The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-21

ton to the shirts he had delivered a bill for more than 1000 francs. I was in the neighborhood the next day ana stopped in to ask why my Dill had been sent in so promptly. It had never be- fore come with the goods.
 "aoh, that Is the bill from last fall when you were here the cashier said. It was not paid before you lert. and I sent 1t along with the new order
 T knew perfectly well that had paid that bill. I never left accounts behind me in Europe, especially when they went up t, such q ngure.. told the proprietor. I told him that Of course had paid the bill. as had al ways made 1t rule for the past score heard me tell him only a few weeks before that my papers had all been destroyed, answered:
 Then of course monsieur has the re- ceipt. If the account has be- been P paiSS SaSe Se no record of the payment. However. that will cause no trouble. All you have to do sir. is to send us the re-
 T stuck out a long time, but in the end had to pay. the bill a second time. all because I had inadvertently dropped that hint about losing my psd pa; paid them large bills and sent many tunity offered they. did not hesitate 10 this place exists from patronage. of Americans and English. Comparative ly few Frenchmen ever so into lt. Un. til they came to realize how easy we were nobody would have haen cheated there. The generous. careless. open handed manner of our countrymen in dealing with tradesmen in whom they have confidence cannot be undorstood in Europe. They are not accustomsd to it and 1t Is a physical impossibil- ity for them to take advantage Of their equalities if they are known to exist.
 The AmsriSan who hssard aithouPS 15is essiin in the past he had never been overcharg-
 'Do you mean to say you didn't ask ths prize fc@ of tSs yTet fhsn the surely be stuck"
 So it was with some uncertainty that he went to the store the next week paying for white waistcoats, of which he had ordeSed six, twice as much as they had ever cost him before. Ot all the GtssF tna nSes S ond he Was n the habit of buying these same things every year.
 why in the world should I pay 60 francs for those waistcoats when "when in New York from your man who comes every fall and spring I pay only 70? That makes 1t much ch heaper for your customers to stop. in New 1ork and order their things thero." | The salesman of course knew nothing about that. All he scene dto be per fectly sure of was that the kind oi waistcoats ordered had cost always 6e francs.
 "When will your representatlve whe comes every winter to New York. be here2" he asked. Luckily he was al the store at just that minute. He was sent for. greeted effusively his New | York customer and admitted that tne white walstcoats were identical with | those that the gentleman had already for several years past paid only ~ with the proprietor. When he return. that since the last order had been giver in New York the price of those waist coats had gone up 50 per cent.
 "You can't beat the game, however you try" said the Californian, who had paid his bill twice, when he heard tht story. They can always do us if they want to, the only safeguard Is to bt careful on every point and know Just where you stand"
 The Parisians have not the monopoly of this desire to get the best of tht Americans. The recent experiences ol a New Yorker who sent for his sum mer clothes, shows how unpreJudice( is the willingness to take In the Tan kee. This man had also been in thu habit of o!Nlering from a representa- tive of firm that came to New Yorl twice a year.