The San Francisco call., 1904-08-22
4 Poet to the Point.
speeial co-respgndenee.

HEADQUARTERS Oh The CALL,
3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT
GARDEN. LONDON. Aug. 1l.-Many
sn American familiar with Wardour
street, Soho, has looked in vain this
year for the following sign:
Americans with Dollars and judgment Sound
May view this shops interior
o But those who are only Just loolan' around,
Please Go 20 from the exterior.
II. B. "a BritisheF)-GOc Save the King
The proprietor OF the shop and su-
thor OF the verse is the pioneer Of the
Entique dealers who now abound in
Wardour street, and as very few
Transatlantic visitors leave London
without making tour OF the district,
the poet always has received his share
Of shoppers. Season after season. he
welcomed the strangers, but as 50 per
cent Of them departed without spend
ing q penny the patient proprietor be-
Ean TO suspect that the Americans
were a nation OF lockers around"
It was while the shopkeeper lay in
bed one night in his bachelor rooms
over the shop that the verse came
10 him. The previous day had been es-
pecially productive OF tourists with
plenty Of questions about every ar
1icle which struck their fancy, but with
10 inclination whatever TO buy, and the
thought struck the proprietor that
those lines, boldly written on a card
end prominently displayed in the win
dow, might give him some relief. First
thing next morning he wrote the sign,
az flourish, and hung il up.
The frs< American that day was a
man who stopped, read the verse, and
when the dealer looked out, asked:
What viii you take for the sign?"
What do you want it for?" asked
the shopkeeper.
To frame and hang up in my house,
replied the traveller. "as one of the
funniest things 1 ever struck"
Well" the dealer replied, IF you
give my man here a shilling you can
have II. I can write another"
Before many weeks the dealer. be
sides selling a curio now and then,
vas doing a thriving business in signs
and his fame spread all over town.
Then one morning came a letter written
on the stationery Of the Grand Hotel:
II you do not desist." it ran. from
insulting my countrymen by exposing
that sign about them in your window
III give you an ounce OF lead" The
signature was perfectly strange to the
curiO man, but thinking that the
writer might be some fanatic capable
of keeping his word. down came the
sign and it has not been put back
since.
Tt wasn't that 1 had anything
against the Americans the shopman
told me the other day, but when they
come in here just lookin' around, walk
through, ask a hundred questions and
leave without even thanking me, you
can't wonder I thought the time was
wasted.
Probably they have plenty Of money
TOO, he went on, but they don't come
in with the intention Of buying and
I'm beginning 10 think that most of
them that come over here wouldn't
know what to buy II they did-that's
why I put in the Judgment sound. A
little party was here not long ago
when I had a Dresden group on that
table. 1 had just sold it TO a man for
90 pounds (s300) and it stood there
waiting TO be packed. One of the men
IN the party asked what II was and
how much IL was worth. 1 told him
that as IL was very good article it
ought TO bring a round sum of money.
Well. would you believe It. he said
I'll give you two dollars and a half ="
Already this summer a number Of
Americans have called 10 inquire about
the sign and as several Of these have
been on theft first visit to London the
shop must be well known in some parts
or the United States.