The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-08

made before this threw my left shoulder
several inches above my right"
Cutter spread out his hands with the
palms upward, and rolled his eyes toward
heaven.
clothings," said he, 'und he aindt fit ter
make a horse blanket for a mule"
HE is especially unhappy in his concep-
ton of pantaloons," said l. ut is his
creed that everybody must be either bow
legged or knock-kneed."
dose pants yer got on" remarked Cut
ter, ''are knock-kneed in one leg, und bow
legged in der remainder. never see such
a holy show"
He clasped my slender calf in one hand,
and made gestures of disapproval and dis
gust with the other.
eff l couldn't cut a good pant for a leg
he said.
"Will you sign a bond to that effect?" I
inquired. IF l had exacted a similar
pledge from every tailor l ever traded with,
the East river would now be almost closed
to navigation.
Gutter shifted the conversation oleverly,
by calling my attention to a pair of panta-
looms hanging on a line. He said that if /
could have been there half an hour before,
when the gentleman tried them n l should
have witnessed a spectacle of complete and
boundless satisfaction, such as few men
Adu over pdLGu upOu, dAO 1t6vGT OuLSlu6 Oh
this particular shop.
The salesman believing that my feelings
had been sufficiently worked upon, pro-
ceeded to show me some of his goods. /
wanted a dark blue cloth. He selected a
roll of it, and said that he could make me a
suit of that for 1927. gave him to under
stand that l was willing to pay a little
more than that for u first rate article, with
a fit guaranteed. He then pulled out an
other roll of exactly the same material.
This is genuine imported goods" said
Ne, Il can give you a suit OF 1t for So, and
if they don't fit, we won't let you take them
out of the Shop
Meanwhile, he kept a close watch of me,
and discovered that | WAS not scared by his
price. Then he reached out after a roll.
Now here is something extra fine" said
he, land III warrant 1t to give you salts
faction. You'll never be sorry if you order
a suit of this goods. tn wear forever and
for $40. Over on Broadway they'll charge
you 500 for just the same thing
l have since traced all this cloth to a we'll
known sloddy mill in Connecticut. This
mill produces only one grade of goods be-
cause no inferior grade has vet been in
else in a bad enough light. l have got 30
thoroughly accustomed to being cheated by
tailors that no other possibility ever occurs
to me. l simply order whatever they show
me. and afterwards suffer in silence. So |
told Mr.. Lswy, ETC., ETC., alias Cutter, to
make up a suit of those genuine imported
goods, and then take out an insurance poll
cy on his life because he would find it n
good Investment i'll case the clothes didn't
fit me.
He told me thatI should have to wait till
the following Thursday, because he was so
rushed init beezness."
He gave me to understand that many of
our most prominent citizens were at that
homer destitute of pants" and had gone
to bed rather than wear those made by any
other tailor, 80 in order not to interfere
with the business interests of the city he
woIld be compelled to do their work first.
| waited With n foreboding of evil for my
experience with clothes has never been
happy. They have cast Il blight over my
life. In my youth was supposed to be
humphacked. Tor no other reason than that
the old man McCiuskey made my jackets.
Ii is true that Il number of the other boys
suffered under the same unjust suspicion,
but that was no consolation to me. 1t is
very damaging to n boys seif-respect to
get the idea in his youth that he ia de-
formed. How oan a boy begin u straight
lie with II pair of boS-logged pnntaloons?
McCluskey had n theory that n boys
clothes hould not be made to fit him i'm
mediately BECAUSE, in that case, he would
outgrow them. When he took u boys meas-
ure he modified it i'll n spirit of large and
generous prophecy. | never knew Il boy to
justify MoCluskey's confidence in his posi-
bilities of development. As for me, | was
10 underaized before | was thirteen that one
freokle covered my entire face, and then |
suddenly took a start and assumed my
present ample proportions almost imme-
diately. But even during That period
when took NV "'-" "@nanra three days in