The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-20
THE MORNING NEWS: FRIDAY, APRIL 20 1883.

had contract for 100 watches a day with
the Elgin Watch Company, but when my
contract expired they refused to renew it I'M
less | would agree to take certain proper
tion Of my order in high-priced movements
for which had no use. get aefew from
the Eastern factories, but not many. l
generally buy only the movements from the
watch factories. The cases, which are
made of white composite metal, which,
you see, resembles silver very nearly, |
have made at an Eastern factory, and we
put the movements and cases together here,
for which purpose | keep two competent
watchmakers employed This 81 80 watch
is really good time-keeper. 1t will keep
just as correct time as many of the watches
that are sold for six times its price; i'll fact,
the movement in this watch is pretty much
the same as that in any watch you can buy
for less than $40. The case makes the diff
| ference in value, and for all practical pur-
poses this silverlne case is as good as low
grade gold case. The metal
Will not tarniSh or lose its
luster, and you may wash it with soap
and water without injury. Cheaper watchesl
Oh, yes Here is one for So so, and here is
one for S1.5O, and l have just placed an or
der for 1000 watches which | VIII sell for
81 each. They will keep good time, too.
These nickel-plated alarm clocks have
twenty times the amount of metal In them
that small watch has; both are equally
easy to make, as both are made entirely by
machinery, and it is no more trouble to put
the Works of the watch together than it is to
adjust the clock. The clock is sold for 81 .25
why not sell a watch made after the same
pattern for $12 ThoSe alarm clocks keep
time very fairly. They are not as unvary-
ing as $500 chronometer, but they are suffi-
GENTLY accurate for ordinary use, and are
very useful for people who cannot afford
| 800 French clocks The 81 watches will be
| just as accurate and just as useful to the
| thousands who cannot buy q $500 time
| piece
I'VE sell some cheap watches in the city,
but the great bulk of our trade is with the
country. We sell solely by advertising,
and newspaper bills form the largest item
| of our expense We advertise mainly in
the South and West, and from those sec
| tions we get the majority of our orders.
| The ignorance of many of our customers,
| and sometimes the ignorance of country
| postmasters, often produces annoying, but
| at the same time ludicrous, episodes in our
| business. The eXecrable penmanShip of
many Of the orders we get sometimes pro-
| vokes profanity, both here and at the point
| to which we send the watch, addressed to
| the name on the order as nearly as we can
| make it out, but which is an unknown
| sign, as we write it, in 'Swampville.'
| from Colbert, Tex and we filled it,
sending the watch by registered mail.
| A week or so afterward we received the
package marked No such post office The
envelope in which the order was received
| by US, and which is generally guide to us
| in mailing directions, was useless in this
case, because the letter had been mailed
| from Forth Worth. There was nothing to
do but wait. A few weeks later post office
| inspector called on me- He had with him
| a long letter in which the writer in I'M
| grammatical but vigorous language de-
| nounced us as swindlers, and demanded the
| assistance of the United States to recover
his 81 so. The postal receipt for the regis
| tered package and its exhibition to the
| inspector jest as it had been returned by
| the department of course cleared
us Of any suspicion of dishonesty. The
explanation was that the bull -puncher' had
| written from Fort Worth on the eve of his
| departure for Colbert, /. T., and had in
tended to have the watch sent him there,
but he wrote Colbert, Tex We remailed
the watch to Colbert, |. T. Another time
| we were sent an order from 'Smithville,
Va, as we had made it out, and only after
lou of envelopes marked post office ousi-
ness had Travelled between the East and
the West we learned that Pa was what
our friend had intended to write. We once
were sent an order from Texas which we
filed. A week or SO later the watch was
returned, accompanied by a strongly
worded letter from our indignant customer,
who, after berating us for trying to swindle
him, proved the charge, as he thought,
| by saying the watch was not running when
it reached him. We found the watch was
net wound up, and, of course, was not rum
| ming. The fellow had not sense enough TO
| know that watch required winding oc-
| casiOnally. We sent the watch back with
as mild an explanation as we could make,
and | was paralyZed to receive, shortly
afterward, another letter more denuncia-
tory than the first. renewing the charge of
swindling and accusing us of thinking him
a fool-telling him to wind watch with
out sending him key for it, and clinching
the proof Of our rascality with the fact that
| the 'darned old watch had no keyhole and
couldn't be wound up nohow.' 1t was a
tem-winding watch.
"On another occasion / sent watch to
Texas by registered mail The new Post
master at the place there had gotten it into
his head that the only place anything should
be receipted for was at the express office,
| and so he took the watch to the railroad
station and left it there, and when the man
| to whom it was sent called at the post office
| he was told there was nothing for him. 1t
| took three weeks Of official correspondence
and visit from post office inspector to
| Strengthen out the muddle, as the fO5tmaS-
ter insisted that he had not the watch. while
| the office here had his receipt for it.
| II once received an order written on a
finely engraved letterhead Of business
firm as 'Eonanza city, Col. The order be-
ing on such paper, did not notice the'e en-
velope, and sent the watch by registered
! mail to the address at Bonanza city, The
| package was returned marked NO such
| office As in the other cases. indignant
letters were sent to the post office here, de-
manding to know why the United States
intended to aid such a swindle. Investiga-
| ton showed that Bonanza city was a water
tank on a branch railroad line, that its
post office was at a town some ten miles
away, and that the only resident of the
''city' was the man who took care of the
water tank The explanation of the fam
| ing letterhead was that some enterprising
real estate shark had bought some wild
| land near the tank laid it out in imaginary
| lots and started boom town vita the
| hope of selling lots to Eastern suckers 1t
had even less substantially than 'Metropo-
| lisville' We have little drawbacks like
| those in the business, but if we can keep up
a trade of 200 watches day we won't fret
about ignorant postmasters or boom
Cities"
WOMEN WHO RULE osKALooSA.
Tro Rap1,blicaua Four Dem Ocrata-