The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-02-05
FOR SMALL SHOPKEEPERS.
G~REENWIOH TTLLAGER DROPS 4 HINT
ON CORNERSTONE RUNNING.
His Experienced with NeiRhborhood Grocers,
Icemen, Newsmen and the Like-How
an Italian Vegetable Man Prospered
-vybv Teya Q.t,o,. W.. Du..t..

Of this community or whether small trades
people are alike everywhere. We started house,
keeping about n year ago. We started very
cautiously, because all the married people we
knew guyed us 80 much over the fool things
we were going to do. We started with n re-
frigcrator, a gas stove. a frying pan. u tea ket-
tie. n stew pan and a broilcr. We hired no girl
because everybody told us that q girl would
cheat us out OF our lives unless we knew the
elements Of kitchen economies ourselves. Our
plan was to cook our own breakfasts by way of
sclf-cducation and to eat in restaurants by way
OF education and bodily sustenance. You can
easily see we needed very few groceries.
There was u grocer at the corner. We mover
thought OF doing anything else than to foster
home industries. We went to him for all our
small stun. We observed an ice wagon un-
loading several hundred pounds OF ice on tho
sidewalk in front of the store aud that the
groeer's boy was cutting 1t up into chunks that
were just the size OF our refrigerator. We
asked the grocer II he sold ice. Sure. he did,
said he. That relieved us a great deal because
we knew no ice company would deliver tho
small quantity Of ice that we required at the
particular hour at which we wanted 1t deliy-
cred. We bought our ice OF him for four days.
On day. just as my wife was going into a
big grocery store for some high priced delica-
cies which, as she knew. our friend on the COR
ner had never heard OF. she saw the corner gro
ceryman standing on the curbstone gazing
upon her with mingled grief and rage. The
next time she went into tho store he greeted
her with a surly grunt.
Say" he said, you better 60 to that swell
store for your ice. I don't sell Ice to people
who don't deal with me-
"Of course that finished our trade relations
with that grocer. 1t was easy to find groceries,
but as the corner grocer very we'll knew, we
were terribly afraid we knew no iceman. We
counselled long and at last decided to humble
ourselves by asking advice OF the people in the
next fiat. wanted to do that in the first place,
but my wife wouldn't have It. She said that IL
we did. everybody in the house would know
that we were green.
The woman in the next fat was delighted
to find that We had parted company with the
corner grocer. No man had any right to make
30 much fuss over his nasty little bills as he
she said. We overlooked the intimation
in our JOY when she told us OF an italian on the
avenue. down a cellar stairs, who sold ice by
the hve-cent chunk. We made our arrange
ment with him. Every day for a week he
brought us his chunk Of ice. and every day we
sent down his nickel on the elevator. On the
eighth day We had nothing in the house
smaller than a SO bill. 1 lifted the ice into
the refrigerator and then yelled down the
shaft to the Italian that we would pay him for
the ice the next day.
mo You won't he said. III most unpleasant
accents. Pay now Iexplained again at great
length. pointing out with some eloquence that
we had never yet failed to meet our obligations.
30 da hell said he YEARLY. but In no gen.
tie tones: pay now My timid young wife
restrained me from throwing his chunk OF ice
down the shaft at his ugly head: She also re-
another iceman that night, so | went out and
changed the $40 Bill and gave him his nickel.
RRfi@as | fR had Been n' telI fns Rim Rim The Il GtPraafass'e f ae s ssfG
simply; -
We'll, told him to go away to a place where
his ice would sell higher than it did in Green;
another one. four blocks away. He supplied
ice very nicely for a week. Then. unfortu-
= recspt Ts E in our aF8 best S Sns e dday; e Rn | SSr E 70 te IL
him to come later that evening than usual. We
both commented. after we left him. on the way
he eyed our clothes.
When he came that night he shouted up:
No come here no more witha da f1ve-cent
CHUNK lar u walk MUST TAXA ia 'eh-e0n'
was lust thinking said the other half of
piece every other day as a small piece every
day. So we told him to bring a ten-cent piece
eEess S SIhheh qhS ey dte Atssr io was d Hery t HAS fen Ia ,
than the ~lve-cent chunks had been aforetime
] demonstrated with him.
You GALA me thief he inquired.
No. shouted back. L didn't call you a
- coma so far. da ice. he melt. That's why
SO small. he, said; l accepted the explanation
like the weak and Bringing victim that I was.
deliver less than Ia. cents worth of ice and
could not come less frequently than four times
a E week b Then ws We anf f,5Sd III him iyad I'll I'll t tell yPPn in a
Blu now to go back to the groceries. We
didn't really want to 20 to the big grocery store
that the dairyman kept IA small stock of
groceries. and he was nearer, by a block than
and tomato catsup and clothespins OF him as
well as milk and cream. But one day he sentus
The boss OF the fat went down with the cheese
TO get 1t exchanged for u good one. She came
80" Just laid it on the counter she informed
must have been sent up by mistake, And he
that the cheese he had sent up was good. and
that wasn't the cheese he had sent up, and it
trads only WITH i've eh ssa's p s1yEia A nnf f Fl did neR hate TO TO
into the horrid old place again
II put on my hat and started ont Of the door.
know you'd XII him and then you'd be hung
and that would be awful. Besides, there isn't
to. the department. stores for my groceries, -.
onr W. W ii, ITtqbP ITe IL bn KING ErOGer, ,H and paid
avoid personal conflict. But l may tell you in
cidentally that months afterward. when we had
Why the cream had adm not come HeS ONE i MORNING NJ and and
she came back, without the cream and said
she'd leave without notice the next time she
was asked to go into the place. Then we
hunted up q new dairy.
morning at the fiat door: found a newsman
course. he died, The man who bought his
business from the widow wouldn't carry the
he said, whose papers had to be carried up
stairs. II he undertook to serve any more he
would have to hire another delivery boy. /
told. him that II he didn't want TO increase his
business / didn't and found another newsman.
We live on the fifth floor. | found the people
in the fourth-fioor flats had a newsman who
delivered their papers at their doors. went
to see him
What floor are you on p he asked.
Fifth said /.
II can deliver on the ftth.' he said. IT'S
too high
but you deliver now on the fourth I re-
minded him. It's only one flight more
Don't care he said. I've got to stop
somewherc.'. Nowadays don't get my paper
until / go out myself and buy II.
" How about your meat and vegetables ?"
asked the victim of the tale.
Az for butchers, We have four nearby. |
When ones meat Is not so good as IL ought to |