

Simon, professor of history and director of American studies at Temple University, said that bartering existed long before the Great Depression.

Both the bartering tradition, and the networks it required, were well established when the Depression began. Bartering was just part of the larger economy. "It wasn't like they had to build these networks for the moment," he noted.

Today, however, many people are bartering with folks they don't know, using the Internet to make contact.

"I've looked through Depression-era papers," Simon said. "I don't know that I ever saw anyone advertise that they wanted to barter."

Bartering then was based on proximity and existing relationships, Simon said, noting that farmers traded crops with other farmers in their community, and neighbors exchanged their skills, or whatever they had to give, to get what they needed.

If a doctor "knew you and your family, and knew you had good chickens, and also knew that normally you'd pay with money, but now you couldn't, he'd take chickens," in exchange for providing health care, Simon said.

But if the doctor didn't know the patient who wanted to pay him with poultry, "I'm not sure he's taking chickens," the professor said.

No-cash economy
Bartering has remained a part of some rural economies, including that of the Amish. Rural people have had a long tradition of living "outside a cash economy," Simon said.

The professor cited a friend who remembers hog-killing parties in the Appalachian community in which she grew up. "Everyone would come down from the mountain for the hog-killing," Simon said, and neighbors would get pork in exchange for labor.

In St. Charles, Mo., Lindenwood University will consider taking meat from farmers who cannot afford to pay their children's tuition in cash. Some 20 or so students have attended the university under that deal.

"It was pure barter. Pork or beef for tuition," said Lindenwood spokesman Scott Queen. "We gave them market value for their beef or pork, which was far more than they could have gotten selling it off — since the middlemen were taking much of the profit. It was Lindenwood's way of honoring the hardworking farm families and helping keep kids in school."

Queen said interest in the barter offer has tapered off in the past few years. "The door is still open, though, especially considering these difficult economic times," Queen said.

Meat for college tuition is a remarkable proposition. The sort of bartering that goes on among small business owners tends to be less remarkable.

Simon said he remembers going to a casino store in New Jersey, where he grew up, and choosing clothes for which no cash was to be paid. The owner of the store had rented a car from Simon's father's car business in exchange for clothes.

Small businesses, the professor said, can work out these kinds of mutually beneficial arrangements.

Small businesses
Murphey, owner of the E.J. Bowman House, said he thinks bartering is "absolutely a wonderful thing to consider" if you own a small, local business.

"Not only do you exchange services — it's value for value," Murphey said, cautioning that the Internal Revenue Service considers goods and services obtained via bartering to be income, which must be reported.

"We take care of taxes," Murphey said. "There are some people who barter everything, and it's underground. ... We don't do that because we just don't."

Murphey said he and his wife provide those with whom they barter "a wonderful breakfast, a nice environment, a chance for them to get away from their busy, busy lives, and we get small jobs done. ... And they do a good job because they have that personal connection now."

Say, for instance, "your disposable income doesn't allow you to stay here, but maybe you'd be able to do some landscaping," he said. "I've got this service, you've got this service. We both have this need; how can we shake hands?"

Alice Murphey said they made a deal with a young electrician who was getting married and didn't have money to take his bride somewhere nice on their wedding night. "So they came here and we got some good electrical work done," she said.

"It's no different than in the old days, when a physician would deliver a baby and get paid with a chicken," Alice Murphey said.

Temple University's Simon said that people leading less-connected lives, in large, populous communities, have lost their bartering skills — which is why they're sometimes uncomfortable when they find themselves in a foreign country where bartering and haggling over prices are common practices.

Now, however, businesses and individuals are rediscovering bartering.

Working for tools
Darin Malark, of Manheim Township, is trying to start his own construction business and sees bartering as a means to that end. He's remodeling a basement and getting paid for the work with tools he needs for his business.

He's also ripping out old plaster, installing screens and doing other work for a bed and breakfast in York. In exchange for his work, the B&B now allows him to stay overnight when he works overtime in York and doesn't want to make the drive home to Lancaster.

"It's a win-win situation," Malark said.

He maintained that people need some business sense and should do their research when bartering. "When you're taking something in trade, you have to be a little bit of an appraiser," Malark said. "There are good deals. And then there's the right deal."

Brandon Roth, an electrician who lives in Columbia, recently did some electrical work for a woman who happened to be a massage therapist. She paid him with massage gift certificates, which he gave to his wife.

"That was really cool," Roth said. "We just bought a house and we can't really afford any extra luxuries."

Roth recently decided to offer his services as an electrician in the barter section of Craigslist. He figured people might want to have work done, but might not have the cash to pay for it, instead being able to offer "stuff they have lying around."

He's got one job lined up in which he'll get paid with fishing supplies.

His Craigslist posting said he'd accept a dishwasher, building materials, work done on his Chevy Blazer, or hunting or fishing supplies as payment. "My wife doesn't really like the idea of me going out and buying a new rifle or a fishing rod when we need stuff for the house," Roth said. "So it's a nice trade-off."

Recently on Craigslist, a laid-off factory worker from Lancaster County offered his services as a handyman, in exchage for a used vehicle.

A massage therapist in Pequea offered massage therapy in exchange for lawn-care services.

A personal trainer offered training sessions for scuba gear, perhaps, or a laptop — not exactly the kind of bartering done during the Great Depression, when people traded for necessities.

Jack Davenport Jr., of Ephrata, owns a business called Mr. Odd-Job. Work has slowed considerably, he said, noting, "Compared to last year, I'm doing pretty lousy."

People are only taking care of essentials, he said. They either don't have money, or they do have money, "but they're paranoid. They don't want to spend it," he said.

So Davenport recently turned to Craigslist, offering his services in exchange for a variety of suggested items, including a utility trailer, a laptop and a dirt bike. "I figured it would still give me something to do, keep me busy ... and I'll still provide my services for something — something I wanted to buy or something I needed."

Paul Katherman, of West Hempfield Township, is a glass artist. He and his wife own Katherman Glass and have studios in which they teach and create.

He was an electrician for nearly two decades before giving up his trade for his art. But then the recession hit, and so Katherman recently posted on Craigslist that he'd be willing to entertain barter offers for his services as an electrician.

"The way things are now, I'm thinking I'll just try to do something extra," Katherman said. "Art is a luxury and people just aren't spending any money right now. ... A lot of people are holding on to everything they have right now."

They might not want to spend money, but they may still want to "get stuff done," in exchange for items they no longer need, but he and his family could use, Katherman said.

"Honestly, I never thought I'd be in this position where I'd be going back to being an electrician or worrying about the bills I have," Katherman said.

Still, he and his wife have three children, so "we're basically trying to make ends meet any way we can. ... Your children are what matters, and you'll do anything you can do to make sure they have what they need."

And he's familiar with the barter tradition, he said.

In his travels around the country, he said he has met artists and artisans who "value their pieces as if they're money," and who trade what they create. "And honestly, it's what we started out doing" in this country, Katherman noted.

"When things are tough," he said, "you do what you can to get what you need."

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Suzanne Cassidy is a staff writer for the Sunday News. Her e-mail address is scassidy@lnpnews.com.