St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-09
AN ARMY OF DEAD-BEATs.
Quaker City Men Who Forget to
Pay Their Tailors.
Philadelphia Record.


Philadelphia Record.
There are between 5000 and 5000 men
in this city who do not pay their tailors'
bills. This statement is made upon the
authority of member of the new insti-
tuition known as the Merchant Tailors'
Protective Association and Exchange.
which is preparing the list for publica-
ton and circulation among the men,
berS of the organization. When this
black list is once made public it will
ruin the credit Of the hundreds who
have existed off the tailors In the past
The Merchant TaiiOrs' Exchange has
had list of this character for som
years, but the membership of that Or
ganiZation is small and limited almost
entirely to the tailors having large es-
Establishments in the vicinity of Walnut
and Chestnut streets. The new asso-y
citation which was organized on Mon,
day evening will cover much wider
field, and efforts will be made to include
every tailor IN the city. Each member
will turn in the names of those from
whom he has been unable to collect his
money. and copies of the complete list
will be furnished every tailor in the
city:
The list is to include not only the
dead-beats that never pay, but all those
who help to make the life of
tailor burden. For example, it Is al
most impossible to make clothing to
suit some men. No matter how care
fully they are made, some objection
will be found, and after enough altera-
tions have been made to eat up all the
profit, the price must be reduced on the
ground that after so many changes have
are so heavy as are claimed Ivy some
been made the garment comes ander
the head of damaged goods. Under the
new order of things, these men must
change their tactics or depend on the
re@dy-made dealers for their clothing.
Hiram DeWalt, who was made tenn
pOrary chairman of the new rganiZa-
ton. says it is surprising to what extent
the business of beating tailors out of
their money has been carried. at is
confined to no particular Glass;" he said,
''but is done by men in all the walks of
life. Two classes of people stand out
more prominently than the rest, how
ever--thOse who want to make greater
display than their circumstances will
warrant, and the sons of rich men who
evidently use their allowances for out
side pleasure and want to get their
clothes at the expense of the tailorS.
''ln the compilation of the list great
care and caution will be exercised. The
tallorS will all be given numbers, and
the names of those reporting delinquentS
will not appear on the list, but opposite
the name and address of each objection
able customer will be given the NUM-
Der of the tailor at whose instance he
has been blacklisted, and the cause for
the action.
cit is only after man has shown con-
clnsively that he does not intend to pay
that his name will be reported. After
dunDing man for year without get
ting anything out OF him, it is safe to
suppose that ne does not intend to pay,
and down goes his name on the
blacklist. l don't believe, however,
that the losses from this source
The tailors have learned wisdom and.
during the last few years, have been
very careful about trusting people they
with all this care, they get stuck every
now and then, and the general black
list is intended to remedy this"
Robert Stewart, the president OF the
old Merchant Tail0rs' Exchange, Is
firm believer in the efficiency of the
blacklist. Nothing but the best goods
in the house will suit those people who
make habit of not PAYING" he said,
land whenever we lose by one of them
1t Is always pretty tair sum. A man
who appeared to move in the very best
circles came into the store some time
ago and ordered suit of clothes for
s65. After he had gone looked over
our list and found his name there.
Immediately sent him note stating
that we could not make the clothing
without having good deposit. He
stopped in shortly afterward and ex--
planned that he expected to receive
some money in about a week or SO, and
would pay when the clothes were made.
He never returned, however,and have
since seen hun OH the street in new
suit, but they were readv-made.
"a blacklist of this character may
seem rather hard to some outsiders, but
it is the only way by which tailors can
prevent heavy inroads into their yearly
profits. | think 5000 low estimate Of
the number of men of that character
in this city, and for the tailors to cl0the
an army like that free of charge is con-
cibaro hIa Of Aroff Y1non nI,r purSns -