Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1907-03-06

1907. v
home merchant and build up theil
own? This is why they have re.
| peated it 80 often. You can tell q
person a thing so strongly and SC
forcibly that he will believe it and
this is what they have done. I can
remember when l was here the first
of November, there was an old fellow
sitting in front of me and ] was tell
ing the merchants that you should
say thing and say it SO forcibly
that people would believe it, l made
up my mind to experiment on that
old fellow. So I began to talk to
him about things being sour and 1
poured sour into him so fast and so
strongly that the old fellows face
began to pucker up. He was tasting
sour, he was believing what was
telling him, just as some of you have
been believing what the catalogue
house man has been telling you.
These fellows know that if they
could turn you against the local
merchant, it. would mean profit to
them.
| do not believe I will ever make
a diplomat, I do not know how to
handle facts with gloves and when !
have thing to discuss / discuss it
face to face. right from the shoulder.
l wish to make an effort this after
noon to show you that there is no
reason why you should distrust your
neighbor, the merchant. 1 am 60
ing to, show you, too, that the con
Germs known as catalogue houses, co
not handle good grade of goods. I
will put it stronger than that and
say that in buying goods from a
catalogue house in nine times out of
ten you are deceived, and l will
prove it to you. I know it is SO,
even if you swell up and say to
others that they cannot fool you on
quality. You say you know quality.
Whenever man tells me that, |
know he does not need to consult a
physician, but he needs to consult a
machinist and have the wheels fixed.
Tell me, how is man who is not in
the habit of handling goods going
to tell qualities. Why, it is enough
to make you laugh. 1t is hard
enough for those who handle goods
all their long lives to tell quality;
and even then on some articles they
cannot do it and be sure of it. l re-
member of talking with four mer-
chants west of here on the Illinois
Central Railroad, who in telling rne
how they brought goods said they
took into the room a magnifying
glass and pair of very fine aud
accurate scales. What do you sup
pose they had these tools for, to
disect bed bugs with? No, to tell
the quality Of goods. What.do they
want with a magnifying glass if
they were as smart as you in telling |
quality of goods. That magnifying |
glass was for the purpose Of count
ing the number of threads to the
inch in the goods they were looking |
at and the scales were for the pur-
pose of detecting to the hairs breadth |
as to whether the goods were up to |
the standard. I 60 into store to
buy a shirt and l take them up like |
this and feel of them and rub them. |
What I am trying to do, just make
them believe l can tell the quality, |
when 1 cannot tell blame thing |
about it and neither can you. This
is seemingly habit us people have
gotten into and the habit has grown
SO strong on us that we actually
make ourselves believe we can tell
the quality. Let me show you how
absurd this idea sounds a lot Of
times. Take for instance piece of
dress goods, measure off an inch, we
will say that there are a hundred
threads to the inch. There might
be eighty threads and still the goods
feel firm because these eighty threads
might be woven of cheaper quality
of goods, but larger than the threads
where the goods were hundred to
the inch. Hyou think you can tell Il Q
difference you try it once and in
that way get test of the pudding.
Know quality, why they could cheat
us out of our eyes.
Say, we all eat pure foods, don't we
especially when we can get them?
Come of us have been eating pure
maple syrup, real maple syrup; it
said SO on the outside of the can.
have been eating real maple syrup
on pancakes for the last four years.
l know it was real maple syrup be-
cause it had the name on the can,
but along came Uncle Sam with his
Pure Food Law and now l have
found out there was not a blame bit
Of maple sryup in it. 1t does not
say pure maple syrup on the can
now-it never was maple syrup.
Oh yes, we can tell quality, they
cannot fool you and l. A man only
expresses his ignorance when he
says he can.
Here is another one; take for in
stance a suit of clothes and you can
take enough clothing of the same
bolt and make two suits of clothes.
And you can make that suit of
clothes cost you $25 or you can
make it cost you SIS, made from
the same goods, but there is the DIFF
ference in the workmanship put on
the suit of clothes. Say, just in the
button hole-the hole-there is a |
lot of difference. Then there is the
collar and in fact there is differ
ence all the way through. You go