Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1908-05-21
A SEWING
MACHINE STORY

pany's goods is something unusual, y
said the young man who smokes. But
that is what l have just done. l did
1T through the Vaccinations of Mrs
Johnson Potter Mrs. Potter is hon.
est. She lives UP to her word. When
she came down to see about getting a
machine she said some of the most
astonishing things you ever heard
come out of woman's mouth.
don't want to rent a machine,
she said neither do l want to buy
one. | simply want to have one sent
In for two or three weeks so I can
get my spring sewing done. And |
don't want to pay anything for it. l
have spent all my money for material
for new clothes and l have no money
left to pay for machine to make
them on. thought you might let me
have one on trial.
Mrs. Potter's extraordinary candor
almost ioored me.
1t is the usual supposition, 1 re-
piled, cautiously, that when we leave
machine at house on trial the
party intends to buy it eventually
know it is returned Mrs. Pot
ter, airily, but you have been in the
business long enough to know by this
time that half the people who get ma
chimes on those terms don't really in
tend to do any such thing. They sim
ply wish to get the use of machine
for few weeks free of cost and then
send it back on the ground that it is
unsatisfactory. The difference be-
tween these people and me is that l
tell you the truth, and they don't. l
don't want to buy, and say so; they
don't want to buy, and say they do
Il told Mrs. Potter that | appreci-
ated her fat-footed honesty.
But | can't see,' said I, where we
come in. What do we get out of the
deal?
oh, as to that said Mrs. Potter,
intend to try to sell machine for
you. The woman in the flat across the
hall is going to buy, and if you will
send one of your machines around to
the house this afternoon, so | can start
right in sewing and show her what
excellent work it does before she de-
cides upon something else, am quite
sure | can persuade her to buy of
YOU
AS soon as Mrs. Potter got through
talking l went back and told the man
ager and his assistants what she had
said. We all agreed that Mrs. Pot
ter was a curiosity, but we didn't
know what to do with her.
1t is my opinion, said I, that we
ought to let her have machine as a
reward for her unparalleled truthful
ness. Of course, l don't take any
| stock in that yarn of hers about try
ing to sell a machine for the use Of
her own. Nevertheless, l think We
ought to accommodate her merely as
| an encouragement of veracity'
"At last l talked the manager
around to my way of thinking.
But don't let her have one of our
machines he said. Put her off with
renter. She will never know the diff.
ference
The managers suggestion fired my
brain with brilliant idea.
What's the matter 1 said, with
letting her have that secondhand af-
fair made by the A B C company that
we got the other day in trade? We
will never be able to do anything with
it, and even if Mrs Potter should
smash it all to pieces we wouldn't be
out anything
All right said the manager. 1T
Is your funeral Fix her out any way
you please
so Mrs. Potter got her machine.
1--WE heard nothing from her for
three weeks. Then one day she came
into the nhce. She brought seven
women with her, and the way they all
bowed and scraped and smiled at me
actually made me dizzy.
That machine you sent me is a
treasure said Mrs. Potter. 1T does
the loveliest work you ever saw in
your life. All these ladies say they
never saw such tucking and stitching
and hemming, and they have decided
to sell their old machines and buy
new ones just like it, In fact. | am
SO pleased with it that am going to
buy one myself, although l can't see
how l can afford it just now. We all
live in the same building, and would
like eight machines sent up to that
address this afternoon
Mrs. Potter's wholesale order sur
prised me into an honesty that was
outdone only by her own
But we do not handle that make
of machine confessed We merely
happened to have one on hand. But
we can sell you our own machine at
the same price
Mrs. Potter looked at the other
women collectively and individually
and the whole bunch of them shook
their heads.
"'No, thank you, said Mrs. Potter.
We have set our hearts on that style
Of machine. If you don't handle them
we will look up somebody who does,
much as we should like to deal with
you
"And then, before | could MT in an.