Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-07-30
Checkmating a Peddler.

Everybody knows how persevering and
persistent all peddlers are, and especially
tinware peddlers. AS class they are the
| most persevering mortals that ever
traversed the streets of city. Now one
| of those itinerant vendors of tinware who,
some years ago, had made certain New
England city his base Corporations, scour-
ed the place so thoroughly and .shung on"
| so perseveringly that he had become to be
regarded as a pest. sa.
At one house in particular, owned and
| occupied by maiden lady who kept a
single servant, he had met with constant
| rebuffs and assurances that nothing was
wanted /; but as it was boast of his that
| he never gave up calling at a place until
| he sold them something, he continued his
| troublesome visits until the lady of the
house was at her wits end how to stop
them sx.
Now it so happened that this lady, who
was chess player and passionately fond
of the game, was excessively annoyed by
| the everlasting peddler, who had pushed
| past the servant girl, as he had repeatedly
| done before, and stood before the mistress,
and with oily tongue, regardless of the ap-
parent fact that the lady was deeply inter
ested in the game of chess, tried his ut
|
To the lady's decided "Nor repeated
several times, he simply rehearsed the
catalogue of his wares again and again,
until patience on her part ceased to be a
virtue, and she wondered if her favorite
game, which Franklin said taught SO
many things, would not show her how his
| impertinence could be perpetually check
| ed without reSorting to harshneSs.
| At length an idea occurred to her,
which she shrewly put into execution.
Interrupting the peddler in the middle
OF a tin panegyric, she inquired, "Haye
you any tin wash boilers 90 -.1er
eyes, ma'am,'' and as it was a bitter
| cold day, he did not invite the lady out to
examine his wares, but fastened away to
| get the samples. He deposited them on
the floor in front of the lady, who next
asked if he had tin pans. Away he hur-
ried to bring the pans, and chuckling at
the success of his zeal, muttered, "There
is nothing like sticking. II a man wants
to succeed, he must stick. Hereafter, my
motto shall be stick ~
After the pans were deposited, the lady
next called for colanders. Away went
the peddler to get the articles. saying to
himself, ''My motto is 'stickp"
The lady kept on enumerating articles
until the peddler had transferred most of
his load on the floor in front of his an
| sdtSGble customer.
Then the lady resumed the game of
chess taking no further notice Of the ped
dler or his wares. After waiting till his
patience was well-nigh exhausted, he
finally asked: as there anything else
You want, ma'am?"
Just then her adversary's king was in a
position to be attacked, and she uttered
the accustomed word, "Check!"
"Am very sorry, ma'am, that have no
checks replied the peddler. ut must be
a new article, isn't it, ma'am?"
The lady players looked at each other
and smiled, and one of them remarked,
1T is said to be a thousand years
old"
1 The peddler relapsed into silence, and
the game went on. It was slow and
somewhat tedious contest, and the peddleI
at last quite lost his patience and blurted
out, this time with less deferentlal tone OF
voice, us there anything else you want,
| ma'am?"