Daily American telegraph., 1852-10-30
War in a Dry Goods store.

The following rich affair is reported in one of
the Philadelphia papers, as having come off in
that city few days ago. The incident Of the
day was assault on distinguished dry goods
man in Second street. by Mrs. Dorothy Owen, a
lady who sells country produce in High street
market. Mrs. Owen, with a basket full of eggs
on her arm, went into Mr.. IS store to buy
three quarters Of yard of pink sarsanet. The
store-keeper misunderstanding her, gave her
three yards and quarter of silk instead OF the
quantity required. Mrs. o. laid down half
eagle, and Mr.. -, Of course, took payment for
three yards and quarter. Mrs. Owen protested
that she had called for only three quarters of q
yard. Mr.. - boldly asserted that the guam
tity demanded was three yards ana quarter.
Mrs. Owen now fired up, and let Mr.. -- know
that she had always entertained n suspicion that
he was regue but now suspicion was changed
to certainty Some hard words passed between
them, and as hard words often lead to something
harder, Mrs. Ovens made punch at Mr. IS
''bread basket"
Then Mr. - made mastery retreat to an
elevated perch where his desk is fixed and there,
like the indignant baron in his turreted tower,
bade defiance to his furious assailant. But Mr..
-, in his imaginary security, forgot that the
improvements of modern warfare made the de-
fence of castellated holds very precarious un-
dertaking :. he forgot in short, that the science
of projectiles has been added to military tactics
and that cannon balls and shells do tremendous
execution ut great distance. lie was soon re-
minded of this fact, or something like it, when
Mrs Owen bethought herself of her basket of
eggs, an expensive ammunition at the present
time, being very scarce and costly in proportion.
Mrs. Owen considered that offensive war cannot
be carried on without a pecuniary sacrifice, and
submitting to the necessities of the case, she be-
gan to lombard the tower or lofty fort in which
Mr.. - had entrenched himself.
The first missile aimed at Mr. IS face, was
avoided by timely dodge, but it took effect on
the face of the clock; which was placed just be-
hind the desk, and fragment Of the shattered
glass cut off small slice of the store keepers
ear, leaving enough of the organ, however, for
any use or ornament The next two or three
discharges were highly creditable to Mrs Ovens
skill in gunnery. One of the rockets hit Mr.. -
in the middle of the forehead, and bursting there
poured its unsavory contents downwards over his
nose and mouth. Another exploded on his black
satin vest left an orange coored line that ap-
peared to be a burlesque imitation of a gold
guard chain. The clerks perceiving in what ex-
tremty their employer was placed, hastily en-
deayored to erect on the counter breast work
or parapet, composed of bolts of Osnaburg, Rus
sa, duck, and brown shirtings to cover the be-
siegcd fortress.
But Mrs. Owen was not to be balked by any
such engineering. She mounted on chair, and
thence attained the elevation of the counter and,
having thus surrounded the enemys works, she
poured in her fire with such overwhelming effect
that the besieged party capitulated, begging
cessation Of hostilitics, and promised to "make
oil right" This surrender, however, was only
stratagem of war; for Mr. - had secretly
despatched one Of his clerks for reinforcement,
which came from the police Office, and Mrs.
Owen, yielding TO superior numbers, was made
prisoner.