The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-16
MORTIFIED DUDES.

Publicity the Penalty for Tardy Settlement
of TailOrs' Bills.
The announcement that a number of
merchant tailors of this city had re-
solved to procure legal aid to obtain
judgments against delinquent custom
ers and then advertise these judgments
for sale in the newspapers upset the
equanimity of hundreds of well-dressed
men about town recently. The very
idea that a tailor should be so bold and
desperate as to even threaten such a
course was as preposterous to their
minds as unpaid bills were familiar
to the tradesman. It caused such an
unusual amount of thinking on the part
of some of the elegantly attired youths
of the metropolis that they were home
at an early hour of the evening with
nervous headaches and without enough
vitality left to puff a cigarette.
To be publicly advertised by Smith,
Jones and Robinson as parties un-
worthy of trust! Dreadful thought
Could audacity reach any further
heights What was the tailor for if not
to furnish them with clothes of the
latest styles and to be satisfied not with
base lucre, but with the consoling
thought that they wore his goods so be-
comingly?
Many fastidiously dressed man as he
strolled along Broadway or Fifth ave-
nue. during the day feltfor the first time
in his life uneasy at the gaze of the
multitude. What he would gladly have
taken for admiration was now en-
Filtered by the horrible suspicion that
the beholders were asking themselves:
''Has he paid for that suit or is he ON
the tailors' black list?'
Tailors' black list! Had it then
come to this? Had he been getting
goods all these years which never, so
far as he could remember, or at all
events so far as he could help, had
been offset by any cash consideration,
and was he now in his position of un-
limited assurance to be thus threatened
with law and with publicity?
Lawsuits he could stand; had stood.
There was more than one trick he had
learned to hoodwink Judge and jury
and discomfit the tailor But to have
ones name paraded in the papersi
This was a new and bitter experience.
There were several tailors Saturday
who were startled by the appearance of
many old customers with checks and
bills in hand to pay off almost forgot
ten If not forgiven scores. There was
more than one unhappy child of wealth
who, with long face and faltering
tongue, revealed to the cold man"
that his allowance had gone for this
and that and the other thing, but not
one cent of it to the tailor, and now
the bill of months or even years stand
Ing had to be settled or disgrace ensue.
Faultlessly gotten up young men met
in groups here and there up town and
down town throughout the day to dis
cuss the situation and plan some escape
from the dilemma, for while it is all
very well to tell Joe, Jack and George
that the tailor is chung up and viii
remain so until he financially strangles,
it is quite a different thing to have the
pleasant fact the talk of the club, sOci-
ETY. and the town.
Up to a late date the terrified debt
ors had not hit upon any feasible
scheme. Their camp was demoralized
by the variety of opinions and coun-
sells that prevailed within it. Some
were for complete and unconditional
surrender; others for compromise, and
others again for resistance to the bitter
end.-N 7. Herald.