The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1906-11-13

Woman Collector
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LortGtnoll
fsThe frm name was Shirts & Shinn, .
said the retired hardware dealer, land
we didn't get on from the, start.
had a good trade and was obliged to
be on the road most OF the time. This
left the buying to my partner. The
trouble was that he wasn't any kind Of
buyer. If a salesman came along
with a cock and bull story about a
sick wife and dozen or SO starving
children Shinn would buy bin OF
goods of him whether we wanted them
or not. The consequences WIS that eV-
cry time came In found the stock
growing In spite OF my EFFORTS to re-
duce it
"wen, the result OF It all was that
weeping drummers finally succeeded
In turning the store into n Junk shop.
and we had to quit shinn, as he
should have done, offered to stand the
loss. giving up all the capital he'd put
In. acknowledging that the outcome
had been entirely his fault. If 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 a one leg
ged-commercial traveller he called him
self-consumptive, wheeling through
one lung, and Shinn had TO order a
$500 bin of him. We closed the order
out at about 60 cents on the dollar,
making a deficiency of $1SI-42. This
Shinn agreed TO pay as soon he was
able
"Shinn was bachelor and removed
from his fooms in an apartment house
to little shanty. I 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. used
to see Shinn occasionally on the street.
He looked morose and shabby. One
day saw him give quarter to beg
gar. That made me mad. If he had
money to give such nulsances he had it
to pay his hopest debts. I hired a reg
ular lighting collector and sent him
round to Shinn's shanty. BE came
back with his head bandaged up, a
black eye and a sweIIed lip, to say
of the loss OF a suit of clothes
II hired several men In succession to
go and get into the house and stay
there til SIrfnn came down with the
fuals. 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
4 woman. You see a man can't fight
woman. and there never was woman
yet that couldn't get the better Of a
man II she wanted t0T-There was no
collecting agency in the town.
80 l 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 q young, good looking
woman came to SEQ me and said she'd
heard wanted debt collected of
Percy Shinn She didn't look like q
business woman at all, but concluded |
o try her. So gave her an order for
he money and started her out.
cit was o'clock when she left me, |
md waited with good deal of anx-
ETY. to learn how Shinn would meet !
his new enemy. expected her back
n about an hour, Four o'clock came, /
tut no collector %, 6, z, and she
lIdn't show up. In fact, she didn't
how up that night nor the next day
Tor the next nor the next. a week
'assed, and began to think Shinn had
murdered her. Funny, wasn't It? Ev-
ny man I'd sent had come back after
lRvlng been thrown out; the only wO-
nan I'd sent didn't come back at all.
s"Then 1 fancied maybe the woman
nd collected the money or part Of It
nd gone or with It At the same time
occurred to me that 1 had stupidity
mitted to take her address. con-
luded to notify the police and started
ut to do so, but thought I'd take a
DOk on the WY at Shinn's house. So
went a roundabout way and brought
p opposite the shanty. Somehow It
Idn't look so tumbledown as before.
here were white holland shades In the
'lndows and a few flowers In the yard
/ front
"a woman came ont OF house near
here was standing. and asked her
no lived In the house opposite. She
lid, AIr. Shinn.' Any one with hlmf'
lis wife, 4 didn't know he was
nrried' He wasn't a short time u
90. THERE'S a story connected with
Mr.. Shinn owed some old curmudg-
m some money and sent Q young wo-
an to collect It. She was real smart.
he told him she was to get half the :
mount collected; that she was the on.
support of a widowed mother and
ven brothers and sisters. She gave
ch a pitifuI picture that Shinn, who
ID been long while starving. himself !
pay the debt and had just saved the
st penny. went and got It and gave :
to her. You see somebody had told :
Z what kind OF man Shinn was
le was so cut up by his Iovable man
r that she told him to keep the mon
for all her. and he said he would q