The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-08
Dollars and Went on Their
Way Rejoicing.
WOMAN AND BARGAIN COUNTER
SPECIAL SALES A GREAT BOON TO
CERTAIN PEOPLE.
A Man Talks of Starting m Pigeon
Farm i'm Southern Indiana-Other
Short Stories.

"a new dodge was worked in my neigh
other day." said resident of the North
Side yesterday, land I've no doubt the
same game has been successfully carried
out in other parts of the town during this
winter. The trick played on a young house
wife who is a neighbor of mine was such
a ridiculously simple one as to wholly dis
arm suspicion until the culprits were
well out of reach with IS to divide be-
tween them. The young woman is left
alone with her children a good deal, as her
husbands business takes him out of town
for several weeks at time. She recently
discovered that the iron pump in her
kitchen refused to bring UP the water. and
when two fellows CHANGED to come along in
a wagon on which the one word plumber
painted and who were making house
toulouse solicitations for work she gladly
seized the opportunity to have the pump
repaired at once without waiting to send
for the plumber who had in the past done
all of that sort of work for her. 1t struck
her at the time that she had never heard
of soliciting plumbers before, but she was
so DESTROYS of having the rainwater that
she didn't give a second thought to the
thing.
80 she told the two workmen to go ahead
and do the job without delay. The fellows
brought forth a lot of tools from their
wagon, and with coats off and sleeves
rolled up SET to work in manner that in
spired confidence. After making a very
painstaking examination they told her that
the trouble with the pump was caused by a
leak in the pipe that extended down
through the cellar to the cistern underneath
the house. They visited the cellar and re-
ported that the pipe was in frightful con-
dition. 1t would cost just So to put in a
new piece of lead pipe where 1T was needed,
they saba trife expensive on account Of
the high prices being charged for lead pipe.
The young woman thought the bill pretty
steep, but upon being assured by the men
that there was nothing else to be done if
she wished to have the pump in working
order she agreed to pay them the amount
demanded for making the necessary re-
pairs. They were in the cellar for about an
hour, making the most outrageous racket
imaginable, and when they came I'D on to
the surface of the earth again they said
the pump was all right, and backed up the
statement by bringing forth stream of
water from it. They received their money
and took their departure never to be seen
again after the little woman who had en-
ployed them had herself visited the cellar
and taken a brief glance at what appeared
to be three feet of bright new lead pipe at
tached to the old pipe. What the men did
to that pump to make the water come out
of it while they worked it's handle nobody
will ever know. My neighbor attempted to
secure some rainwater as soon as her
plumbers had taken their departure and
was amazed when no water was forthcom-
ing. She FASTENED down cellar again,
lighted a candle, and what do you think
she discovered? Why, she found that the
three feet of shining lead pipe was not a
new piece of lead at ALL but that the two
men who had just vanished with her five
good silver dollars had merely scraped the
dull surface from the pipe up near the CELL
ing of the cellar where the light from the
little window near by did not fall upon
their counterfeit repair job No, my trust
full friend has never found out who the men
were. She didn't think to ask them their
names at the time of their call. and she
didn't report the matter to the police. But
I've been wondering how many other peo-
pie have been fooled in the same way"
XXX
"It is now the time of the year when the
funny papers polish up and reprint their
old Jokes about the woman and the bar
gain counter" said young woman who
is a hard worker in one of the city's charity
organizations. ''Of course, there is an alb
surd side to the subject. and this absurd
side is contributed by the well-to-dc
woman who has the bargain craze to such
an extent that she will rush off to a sale
of cheap out-of-date goods which are OF
precious little use to her, but which she
buys merely because they are sold at such
low prices There is another side to this
matter that you hear little about; these
sales. generally known inventory pre-
inventory, 'post-inventory.' annual and
'mill-ends' are great boon to the women
with little money and big families, to whom
I 1t makes little difference whether or not
the articles purchased are in style. These
women of small means wait for such sales
and certainly take the matter very Sc.
riously when they set forth to buy as much
as possible for the least amount possible
and when they meet in a big Crowd
counter piled high with goods selling at q