The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-01-06
A Communication.

VA" S"S0 uo"sPhiHS III hdhs
county; and last week l noticed a
piece from "Ducalbury, the Gran.
GER" which set me to thinking,
When l first commenced to look il
over ! thought he was going to try
and answer your item of tho week
before; but / soon found out that
he was simply telling how much
cheaper he could buy goods in Chi
cago, than he could in Baldwin.
AS his article had to do with the
merchants, chiefly, We leave it for
them to state as to whether he told
the truth, or whether he got mat
ters little mixed.
AS ! said before, the article of
"Ducalbury" set me to thinking.
The result of my meditations was
that I made up my mind to write
you some of my experience in buy
ing goods away from home. Now,
| want to say right here that / am
not, nor never have been Gran
ger; although oar society was some
thing similar perhaps. Orr motto
was to sell or products ut as high
figures as we could get; but buy the
products of the labor of other class
es ut the lowest possible squeeze.
But the plan didn't work satisfac-
torily. The merchants and others
'cou'd be governed by the market
and not by our schedule of prices,
and so it was that we resolved to
send abroad. / won't say we sent
to Chicago Chats good many
miles away but we might have
done so, for all that. Suffice it to
say, we entered into solemn VOW
to withdraw our patronage from our
home merchants, who wouldn't lis
ten to the dictates of reason las in
terprcted by the Grand Order of
Dictators) but persisted in selling
us they do all over the country.
Well, we wrote to the firm we
choose to patronize, and they for
warded us a little pamphlet con-
everything We wanted to
know. and even more, about the
proper prices of all articles from
fine tooth comb up to a moving
machine. The book represented
that all was lovely as a school girl,
and that Mcssrs. Beaten & Co.
had most unbounded faith in tho
Grand Order of Dictators $50 we
styled ourselves) and would "iura-
'iabiy' send goods &c. q. d." by
express, or if "rrqueste,l,' would
send without any "ccdding' about
{. Here was our chance! We
good many articles; but
hadn't the money to buy with. The
principle of our order was dead set
'gainst the "credit SYSTEM" so we !
wouldn't run into debt. We would |
imply order the goods sent, and
ct Beat-cm x Co. wait till we could
Jay en-; that was all. Mr.. Editor,
We sent; but great was the conster-
'ation when the goods came sc. q
D." Here was a fix! To be sure,
ve could examine the goods; but
hat would simply be tantalizing,
Nth no money to make the pur-
base with. (You see, Mr. Editor
ar order goes right smack against
he ''credit SYSTEM" for the reason,
suppose, that it deems it better
pr a man unable to pay as he goes,
D starvc to death than to let some
f his neighbors trust him for loaf
t bread to keep up his miserable
xistcnce a litse longcr). But here
as pinch! TO back down, and
efuse the goods was to allow the
loodthirsty merchants and others
, ''rob" MS; to go forward, made
necessary to strike deadly blow
t our main principle-that is the
nti-"credit sys"- You know, Mr.. ,
ditor--I think I've explained be-
're). Rather than let our enemies
We resolved to go ahead
nd get our goods, even ifthe whole
rganization of Dictators collapsed
nder the pressure. What was the
sistcnce of the order to US, if by
ampling on its principles we could
we fifteen cents? Nothing, sir
mere nothing! We got those
,ods ont of the express Office; but (,
the cost Of what terrible trib- ,
q to the "crcdit system = (You :
low Mr.. E,litor-tl,cre, ! forgot9
ist imagine, if you can, what we :
I'd to pass through. One Dicta- :
r, who had between six and seven
liars worth of goods, spent one !;
hole day running around trying !;
borrow $3.50 to snake out" =
tn. The waste Of profit on that (
worth of goods was fearful; but =
carried his point, and made of l