The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-12-15
NEW YOHk'S ODD DETECTIVE

To look at Miss Alice Gallagher no
one would think that she had been
II Out OF short dresses. Nor could
anyone imagine that she had been
Tor several years a private detective
and was now employed as an inspector
OF weights and measures for the CITY
or e York. Yet il is perhaps this
very appearance of youthful ingenu.
BUSINESS that has made her so valuable
IN the work of u~ncovering the fraud
OF g%rocers, butchers and marketmen
in New York.
1t Is the duty of Miss Gallagher to
investigate complaints received at the
bureau or weights and measures. For
instance, If a delicatessen store has
been selling her short weight eat
ables, Mss Gallagher makes it a point
70 verify or disprove the complaint.
sometimes the latter is groundless and
the housewife has an imaginary griev-
ance. Occasionally, too. an enemy
VINO bears a grudge toward a dealer
takes this method of getting square.
Nine times out OF ten, however, the
complaint is justified, and when the of
tender is caught, as he or she is sure
TO be sooner of later, punishment is
meted out in the shape of a fine in
keeping with the offense.
TO ascertain the truth of such com
plants there is but one way-for Miss
Gallagher to become a customer for
the moment. To accomplish this feat
requires tact and good judgment and
rarely does the shopman suspect the
trap that the innocent looking young
woman is setting for him.
Miss Gallagher buys her butter ard
cheese carefully, commencing upon
prices, qualities, etc, as glibly as II
housewife, but taking pains to emphas-
ize the quantities desired, nearly al
ways repeating the quality and price
something like this:
Let me see, how much is that? Two
pounds at 40 cents a pound-S0
cents?'
The dealer acquiesces and proceeds
to encase the purchase in wrapping
paper, ~whereupon Miss Gallagher
turns back the label of her coat and
shows her badge, saying.
Il am an inspector from the mayors
Office of weights and measures. May
| verify the weight of this purchase"
Of course the dealer acquiesces;
the woman inspector steps behind the
counter and with her own standald DIS,
which she produces from her small,
unsuspicious looking handbag, tests
the scale and also Verifies the weight
of her purchases.
Every woman should be a self APP
pointed inspector" says Miss Gal
lagher, who also contends that if wom-
en- would do their duty and report
every case of cheating the city would
be brought back that much sooner to
a standard of honesty.
my own experience IS a house
keeping shopping has been a valuable
lesson to me and | am glad to give a
few points to other housewives. In
buying butter, for instance, always
e that your butter dish is free from
water ana that the clerk does not give
you thirteen instead of sixteen ounces.
Unless you wake up this same clerk,
who has found you such an easy
mark will Systematically rob you on
every purchase.
Another trick is that CT the butch
er's clerk who has been ordered to
make his wv salary trimming Gus
toners This MAI often wears a dia-
mond ring conspicuously. When he
places the meat on the scales his
hand is weighed also. Naturally the
public is trimmed every time he holds
his hand on the scales.
when you enter a grocery store
and see boxes and canned goods pack
ed high i'm front of the counter you
may be sure that there is a reason
for it. You ask for a pound of butter,
and the suave clerk goes to the butter
department behind the boxes. He
weighs and wraps your butter and you
get the pound or two pounds for which
YOU asked. Nine times out OF ten,
however, you get only thirteen, four
teen or fifteen ounces. The tray, too
is weighed with the butter, and as it
varies in weight from one-fourth Of an
ounce to an ounce, and sometimes
more, your loss is still greater.
Imagine what such losses mean to
the housewife II the course of a year.