The Washington times., 1904-01-31
THE CHARITY DONATIONS OF
WASHINGTON STOREKEEPERS

plano or some other handsome piece
of furniture; an expensive rug. a bit of
silverware. bric-a-brac. or an oil paint
Ing. No, we never yet have given
piano, nor do we mean to.
The other day, to give another illus
tration, a lady came in and asked for n
donation Of twelve pairs of blankets 10
be used in mission work. Both the lady
and her charities are we'll known TO US.
Therefore. when we found that warmth
was the principal essential required of
the blankets. we compromised on twelve
heavy single army blankets and sent
them at once.
The Ticket Nuisance.
THE form of donations. though. that
gives Us more trouble than any other is
the request TO purchase tickets for some
charitable entertainment or another, a
bail, concert. a bazaar.
These tickets come to US in shoals
through the mail, ten, fifteen, twenty
In a package. Almost always we take
some of the, tickets and mail a check In
return.
IF the matter ended there IT would be
all right, but IL doesn't Very frequently
the tickets don't reach us until two or
three days before the entertainment
and by the time the matter Is passed
upon and check and the surplus tick
cts sent back the entertainment has al
ready taken place.
Almost invariably ia that case we
are waited upon Immediately by one OF
the projectors of the show, who declares
that the tickets we sent back reached
/ their destination too late to be used or
put on sale. and that consequently we
| - a
happened once, but dozens Of times.
Never Saw Tickets.
"Then time and tire again we receive
a call from a lady. or ladies. who come
to collect money for tickets which they
I tell us was sent us at a certain time.
| but which assuredly l have never laid
/ eyes on. Probably the package was
addressed wrongly. Or IL may have
been mistaken for an advertisement and
gone into the waste basket.
But whatever the reason the out
come is always the same. We are
obliged to pay for The tickets. or rather
do pay for them. in order TO get rid of
the visitors and avoid n fuss"
The methods used by some women TO
get donations from department stores
are strenuous, TO put it mildly. While
department store proprietors and man
ayers are altogether too polite or too
I diplomatic to make complaint on this
subject. they do admit that more than
once the refusal TO give the desired
donation has caused the woman who
asked for it to withdraw her custom
and TO be the means of having her
friends and relatives withdraw theirs.
Raised a Rumpps.
In one case in which a donation was
asked by the management OF an educa-
tional Institution not far from Wash
ington for a charity fair to be held
there. and II was not forthcoming st
the appointed time. the head Of the in
stitution not waiting for the sun TO GO
down on her wrath. dispatched a fiery
note 20 the head of the offending firm
declaring that although the institution
had dealt for many years at his store
it's patronage thereafter would be with
drawn. etc. As a matter of fact the
donation had been sent by express. but
unfortunately. IL was not delivered un-
til the day after the fair.
The consignment Of articles to be sold
on commission is another IL less in.
teresting, feature of the donation CUES
ton.
Many of the larger stores absolutely
refused to send goods to fairs to b.
sold in this way: on the other hand a.
many more obligingly consent TO tn,
transfer and forthwith stock some on,
particular booth with fancy goods. sill
verware, or bric-brac, according to re
quest. and then allow the managers Of
the fair anywhere from to 10 per cen
on every sale. They also go to tn.
trouble of packing. sending. and bring
Ing back the goods. w. II. F. 3.