St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1890-11-29
Tricks in all Trades.
HOW THE MAID SERVANTS GOT EVAN WITH
AN OBNOXIOUS DOARDkR.

HOW THE MAID SERVANTS GOT EVEN WITH
AN OBNOXIOUS BoARDtR.
''Oh, yes, we all have, our faults, said
wealthy retired grocer of this city, as ne
sat with a group of old friends on the We
randa of his west side home. I'm ADMIT
even that the parsgraphers have some
foundation for the sandy-sugar, cacoanut-
pepper and clay coffee bean jokes they
keep tiinging at grocers with almanac reg
n1srItv. But We can console ourselves
with the true, if not exactly moral, ret1ec
lion that there are lots of folks worse than
coat of the fullness of my half CEN
tury's experience | should say that the
servant glrl trade or business or whatever
ven like to call it has more sharp and
tricky mem bers than any other one know
of For example, twenty five years ago
had a splendid customer in high class
boarding house near my store. | always
gave the servant who attended to the pur-
cbases, the waitress, and the head cook
taeir little dividend every week. Bless
Won. yes, we had to do it then and we have
10 do it now. If we didn t-well you'll see
as get along with the story. And every,
Thing went as merrily as marriage bell
for three wears Then my rival IN the
neighborhood, crusty old bachelor con-
cocted a fine scheme to get that boarding
house trade from my store to his. he
went to the landlady and offered to take
an extensive room of her If she would
spree TO buy her supplies from him IN the
future. Tie andlady liked me, and was
we'll satisfied with the goods l furnished
her. but the room had been inlet for some
time. and business is business anyway,
so she agreed TO his proposal.
"Old. 'Smith'-thst wasn't his name,
| but it will do for the story-grinned from
Ear to ear every time he passed my place
for the next few days and told every
tradesman in the place of his feat. Bat he
made one big mistake IN his course OF
action. He refused to tip the servants
when Saturday came around, saying that
they would have to buy from him nyhow,
and he was unnecessarily grutf and harsh
in telling them so. The girls said moth
ing. but thought heap, and when sun
days supplies came home that evening
they devised plan to Fl ( the new boa'der
at breakfast Sunday mcrnlng each board
er, as he broke the shell of his eggs, was as
, sailed by an odor that vas simply terrlhc.
| Everybody knew that Smith had furnished
the eggs, and the glancas cast at hun bJ
the breskfasters, from the landlady to the
attic boarder, were the nearest thing Il
basilsk stares imaginable.
"Another batch of eggs was cooked, bu
they were opened with the same result, ane
although poor Smith protested that th'
eggs he had sent around were only DAY
I'D nobody believed him, he went up stair
feeling like social outcast. At Dime
the tomatoes plainly tasted Of tin, the po
tatoes were hard and specked, the chess
burned hole in ones tongue, and the but
ter-well, don't care TO repeat what th
star bo4rder said about the butter. Th
boarders he'd an indignation meeting IL
the parlor that afternoon, and at its clos
the landlady went up stairs and told MI
Smith that he had better move Monda'
morning and shut down at once on tn
grocery supplies also. Smith vowed tn
: goods he had sent in were of the very best
but it was no use, and next day l had N.
Old customer back again.
where do 7 suppose the girls got tina
stock of bad easables2 Wei, can't sa
exactly, but know that there was les
: rubbish carted away from my cellar tina
week than usual. The girls may hav
formed a combination with my porter i
the matter but there is no use castins sus
picions on people who may have been in
nocent AS the landlady remarked, 'busi
ness is business and as | said before, sci
wants are tricky. Let's have fres
r cigar. "-Neao York Times.