"You will get much better service from storekeepers in this country if
you become a regular customer, and especially in these days. You see,
that is the rule here. Smoking material, as you know, is already short,
and I fear that in a little while there will not be enough to go
around."
The tip was not lost on me, especially since I found that the woman
really meant well. She had counted on me as one of those whom she
intended to supply with smokes when the shortage became chronic, which
it soon would be. And that she proposed doing because I was such a
"pleasant fellow." After that I took pains to announce my departure
whenever I had occasion to leave the city, and I found that, long after
the "tobacco-line" was one of the facts of the time, the woman would lay
aside for me every day ten cigarettes. My small trade had come to be one
of the things which the woman counted upon--and she wanted no fickleness
from me in return for the thought she gave my welfare.
What a food shortage would lead to under such conditions can be
imagined. The storekeeper would look out for his regular customers,
before any other person got from him so much as sight of the food.
The government regulations were less partial, however. The several food
cards, with which would-be purchasers were provided, were intended to be
honored on sight so long as the quota they stipulated was there.
The food "speak-easy" had its birth in this. The storekeeper would know
that such and such customer needed sundry items and would reserve them.
The customer might never get them if she stood in line, so she called
afterward at the back door, or came late of nights when the sign
"Everything Sold" hung in the window.
Had this illicit traffic stopped there and then things would have been
well enough. But it did not. Before very long it degenerated into a wild
scramble for food for hoarding purposes.
As yet the several governments were not greatly interested in
distribution methods that really were of service. The avenue from
wholesaler to retailer was still open. The food cards were issued to the
public to limit consumption, and the law paragraph quoted on them called
attention to the fact that infraction of the regulations would be
punished no matter by whom committed.
Most of the little coupons were half the size of a postage stamp, and so
many of them were collected by a storekeeper in the course of a week
that an army of men would have been needed if the things were to be
counted. So the governments took a chance with the honesty of the
retailers. That was a mistake, of course, but it was the only way.
There was at first no control of any sort over the quantities bought by
the retailer. In fact, he could buy as much as he liked so long as the
wholesaler did not have another friend retailer to keep in mind. The
other retailer was doing business along the same lines, and could not be
overlooked; otherwise there would be the danger of losing him as soon as
the war was over; in those days it was still "soon."
The wholesaler maintained the best of relations with the retailer,
despite the fact that he was of a superior class. The two would meet now
and then in the cafés, and there the somewhat unequal business
friendship would be fostered over the marble-topped table.
The customer of the retailer was already hoarding food. The retailer
tried to do all the business he could, of course, and in the pursuit of
this policy bought from the wholesaler all he could possibly get for
money or love.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.