Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1916-01-15

time: but being one of these volatile
characters who jump from one idea
or scheme to another quickly and fire.
quently, she did not long harbor any
resentment toward me.
But felt It in my bones that Lizette
had not been permanently suppressed;
hence / was not surprised when after
some months, she wrote to impart a
new project.
She had become acquainted with q
youn1 woman In q New York store,
who knew just how to buy dainty
waists, necixwear, ribbons, gloves. ct
would forward to Lizette and the lat
ter wondered If / wouldn't like to tell
my friends Of the fact and demonstrate
to them the advantage of securing real
metropolitan goods at below-cost
prices, etc. 1t was quite card, to
be able to have the very latest wrinkles
in ties. wells and lingerie. selected by
an expert, yet sold at prices which
made them attractive to the feminine
buyer.
Again, I ruled against Lizette, and
In favor of the home merchants!
Now, there is altogether too much
Of this sort of polite social peddiine
going on!
Women who pay nothing toward the
ctty's revenue travel from house to
house, trying to sell dress goods and
various odds and ends. They do not
have to take out a city license as do
peddlers in other lines. They are cut
ting into the revenues of the legitimate
merchants, whose expenses go on, ir-
respective OF the weather or the grip
epidemic or heat or cold. Easy, soft
people take pity on them, as they
wriggle their way into the house, with
| some hard luck story: but the whole
principle of their dealings is wrong
an injustice toward those who are the
backbone of every city's life and trade.
Much of the stock which they dis
play 10 merely trash-cheap stuff in
inferior dress goods, linens, coarse
laces, plated jeweiry, glass diamonds
and the rest, forwarded from some
distant agency house, to which the
bulk of the profits resulting from any
possible sales must be returned.
1t always seems a pity, when women
or girls feel obliged to take up such
| an agency; for they do not get enough
out of 1t to pay for the shoe leather
| they wear out, they are doing a man
| ifest injustice to the merchants of
| the town and they are most unwel-
come visitors to the majority of house.
| holds.
Possibly, in some country places
such a perambulating saleswoman may
be welcome, as she brings supplies
/ WHICH Ln0 WOI11dn OIL In6 mouse can
| not get to the store to buy; but this
\ Is only a very remote and rare con-
| tingency in these days of trolley lines
and automobile trucks and delivery
wagons and parcels post service.
About in the same class with my
persistent friend Lizette are those in
dividuals to whom the humorists re-
| fer as testimonials fiends." The peo-
pie who are always suggesting. "Sayl
| Jones has lived in this street ten
years. Don't you think it would be
nice to have the neighbors give a dol
| lar apiece, and buy him a Morris
| chair?"
Or they are eternally planning sur
prises in stores and offices, starting
/ subscriptions for gifts for this one OF
that, levying on sometimes poorly paid
help who do not have the courage to
refuse; a half dollar for travelling bag
| for the boss-who has half dozen
a quarter toward a set of books for
| the head accountant-who, during his
free hours neer reads anything more
hefty than the sporting page of his
favorite paper-a dime to get a pair
of opera glasses for the stenographer-
| a nickel to buy a loving cup for the
overworked janitor, and SO on.
Such good natured, busybody indi-
viduais revel in "presentations"; but
they are the bore of neighborhoods
and shops and business establish
ments. Their demands are frequently
a serious drain on the limited funds
of friends and associate workers.
Every pocketbook," somebody says
''knoweth Its own bitterness!" The
only way to check all such forms OF
social blackmail, on the part of those
who cannot afford to give to the va
| rious testimonials, etc, continuously
proposed. is to say courageously, as
have learned to say to the demands
and emphatic
| moi"
| THE DICTAGRAPH