Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-12-14
Matching 8 PATTI RI.

One of the fascinating young men in
uptown dry goods stores is in trouble.
1t is the custom in the establishment
from which>he has just been dismissed
to discharge a man who fails to sell to
one of three successive customers.
"Swappingn is the expressive techni-
cal term by which this failure is known
in the dry goods business. The rule is
not universal, but it is by no means ex-
ceptional in dry goods stores. How
ever unjust it may be, it has a wonder
ully stimulating effect on the elegant
young a amenable to it, and when
they can not sell goods it is a safe in
ference that the customer is either SUI
pernaturally obdurate, ~impecunious, or
misery. The young man referred to
had "irst call" last Friday morning;
that is, the first customer who entered
the store was by the rules of rotation
his exclusive victim. Next morning
this privilege would fall to the lot of
some other clerk, and SO on to the end
of the list. The first customer
I" swapped" him and went out without
investing a cent. The second was in
an equally unpropitious state of mind,
and retired without effecting apurchase.
On the decision of the third hung his
fate. His ample cheek blanched as she
darkened the doorway, for a more I'M
likely purchaser could with difficulty
have been found. An old striped shawl
was thrown carelessly over her shout
ders and partially concealed a roll of
calico which the palpitatory heart of
the clerk instinctively felt that
she came to have matched. Now if
there is any thing in the dry goods bust
ness more soul-harrowing than an
other it is to match goods. The exact
shade and texture have to be found,
and at last, but not least, the price
must correspond. A feeling of sicken-
ing despair ~permeated the heaving
breast of the unfortunate clerk as he
asked, swell ma'am?"
She laid down five yards and a. half
OF calico of an eccentric pattern, and
intimated that the success of a great
dressmaking enterprise hinged on her
fortune in finding another yard and a
half of the same material.
The eyes of six expectant clerks were
upon the doomed man. He felt that
the crisis of his peril had come. With
an appearance of calmness that belied
the turmoil of his feelings, he diVed
under the counter, and handed out end
less rolls of calico, varying from the
radiant strawberry and moss-rose-
marked, to the soberest gray. But he
came not within thirteen supple
mentary colors of the required pattern.
He burrowed in the cavernous depths
of lower shelves, and ransacked upper
ones from the top round of a giddy
step-ladder, but he found it not. An
hour and a half had gone by, and his
stock was nearly exhausted. The pro-
prietor of the store and the bookkeeper
and porter had come out t witness his
death struggle. Six times the wearied
lady started for the door, and six times
he called her back and resumed his
frenzied search. The last calico was
unrolled, and he was about to drop his
hat and gracefully step down and out,
when a happy thought struck him.
excuse me, madam said he;
''there's one piece | overlooked. Let
me see that goods" and he took her
bundle and, diving under the counter,
hacked off a yard and a half with the
energy and .promptness of rekindled
hope.
"Here it's, madam; exactly what
you required" said he, confidently,
spreading out the purloined goods.
She looked al it attentively for five
minutes. ''It does look like the pat
term" said she, ''but still l think it's
not what L want. It's a good deal
coarser than mine. If l can't get any
thing nearer to the pattern IN come
back and take it. Good morning."
She did come back in an hour, but
not to buy the goods. He tried to dodge
behind the counter, but with the keen
sightedness of womanly revenge she
spotted him, and he was ANONYMOUSLY
hauled out and arraigned before his en-
ployer. The worst of it was that the
latter, in view Of the Improbable ener-
gy shown in his attempt to effect a sale,
had concluded not to discharge him.
With the evidence of his guilt so I'M
mistakable, however, it would be fatal
to the discipline of the house to keep
him, and he was promptly dismissed.
Until the old lady succeeds in getting a
warrant for his arrest his name is char
itably suppressed.-SGn Francisco Post.