Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1884-01-03
TRUTH AND TRADE.
A Worldly.Wiss View Of Everyday
Business Methods,
In Which 1t IL Made to Appear that
Truthfulneys Lacks Something
Of Being the Rest
Policy.
New York Times.

ods, led to an attempt to discover to what
extent the business code Of honesty has been
deliberately adopted among shop-keepcrs.
The inquirer met at length, however, phi
losopher with whom he had previously had
slight acquaintance. The question being put,
the reply was lecture
81 believe" said the philosopher, who was
rathor handsome man, about 30 years
of age, well-dressed and wholesome looking,
that you have asked the right question OF
tho fatal man. had occasion few years
ago to look up the practical ethics of various
branches Of business. l believe that business
men are, at heart and in intention, honest.
The customer, however, frequently drives him
to practices In which the suppression OF un-
pleasant and Improbable fact figures to some
extent. In following these practices the
shopkeeper does not lie outright He could
make affidavit to that. But his experience is
like that Of man who has been often on the
witness stand, and knows that if he attempts
to tell the whole truth both sidos may be
damaged. The customer il nearly always
man uninformed and prejudiced. He is un-
prepared to form correct judgment OF what
he il purchasing. He may believe that in
buying he has only tn see for himself, order,
pay and receive. Or he may deem it best to
leave his order with the shopkeeper and
trust to the latter's honesty to give him
fair article at fair price. If, with the first
described customer, the shopkeeper let drop
some unfortunate word in describing the
good, exciting the customers prejudiees, he
might lose the opportunity Of making a sale.
He therefore adopts q Fabian policy In deal
ing with him, and withholds all Information.
"With the secoad his policy is to deliver an
article sufficiently good to secure his trade in
future. In either case the shopkecpers brain
is busy calculating the profits, which has
tendency to make him put the highest figure
possible on his goods. You know, of course,
that in almost any store you enter you buy
piece Of goods at certain price, while beside
1t lies another equally good, but not quite 80
fashionable, marked at price perhaps only
half OF three-quarters as much rs the first
piece. Fashion, tho shopkeeper will tell you
took a fancy to the design of the first psce;
it has become scarce, and consequently, dear,
the seller charging for it all hs can get. Now,
with human faliibility, the shopkeeper may
fall irto tho belief that pretty much all his
goods are fashionable and scarce when Gus
toner appears who is able and willing to pay
a good price for what he orders, hut when a
bargniu-driver is facing the shopkeeper he
may have his doubts as to tho scarcity aud
dcarness Of goods elsewhere and let them go
at a price less than he charee ed the other GUS
toner You see, he thus transfers to his shop
the methods of a board of trade, apparent
supply and demand governing transactions.
"The tailor who measures you for suit Of
clothes may tell you he is too busy, that you
must wait weok or two before it can be
made. At the end of tho time agreed upon
you call upon him and he brings out from
drawer a suit made from the cloth you
ordered. You think it handsome, we'll
made suit; you try it on and 1t is perfect hit;
you pay your cash and so away satisfied.
Your folks at homo congratulate you OH
your nice Clothes you admire them and your
figure in them in the glass, and then you go
on wearing them for whatever time you
usually wear suit, when you put them off
for good, knowing that you got your moneys
worth from that tailor. But what would be
your feelings toward that tailor II you were
made aware of some little facts that he with
held from yeni The suit of clothes was an
other mans mistit, it was made month be
fore your measure was taken, and it was
lying la drawer in the shop when you wero
waiting for it to be made Moreover, when
you expressed to him your pleasure with his
promptness in delivering them, and with his
artistic skill In making them, his modest atti
tude and his professions of honest work were
a part of the sham Of his business.
"You perceive how far reaching is honesty,
10 you not, We'll, if You attempt to handle
any one of the various classes of goods which
are sold in our city shops you will find that
the public is not educated up to point which
will permit the shopkeeper to tell all he
knows about bis stock. If shopkseper told
damaging facts about his own goods and yet
could assert with truth that they were as good
as his neighbors', his customers would want
him to tako something off his prices. Igno-
rance is bliss with the average customer.
Take coffee. You buy it ready ground. You
don't know whether 1T is half coffee or three
quarters something else. You don't know
whether the green cotfee-beaps were not
somewhat damaged by sea-water. II you
like the taste Of it, you buy it and think it
good coffee But If told by your grocer that
it was damaged or adulterated, you might be
uneasy.
"Take cigars What smoker can
gauge the value of each Of half dozen
cigars Of different prices ranging, say, from
10 to 80 centsl Yet the man who always
smokes a 25.cent cigar would be made TN
happy il told that bunch of 20-cent cigars
had been worked off Oh him. Take shoes.
There ore certain seams in shoes which to the
knowing bring down their value, rs they are
not regular made. Yet they Will
wear well enough and II you don't
know where to look for these seams
you will rest contentedly in the belief that
you wear frst-class shoes Then there is the
special last idea. Many shoemaker is en-
ablod by a customers belief that his feet are
Of a shape entirely different from the COM
mon run to charge q high price for shoes
made for hinl on his own lasts, whereas the
shoemaker knows that very probably his Gus
toner would find as good fit and as strong
a shoe at q ready made shoe store without
difficulty. But no end Of people, my friend,
love TO be hunbugged in the direction Of
their vanlties Take drug stores-to say
nothing of the veil which druggists draw
over their dealings by the use of Latin labels,
or of the prices they charge for water and
sugar when put up In nice little bottle;
think Of the drug stores which are now
palaces of beauty, but which woull be almost
as naked as assorted lots of Venuses If
stripped Of their dummy jars and bottles.
Yet the public is to blame for the encourage
ment of such shams. The public, say, can
not in its present stage of development with
stand such shock as honesty in business
would give it. The individual in business
who intends TO tell the whole truth always,
plain and unvarnislied, and who intends to
pursue courso of the strictest honesty. sets
himself down in maze which the brevity of
life forbidc ais following to the exit