The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-08-27
SUSPICIOUS CUSTOMER.
Sale of High Priced Diamond That "
Not Cnnnleted

SUSPICIOUS CUSTOMER.
Sale of a High Priced Diamond That Wa,
Not Completed.
YES" smiled the good looking
and we'll dressed clerk in a Wash.
ington jewelry store, there are
tricks in our trade as well as in 9th.
ers."
I'm really surprised, responded
the reporter, who had never bodght
| more than 81 worth of jewelry-
! that is, fine jewelry-in his life.
How can there be?"
In various ways, and one OF
those ways is the marking up of
goods on display. Other lines of
business draw trade by marking
them up. For instance, we will put
jewel or some rich article on dis
play which may be worth as much
as $1,000 or $4,000, and we will
mark it $40, 600. That draws people
somehow, for they do like to see big
figures, AS to paying that sort of a
price, that Is quite different mat
ter. People who arc paying those
big prices don't pay them until they
know they are getting their mon
ey's worth as near as may be. They
are painfully suspicious, too, and
are constantly on the lookout not to
be caught in any kind of trap
II remember some years ago l
had charge of jewelry store for
the summer at swell resort, and
next door to US was another New
York firm, whose reputation was
not as good as our own, owing to
the fact that they catered to the
fash trade, while ours was quiet
and swell. They had in their win
dow big diamond for display
marked 81, 500, and one day rich
woman whom I knew was attracted
by it and wanted to get it for her
husband.
'She was sharp woman, not
withstanding she was rich, and she
knew that she could get the stone
for less money and proceeded to do
it in the easiest way. This was to
make plump offer for it, and she
went in and laid down $500 on the
counter and said if they wanted to
exchange the stone for the money
now was the chance and that it
must be done at once.
1.-THE clerk hemmed and hawed
awhile, but at last agreed to trade.
He then took the stone down to the
other end of the store behind the
counter, stopping a moment to speak
to the clerk, and came up to the Ia
dy on the outside of the counter
with the stone in his hand. She
looked at him suspiciously as he
held the stone out to her and shook
her head. I don't want it, she
said. I'm as sharp as you are, and I
would have taken it if you had
handed it to me across the counter,
but don't want it how:3 That end
ed the trade, and the woman left.
1.-The lady told me this part of the
story herself, and / felt sure that
the clerk had done just what she
suspected him of doing, and that he
had changed the stone on his way
around the counter. Later saw one
of the clerks and asked him about
it. He was mad all over and was not
choice of the epithets he applied to
the clerk, who had really acted
square in the matter and had only
stopped to tell the other clerk of his
good luck in making a $500 sale.
The proprietor was hot, too, for,
Notwithstanding the price was
81, 900 under what the diamond was
marked, there was still a comforta-
BILE profit in it. AS to the lady, she
was beyond explanation, and to this
day presume that she thinks that
jeweler tried to bunko her and did
not simply because she was too sharp
for him. Washington Star.