The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-13
lan." Could anything be more A.,
-AAC4C deli

no good. Neither does il 49,, 10 OF
how we'll and favorably you are lroSou
at your hotel for paying your 'o TIi
promptly. This, and the custom in IN nnl
eral large department stores of r
returning your money If you take ha'er
goods, but making you spend II n oacN
the store, but in the department ~
which you have bought, make s IN IN
ping for dry goods excessively arp
ing to Americans 0i''loy-
took back two silk blouses o,,.
five that l bought at a large shor VI
Regent street, and, to my astoni.s III
fnent' discovered that l must buy H.
more plouses' or else lose all the none,'
paid for them. The shop womar tN5,
me that ladies' maids are so exnart 'oI1
copying that many ladies' have Si, AZ
eight garments sent home, kent 81 VI
days, copied by their maids and re+,i ,e"
ed, and they were finally force6
make that obnoxious rule. I have 10
complaints made in America. bv ~
proprietors of large importing hons ere
that women who keep accounts ,rs
quently order a handsome gown. wran
or hat sent home on approval Wy
and return it the next day. !"
In this same store in Regent s4u...
we submitted to several petty annov
ances of this description without onr,
paint, the last and prettiast -
which was when Mrs. linz, oh
oelng captivated by an exo,isit,
hundred guinea grown, ordered II ~
tered to her figure, and they char
Two pounds ten in addition to t6ot
frlghtful price for about an bo 80
work about the collar. 1 persuade Gu 49,.
to protest, and dictated a furions ia+
ter of remonstrance to the pronieto.
citing only this one case of extortiNl'
Jimmie sat by smoking and encouroa
ing me as | paced up and down r.
room with my hands behind INV his
giving vent to sentences which u,bae
copied down in Mrs. Jimmie's ladvI
like handwriting, made Jimmie scream
with joy. | think Mrs Jimmie navar
ildu any intention OF sending the letter.
having written it down as a safetv
valve for my rather explosive nature
put Jimmie was so carried away nv
the artistic incongruities of the situa-
tlon that ne whipped a stamp on to if
and mailed it before his wife copId
wink. N
To his unbounded delight, Mrs. linn
| ME received, three days later, a lei
ter from the astonished proprietor
which showed in every line of it the
jolt that my letter must have been to
his stolid, British, nerveless system. He
began by thanking her for having re-
ported the. matter to him, apologized
humbly, as British tradesman ALWAYS
does apologize to the bloated power of
wealth, and declared that her letter
had been sent to all the various heads
of departments for their perusal He
declared that for five years he had
been endeavoring to bring the directors
| to see that if they were to possess the
| coveted American patronage for which
they always strove they must accom-
modate themselves to certain Ameri-
can prejudices, one of which was the
unalterable distaste Americans dis
played in paying for ref1tting expen-
sive gowns. He was delighted to say
that her letter had been couched in
such firm, decisive and righteously in
d1gnant language, such as he himself
never would have been capable of COM
handing, that it had carried such
weight and had been productive Of
| such decisive results with the directors
that he was pleased to announce that
henceforward a radical change would
appear in the government of their
| house, and that never again would a
charge be made for refitting any gar.
ment costing over ten pounds. He
thanked her again for her letter. bUt
could not resist saying at the close that
it was the most astonishing letter he
| had ever received in his life, and he
| begged to enclose the two pounds ten
overcharge.
Jimmie fairly howled for joy as he
read this letter aloud; Bee looked very
much mortified: Mrs. Jimmie exceed
| ingly perpleXed, as if uncertain what
| to think but l confess that all my irri-
tation against British shopkeepers fell
| away from me as a cast-off garment l
| blush to say that 1 shared Jimmies
| delight, and when he solemnly made
me present of the two pounds ten l
had so heroically earned l soothed ny
lady-like sisters refined resentment by
| inviting all three to have broiled lob
ster with me at Scotet's.
In most of the shops however. the
| clerks are universally polite, interested
and obliging. The instant you stop
before the smallest object, a saleswC-
man approaches, and says. Good
| morning" You say, What a very
| pretty parasol," and she replies, 1T is
| pretty, isn't it, MADAME" She wears
skin-tight black cashmere gown with
little tail to it. Her beautiful broad
shoulders, fiat back, tiny waist, the
bun at the back of her head and the
| invisible net over her fringe all pro-
claim her to be an English woman.
but her pronunciation of the simplest
words, and the way her voice goes up
| and down two or three times in sim
| gle sentence, sometimes twice in a sin
| gle word, might sometimes lead you to
think she spoke a foreign tongue.
The English call our voices monoto-
nous, but it was several weeks after
/ reached London before l got so that
l could catch the significance of a SEN
| tence the first time it was pronounced
All over Europe our watchword with
the Russians, Turks, Egyptians, Arabs,
| French, Germans and Italians was al
ways, DO you speak English" and
in London it was Jimmie's GROWING
act of revenge to ask the railway
guards and the cab drivers the same
insulting question. Imagine asking
London cabby the question, do you
speak English?" 1t puts him IN a pur-
pie rage directly.
Like most Americans, 1 am in the
habit of turning away disappointed
and preparing to go without things II
can not find what / want in the
shops, but in London and Paris they
will offer of their own accord to make
for you anything you may describe to
them, from a pair of gloves to a pau
tern of brocade. That is one glory ot
being an American in Europe, for as
my friend in Naples. of The firm oil
Ananias, Barabbas & Co., said to me,
Behold! You are an American, ana
by Americans do we not live?"