The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-02

SNt 'at Will cdullth &sAiSs
fruit ana all that sort OF thlhs.
why buy grocery up town, he SAID,
why not buy from me"
His prices were low. HIS groceries
were good, and another problem was
settled. Since we have been IN the
neighborhood he has hired a clerk and
has bought a horse and delivery Wag-
on with his name in gilt letters all
over both sides of it, or course he
didn't make all this prosperity out of
us, but he made it out OF people whose
custom he had attracted ana Kept by
the same methods by Whlch lie dld
ours. by going out of his way TO make
1t worth while for US TO come 10 MS
store to buy things.
There is great big lesson IN our ex-
perience for somebody. and 1t seems to
me that the somebody is the small
shopkeeper who is always complaining
that the department stores are squeez-
ing the life out of him. Another lesson
of my neighborhood may be profitable
to the people who say the saloon thrives
because it is the poor mans ciub.
'One day in the midst OF our ice
troubles we had some folks in to watch
us make rarebit. and, if they dared, to
help us eat it afterward There was no
ice to cool the beer. 1t was 10 O'Clock
at night. There was apparently no
prospect of getting any ice. l plunged
out into the darkness with wild, herce
resolution to get ice somehow some
where. ! went to the nearest saloon.
Ice said the proprietor cheer1ully.
do you want?
II showed him. and he gave me
piece twice as big as Indicated.
"How much?' said /.
"How much?" he esaid in an insult
ed tone. Nothing: we don't sell ice.
Take it..
Il took it, and went home with it. I
found the house in a state OF woe. MY
wife thought had bought cheese, and
| thought she had. There was no
cheese.
81 balk at cheese I said.
"'Can't you try the saloon again?
she asked. I couldn't help snickering
at the idea of her advising me to go to
saloon, but l had to admit the strength
of the suggestion. ! didn't quite like to
go to the same one that | had been to
before. I had never been in the place
before in my life, and two calls in one
night, one for ice and one for cheese,
particularly after the ice was rendered
as a free gift, seemed too much. L went
to another saloon. where l had never
been before, also, for the cheese, and
got it, a pound and half of it.
How much do I owe you?' I asked
Do you take this for corner groc-
ery?' said he. we don't sell cheese
Some day We'll ask you to do favor
for us.
Nov, my moral to this whole saf
tale is this: That if the corner grocer
and ice man, and the dairyman and
newsman, and the butcher (all of whom
knew that I was almost certain to be-
come profitable customer) had taker
| the trouble to make themselves pleas
ant to me, as had those two heather
saloonkeepers (neither Of whom hat
| ever seen me before and neither Of
| whom knew whether was visitor II
| the neighbcrhood or a householder)
| then my FRIEND the Italian vegetable
| man. would not have cut into the bus.
ness of three of them and have his eye
on the rest. If, as is altogether posi-
| BILE, he becomes the proprietor of de
partment store in the next few years
it is altogether probable that the res
of them will be petitioning the legisla
ture to pass laws to, keep him from alb
sorbing their business.--New York Sun