Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1907-01-14
A Woman Collector

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'"The firm name was Shirts & Shinn."
said the retired hardware dealer, land
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 buying to my partner. The
trouble was that he wasn't any kind Of
buyer. If a salesman came along
with cock and bull story about
sick wife and a dozen or SO starving
children Shinn would buy a bill of
goods Of him whether we wanted them
or not. The consequence was that ev-
cry time I 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 junk shop.
and We had to quit. Shinn, as be
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 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-commercal traveller he called him
self-consumptive. Wheeling through
one lung. and Shinn had to order a
$500 bill of HIM. We closed the order
out at about GO cents on the dollar,
Oft Of c1Q7 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. l sent a man around
to collect his Indebtedness, but he came
back empty handed. I sent another
with orders to be more persistent, and
he came back, reporting that the door
had been slammed in his face. I used
to see SHIN occasionally on the street.
He looked morose and shabby. One
day I saw him give quarter to beg
gar. That made me mad. If he had
money to give such nulsances he had 1t
to pay his honest debts. hired reg
ular fighting collector and sent him
round to Shinn's shanty. He came
back with his head bandaged up.
black eye and swelled lip, to say
nothing of the loss Of a suit Of clothes.
II hired several men in succession to
70 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
~ T., u tho
"Then it occurred to me that I'd send
a woman. You see, Il man can't fight
woman, and there never was woman
yet that couldn't get the better Of
man If she wanted to. There was no
woman's collecting agency In the town.
so l told several friends Of mine that
I'd give half the debt to any woman
who'd collect 1t.
"About q month after making the
announcement young. good looking
woman came to see me and said she'd
heard I wanted debt collected of
Percy Shinn She didn't look like a
business woman at all. but concluded
to try her. SO | gave her an order for
the money and started her out.
1T was 3 o'clock when she left me,
and l waited with good deal Of anx.
iety to learn how Shinn would meet
this new enemy. l expected her back
in about an hour -Four o'clock came,
but no collector 8, 6, Z, and she
didn't show up. In fact, she didn't
show up that night nor the next day
nor tho next nor the next. a week
passed, and | began to think Shinn had
h,,
cry man I'd sent had come back after
having been thrown ont; the only wo.
man I'd sent didn't come back at all.
"Then | faucicl maybe the woman
had collected the money or part Of 1t
and gone off with it. At the same time
it occurred to me that l had stupidlr
omitted to take her address. con
cluded to notify the police and started
out to do 50. but thought FL take a
look on The way at Shinns house. So
/ went Il roundabout way and brought
up opposite the shanty. Somehow it
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 neal
where | was standing, and asked her
who lived in the house opposite. She
said Mr. Shinn.' Any one with him"
His wife, I didn't know he was
married. He wasn't short time
ago There's Il story connected with
It. Mr.. Shinn owed some old curmudg-
con some money and sent n young wo-
man to collect it. She was real smart.
She told him she was to get half the
amount collected that she was the on
~ support of widowed mother and
seven brothers and sisters. She gave
such a pitiful picture that Shinn. who
had been a long while starving himself
to pay the debt and had just saved the
last penny, went and got it and gave
1t to her. You see somebody had told
her what kind, Of man Shinn was
She was so cut up by his lovable man.
ner that she told him to keep the mon.
ey for all her. and he said he would
keep it till his creditor came for II
himself. 1t was one Of the quickest
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