Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1906-11-21
"A Woman Collector


1.-THE firm name waS Shirts * Shnn,"
said the retired hardware dealer "and
we didn't get on from the start.
had good trade and was obliged to
be on the road most Of the time. This
left the Luying to ray partner. The
trouble was that he wasn't any kind Of
buyer. If a salesman came along
with a cock and bull story about d
SEX wife and dozen or so starving
children Shinn would buy n bill of
goods Of him whether V wanted them
or not. The Consequence was that ev-
cry time came in found the stock
growing in spite of my efforts to re-
duce it.
well. the result of it all was that
weeping drummers finally succeeded
in turning the store into a junk shop
and we had to quit. Shinn, as he
should have done. offered to stand the
loss, giving TIP all the capital he'd put
in, acknowledging that the outcome
had been entirely his fault. II could
have closed up at once his money
would have been just enough TO square
us, with no loss to me, but the very
day we closed along comes one leg
ged--commercial traveller he called him
self-consumptlve, wheeling through
one lung. and Shinn had to order a
$500 bill of him. We closed the order
out at about 60 cents ON the dollar.
making deficiency of S1sT.42. This
Shinn agreed to pay as soon he was
able
"Shinn was a bachelor and removed
from his rooms in an apartment house
to little shanty sent man around
to collect his Indebtedness, but he came
back empty handed. | sent another
with orders to be more persistent. and
he came back, reporting that the door
had been slammed In his face. l used
to see Shinn occasionally on the street
He looked morose and shabby. One
day l saw him give quarter to beg
gar. That made me mad II he had
money to give such nulsances he had it
to pay his honest debts. l hired reg
ular fighting collector and sent hin
round to Shinn's shanty. He came
back with his head bandaged up, O
black eye and swelled lip, to sa~
nothing of the loss of a suit of clothes.
Il hired several men In succession t
go and get into the house and stay
there till Shinn came down with the
funds. The first one that came back
reported he'd been thrown out. the sec
ond shared the same fate and the third
and the fourth and SO on likewise.
"Then 1t occurred to me that I'd send
a woman. You see, man can't fight
woman, and there never was a woman
yet that couldn't get the better of n
man If she wanted to. There was no
wonan's collecting agency in the town
so | told several friends of mine that
I'd give half the debt to any woman
who'd collect it.
About a month after making the
announcement a young. good looking
woman came to see me and said she'd
heard | wanted debt collected of
Percy Shinn. She didn't look like
business woman at all. but concluded
10 Try her. So gave her an order for
the money and started her out
1T was 3 o'clock when she left me,
and | waited with a good deal of anx-
iety to learn how Shinn would meet
this new enemy. I expected her back
In about an hour. Four o'clock came,
but no collector %, 6, Z, and she
didn't show up. In fact, she didn't
show up that night nor the next day
nor the next nor the next A week
passed. and began to think Shinn had
murdered her. Funny, wasn't 1t? Ev-
cry man I'd sent had come back after
having been thrown out; the only wo-
man I'd sent didn't come back at all.
Then l fancied maybe the woman
had collected the money or a part Of II
and gone OF with It. At the same time
it occurred to me that had stupidity
omitted to take her address. con-
cluded to notify the police and started
out to do SO. but thought I'd take a
look on the way at Shinn's house. So
l went a roundabout way and brought
up opposite the shanty. Somehow 1t
didn't look SO tumbledown as before.
There were white holland shades In the
windows and few flowers in the yard
In front
"A woman came out Of house near
where was standing, and asked her
who lived in the house opposite. She
said, Mr.. Shinn.' ANY one with him?'
His wife 4 didn't know he was
married. He wasn't short time
ago. There's a story connected with
1t. Mr.. Shinn owed some old curmudg-
con some money and sent young wo-
man to collect 1t. She was real smart.
She told him she was to get half the
amount collected; that she was the on
ly support of widowed mother and
seven brothers and sisters. She gave
such pitiful picture that Shinn. who