The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-10-17
SHE DESERVED 70 STAND.
4 BOLD FACED GIRL AND sEY-
ERAL FOOLS IN A CAR.

b. -
Piano Prices Are Big Fakes-The Pretti-
est Girl In st. Louis-The Prince OF
Wales Ostrich PIumes-A Pretty Toy.
She had no doubt read all the funny
mems paragraphs about the girls VINO
get even with the men who do not
give them a seat when they board a
street car; about the girls who refuse
a seat which ought to have been
offered to the plain old woman carry
ing a bundle of washing, and about all
those other incidents which are said
to occur so frequently on the street
cars in which pretty young women are
the heroines. That was why b did
it. There was M gainsaying her
beauty. She knew she was pretty,
too, and she had probably speculated
on her chances Of turning 1t to ad-
vantage in the rebuke she meant TO
administer to the other sex if h had
the opportunity. When her form APP
peared at the doorway a half-dozen
men of all ages and sizes started up
and offered their seats. She looked
them over coolly, as if trying to de-
termine which she should honor, while
the men stood simpering and bowling
and raising their hats. With a scarcely
perceptible smile the young lady
dropped into the nearest seat, and in
a cold, metallic voice, plainly. dis
tinguishable above the roar OF the
street, said
"Thank you, gentlemen; 1t is hardly
fair to dispossess one of you for so long
a ride as there is before you. l Will
occupy the seat for a few minutes, anu
then in turn the Others which have so
kindly been offered"
A half-suppressed litter went round
the car joined in by everybody but the
half dozen men, all of whom but one
dropped back sheepishly into their
seats and tried to look unconcerned.
At the end of five minutes the yonng
lady rose gracefully, motioned the
man who had given up his seat to her
back into it, and stepped along IN
front of the next one expectantly ana
smilingly. He was a handsome-look-
ing man, with a face expressive OF a
good bit of character, and his first i'm
pulse seemed to be to refuse to give
up his seat. But as he glanced up
into the pretty face the look of de-
termination faded rapidly away, and
with a smile and a tip of his hat he
gave up his seat as gracefully as was
possible with twenty grinning and
chuckling people looking on. A few
blocks further down the street the
young lady again rose, and while the
handsome young man slipped back
into his seat she crossed the aisle and
stood before her third victim. He was
one of those portly men who elbow
their way through the world as if it
was made for their special delectation.
He had offered his seat to the young
lady upon her entrance to the car, ex-'
pecting that, of course, she would be
glad to sit in the same place that he
had once occupied, but when she did
not accept it he subsidized into a stolid
indifference to what was going on
around him, and busted himself with
a newspaper. The young lady looked
down at him over a paper
my seat, if you please
"Ehg" he replied, looking up.
Your seat?'
Eyes, if you please"
sBut the seat belongs to the COM
pany."
You paid for the use of it,
though"
II did, madam"
"And you offered it to me.n
Certainly; and you refused to take
it,
81 accepted the refusal of it,"
"And you have got it,"
"What?"
sThe refusal of it, madam"
t"Then | demand five cents from
you for the use of it,"
You are a cool one"
'sYou offered the seat to me for
nothing. / accept it, but you still
continue to occupy it. 1t is mine to
use by virtue of your purchase from
the company of the right to use it. a
right which you made over to me and
which l accepted"
MADAM, accept my c~ongratula-
tions. The seat is yours to s as
long as the company will let you. /
have business which obliges me to
leave the car at this point. By the
way, are you studying lawY"
mo, but | have heard the report of
the inquest. "-ChicGgo Times.
Pianos and Prices.
One of the most profound mys-
teries in the history of everyday life
in America is the cost of a piano. APP
| parently no two men ever pay the
same sum for pianos which are similar
in scheduled price and every detail of
workmanship, and the manner in
which prices are scaled down would
astonish the manager of an English
dry goods house. Grand pianos, which
appear in the catalogue to cost 81, 500,
can he had at the wareroolns for
about 81, 200, and, if the purchaser
saws he is a professional musician, for
500 or 5000 less.
Then there are enormous discounts
for cash, which bring the price down
to about $500; and, after this, if the
purchaser fights vigilantly, he will, in
all likelihood, be able to throw off
two or three commissions, so that the
price would come to him at $500, or
even below that sum. The inference
is that there must be a very large
profit on pianos when they are sold at
the catalogued price-if they ever are.
The expenses of piano warehouses in
New York should, by all odds, be very
great: for nearly all of the most eligi-
Bile sites of Fifth avenu are occupied
by firms of piano makers.
The writer, by the way, recently
saw a remarkable product of the skill