Year: 1876

ment from which he has just been dismissed
to discharge a man who fails to sell
to three successive customers. "Swap-
ping" is the expressive technical term by
which this failure is known in the dry
goods business. The rule is not universal
but it is by no means exceptional in dry
goods stores. However unjust it may be, it
has wonderful stimulating effect on the
elegant young men amenable to it, and
when they cannot sell goods it is a safe
inference that the customer is either super
naturally obdurate, inpecunious or miserly. |


The young man referred to had first |
call last Friday morning; that is, the first |
customer who entered the store was by the |
rules of rotation his exclusive victim. |
Next morning this privilege would fall to
the end of the list. The first customer
"swapped" him and went out without
investing a cent. The second was in an
equally unprOpitious state Of mind, and
retired without effecting a purchase. On
the decision of the third hung his fate.
His ample cheek blanched as she darkened
the doorway, for a more unlikely pur-
chaser could not without difficulty have
been found. An old striped shawl was
thrown carelessly over her shoulders and
partially concealed a roll of calico which
the palpitary heart of the clerk instinct
lively felt that she came to have matched.
Now if there is anything in the dry goods
business more soul narrowing than another
it is to match goods. The exact shade and
texture have to be found, and last, but not
least, the price must correspond. A feeling
OF sckening despair permeated the heaving
breast of the unfortunate clerk as he asked,
"Well, ma am? ?"


She laid down five yards and a half of
calico of an eccentric pattern, and intimated


that the success of great dressmaking en-


terprise hinged on her fortune in finding
another yard and half of the same
material.


The eyes of six expectant clerks were
upon the doomed man. He felt that the


crisis of his peril had come With an ap-
pearance of calmness that belied the
turmoil of his feeling, he dived under the
counter, and handed out endless rolls Of
calico, varying from the radiant strawberry
, and moss marked, to the soberests gray
! But he came not within thirteen supple
o mentary colors of the required pattern.


lie burrowed in the cavernous depths Of


lower shelves, and ransacked upper ones
, from the top round of giddy step bladder,
! but he found it not. An hour and half


had gone by, and his stock was nearly ex.
hausted. The proprietor of the store and


the book-keeper and porter had come out
:, to witness his death struggle. Six times
: the wearied lady started for the door, and
4 six times he called her back and resumed
+. his frenzied search. The last calico was un.
:, rolled, and he was about to drop his hat
and step down and out, when a happy


thought struck him.


Excuse me, madam" said he; there is


one overlooked. Let me see that goods
;, and he took her bundle and, diving under
=, with the energy and promptness of re-
I, kindled hope.


" Here tits madam exactly what you


required" said he, confidently, spreading
= out the purloined goods.


She looked attentively at him for five


minutes. at does look like the pattern,
said she but still think it's not what


want. It's good deal coarser than mine
;, If can't get anything nearer to the patterr


I'll come back and take it. Good morn


ing"


She did come back in an hour, but no
:, to buy the goods. He tried to dodg,
7 behind the counter, but with the keen
u sighte,lness of womanly revenge she spotted
N him, and he was ignominiously hauled GU
!. and arraigned before his employer. The


worst of it was that the latter, in view o
: the improbable energy shown in his at


tempt to effect a sale, had concluded not t.
: discharge him. With the evidence of hi


guilt so unmistakable, however, it would b


fatal to the discipline of the house to keeI


him, and he was promptly dismissed
or Until the old lady succeeds in getting
60 warrant for his arrest his name is charita
he bly, suppressed.


- At certain hour every afternoon Wash
:! ington loungers on suburban drives NEE
=. an old gentleman jogging along on a YER


trusty, sure.footed animal. 1t is Georg
- Bancroft, the eminent historian. His gra
:, hair and long floating gray beard rul
20, together His large spectacles seem to b