The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1906-1907, 1907-01-29
A Woman Collector


sSt VI LKOm inc @9AFL 4
nad agood trade and was obliged % |
% q ne Rad most OF the time. This
AN N buying 70 my partner. Tia
trouble was that be wasn't any kind Of |
DuyR. II q salesman came aIona
win . cock and bull story about {
alek vita and dozen or 90 starvine
eAaldEan Shinn would buy q bin Of
Goods Of him whether We wanted than
e not The consequence was that ev-
~ time / came In found the aeoek
gowinG in spite Of my effOrts to 10
4nce T.
well the result of Il an was that
weeping drnmmaEs finally succeeded
- Turning the store Into a junk shop
and We had 10 quit. ehinn, a. he
Aouid have dOns. offered to stand che
sau. giving up an the capital hsrd put
y. acknowledging that the Outooms
had been entirely bis fault. II could
have closed up at once his money
wOun have been Just enough to square
~, with no Isas to me, but the very
DAY We closed along comes q ons leg
ged-commercial traveller he called him,
self cOnsumptive. wheeling through
one lung and shinn had to order
500 BIN OF him. We closed the order
out At about 90 cents on tAe dollar,
making deficiency OF &1sT42. This
GhinR agreed to pay AZ soon be wac
ahAa.
"Nhinn was q bachelor and removed
from his rooms In an apartment house
10 little ahanty. / sent man around
% collect his Indebtedness. but he came
back empty handed. I sent another
with, orders to be more persistent, and
~ came back, reporting that the door
had been slammed in his face. I used
to see Shinn occasionally on the street
he looked morose and shabby. Ona
day I saw him give q quarter to a beg
GAr. That made me mad. III he had
money to give snch nutsanees he had II
10 pay his honest debts. hired q reg
ular nghting collector and sent him
round, 70 gbinn's shanty. He camG
back with, his head bandaged up.
black eye and q swelled Lip, to say
noehing Of the loss Of a suit Of clothes.
Il hired several men In succession 70
70 and get into the house and stay
there TIN Shinn came down with thu
funds. The ARst one that came bach
reported he'd been thrown out, the sec
end shared the same fate and the third
and the fourth and 80 on likewise.
'-rhen II occurred to me that I'd send
@ woman. You see, q man can't fight q
woman, and there never was a woman
yet that couldn't get the better Of Q
man q she wanted to. There was nc
Womanss collecting agency in the town
90 ! told several friends Of mine thai
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 l wanted a dapt collected Of
Percy shInn. She didn't look like q
buainess woman at ALL but concluded
% Try her. So gave her an order 70
the money and started her out
EFT 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. expected her bach
In about an hour. -Four o'clock came
but no collector %, 8, z. and shG
didn't show up. In fact, she didn't
show up that Night nor the kext day
nor the next nor the next 4 weeh
passed. and / began to think Shlnn hat
murdered her. Funny, wasn't 81 Ev
cry man I'd sent had come back afteI
having been thrown out: the only VIC
man I'd sent didn't come back at all.
Then fancied maybe the woman
had collected the money or a part OF 4
and gone or with II At the same tint
it occurred to me that l had stupidity
Smitted to take her address. / con
GUIDED b notify the police and startat
cut % % 20, but thought I'd take I
Ieok On the way 1t ehinn's house. 81
! Wsnt a roundabout way and brOugh
Up opposite the shAnty. Somehow I
6i6n't look 20 tUmhled0wn a. befors
ThsE0 were white holland shades In tn
| RindOws and a few flowers in the yaFC
| n front.
"a woman came out Of a house nsa
where was standing, and ! asked he
who Hvod In the house opposite. Sh'
eald. 'AGF. Ghinn.' Amy enc with him |
'Hls swAca' 4 didn't know he wa
married he wasn't q short tim
A9o. ThoEs'S Q story connected wild
T. Ii. Ghinn owed some old curmuds
con some money and cent g young We
nan 70 collect 4 She was real smaF,
GAs ibid him she was to get half "a
am@unt collected: that she was ths On
b support a q widowed mOthar an
sSvsa brothers and sAstsFG Ghe CAV
such q pittfnl picture that Bhlnn. win
AAA hasn q Lang wh1ls starving h1mssl
b pay ths debt and had Just SAVED Ia
last penny, went and got Il and cav
q b har. Zoo zee somebody had tel
AR what hind q a man Ghlnn WA
M Wns - cut up by his IOvable maz
nw 0Mt she told him 70 keep chS nou
a. fer an har. and Ae said he wOul'
ksaP 4 On hs ere6ftor came for
hRmsoaR. II was Ons Of The QuieksS
/