The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-09-06
FUN IN SELLING PANAMAs.

1nere'S Iun IN Sell1ng Panama
hats" said the head salesman of {
Broadway store. "You see, the
things are really sad extravaganza
for the great majority of men who
buy them. Four men out of five look
either guilty and hangdog. or reck
less and desperate when they're dig
ging up for their Panamas.
"The fellows who look like mar.
ried men are the ones that wear the
hangdog air. The reckless lockers
are young fellows who are perhaps
trying to hope how they're going to
duck their board bills for week OF
so in order to make good their in
vestment in Panamas.
There's something queer about
the way the hankering for Panama
clutches man, once he begins to
ache for one. 1t hits even men who
are by no means dressy, and who can
pass the inviting array of things in
tailors' and haberdashers' windows
without ever being tempted.
maybe it's because the man with
a sure-enough Panama on his head
experiences a satisfying sensation of
genuineness all through him. A
chap who came in the other day,
wearing a new imitation Panama, for
which he paid So or $5, said he
couldn't stand it any longer, and he
bought $50 Panama.
" I can't stand the gaff with this
thing on, said he, pointing to his
imitation hat. It's a good enough
looking lid, and all that, but the in
fernal sassy way that it's rubbered at
by chumps that've got genuine Pam
amas on their heads gets me going
Gone Saturday afternoon recently,
while standing in the front part of
the store, I caught sight of big,
good-natured looking man, about
forty, wearing Derby hat, standing
in front of showcase filled with
Panamas that were all marked $25.
was sort O. sorry for that man by
the time I'd studied him for a good
fifteen minutes, for I came pretty
near knowing what was going on in
his mind.
"He would gaze long and earnestly
at the display of hats in the case, and
then he would shake his head and
mutter something to himself, and
walk out to the curb. For a long
while he would stand on the curb and
look intently at the gutter, shaking
his head then he would square his
shoulders, throw his chest and his
head back, and take up a quick
march right straight for the door of
the store.
Before he'd get half way across
the sidewalk, however, an expression
of indecision would creep into his
eyes, and his chest 'ud sink in and
his head down, and then he d stop at
the the sh9Ycase Ysts s6nie and gs5e 6fl lon0in0lv at
HE repeated this performance
three or four times during the fifteen
or twenty minutes that I watched
him, but the last time he got his
nerve right and did actually come
into the store, almost running in his
determination to stay with his final
idea.
"I was fearing that he would craw-
fish, and so I had one of those $25
Panamas before him almost before he
had asked for it. He tried it on and
it fitted him perfectly and became
him exceedingly we'll. He gazed
hungrily at the effect in the glass, but
1 could perceive that he was begin
ming to cave, for all that.
How much did you say?' he
asked me, to gain time to think it all
over again, for he knew perfectly
we'll the price of the hat.
IT told him the price again, and he
dug an uncertain hand into his trou-
sers' pocket and brought out fair
sized roll of bills, probably a weeks
pay.
We'll, said he, I guess Ill-,
and then he took another look in the
glass at the effect of the Panama on
his head. Then he collapsed all of a
sudden.
Why, blame my fool hide, she'd
break my burned neck 7 he exclaim-
ed, pulling the hat off his head and
laying it down in a state of panic.
She sure would Gimme just an
ordinary round straw hat for about
So and let her go at that. I'm not
going to close out my happy home
for a hat, and that's just what 'ud
happen if I'd stake myself to this
twenty-fve-dollar top-piece, bad as I
want it,
81 sold him round straw hat for
a couple of dollars, and he wore it
out of the store with an expression
of disgust, casting longing eyes upon
the Panama that he'd been compelled
to turn down for the sake, as he put
it, of a peaceful home.
"a whole lot of men that come in
determined to go out with Panamas
that have caught their eyes, renege
before they actually invest. There
was one like that only this morning.
After f1ssing around for nearly an
hour, trying on different grades of
Panamas, he finally compromised on
a round three-dollar coarse-straw af-
fair.
"'I'm sorry to We put you to all
this bother, he said to me before go
ing out, but the fact is I've been try
ing to screw up the nerve to buy a
Panama all the time I've been in
here, and I find that 1 just can't
make it stick, that's all. 1t 'ud give
my wife too big an edge on the situa-
ton. 1t was only last Easter that l
came near tearing the fiat up by the
~oo+e baoo4ea che e&1o,,+ Or for a