Democratic messenger., 1881-04-02
A SUCCESSFUL SHOPKEEPER.
An Irish Sketch.
BY TERENCE McGRATH.

MIR. ODowd emerged from the quar-
ter sessions court with a beaming face
when the magistrates granted a publ
cans license to him years ago. Hither-
to he had struggled for time as n
draper, but found that his shop hardly
paid its expenses, and offered no hope of
ever securing ganindependence. But with
the grant of a license everything was
changed. Mr.. 0'Dowd's friends and
relations made it a point of honor to go
IN on market days and take a glass or
two for the good of the house, and when
Biddy Shea had taken glass of raw
young whisky she looked with different
eyes Mt the shawl so temptingly offered
Tor her acceptance on credit at the op-
posite counter. In q few yeare The shop
was enlarged, and by degrees every
branch of a shopkeeper's business was
to be found within the ever-increasing
area of Mr.. ODowd's general store.
The purchaser coming in to the market
could there refresh himself with porter
or whisky; he could buy bread, bacon,
cloth, calico, seeds, iron, and timber,
without leaving ODowd's shop; and as
everything was done on a credit basis,
MIR. O'Dowd soon monopolized the busi-
ness of his native town. The signboard
was repainted, and CT. O'Dowd,
licensed to sell spirits, beer and porter
for consumption on the premises" was
changed to ct. O'Dowd, merchant"
the necessary publican's notification
being placed on a side door. From the
first Mr.. O'Dowd recognized the advan-
tage to the shopkeeper of credit over
cash, and the 9300 brought into the
business by his wife enabled HIM to tide
over the difficulties of the start. His
system answered so well that he has
never changed it. No payment was
asked, but Is per cent. additional was
added on to the price of each article.
Then compound interest and half-yearly
rests soon showed sum due to him that
enabled him to obtain large amount of
credit. After the first year the pay
ments began, and a steady average was
paid yearly, the account being never
quite cleared Off At length Mr.. O'Dowd
found his business in so solvent a state
that he was able to show by his books
that on particular day he was worth
E10, 900 more than the amount of his
debts; so he prudently settled that
amount upon mis- wife, and come veal,
come woe, that money was thenceforth
SAFE His creditors found this to their
cost when he made his first coup in
bankruptcy, and cleared Off his liabili-
ties 10y an arrangement with his credit
ors for four shillings ON the pound.
Good an investment as seems his trade.
for any amount of money, Mr.. O'Dowd
has always felt that in landed property
is the only real safety As year by year
small plots of properties in the neigh
borhood came into the market he pur-
chased them, and at last he was de-
clared the owner of the Owenmackenna
estate, on which there was large num-
Der of poor tenants. The rents had not
been raised for fifty years, and an aver
age of two gales were always due. Had
the unbusinesslike owner made clean
sweep of the timber on the property, or
increased the rents, on even insisted on
the tenants clearing mp the arrears, Mr..
O'DOwd would never have found him.
self in possession of property that
would in his hands clear off the pur-
chase money in ten years. When the
tenants knew into whose hands they had
Z
kenna, and Mr.. O'Dowd was not long
permitted to remain in ignorance of the
ultimatum, anonymously conveyed, that
an increase of rent would be answered
by bullet Mr.. O'Dowd knew his DO
sition and his friends too well to mind
/ that threat.
/ One son was the curate of an adioin-
ing parish another the dispensary doc
/ tor of that district. Between them he
was pretty safe to know if any real mis-
chief was to be apprehenhed, and from
what quarter. A hard man is Mr..
/ O'Dowd, and yet so plausible that even
the victims of his system of bookkeep-
ing and his proprietorial views say there
is great deal of good in him. "No,
William OCallagban, he answered to
that heavily rented tenant, who with his
wife came III to demonstrate against the
increase imposed upon his farm, 81
will not take one penny less than the
value put upon my land. If You don't
like it another will. But that is no rea-
son why Mrs. O'Callaghan should be in
want of better cloak than the one she
is wearing. Go down to the shop, Mrs.
O'Callaghan, and get a good cloak for
yourself you can pay me at your con-
venience. hate to see any respectable
woman wanting her rights in the way OF
dress" Mrs. O'Callaghan has been thus
duly inaugurated into the mysteries OF
credit, and in her Mr.. O'Dowd has found
for the time stanch ally. Mr.. O'Dowd
declares that most of the land in the
country is let below its value, and that
tenants are well able to pay double the
amount if necessary. He instances the
case Of the townland of Bunnanubber,
let in bulk to village for $50 year,
and sub-let in rundale, Michael Connol
holding five acres in forty patches