became expert in all the tricks of the trade. It was the custom then for
employers to allow clerks a reward for selling things that were
particularly unsalable, or which required some special skill or
impudence in the seller. For example, they kept on hand a great supply
of what they were pleased to call "remnants," which were supposed to be
sold very cheap; and as the public of that day had a passion for
remnants, the master of the shop took care to have them made in
sufficient numbers. There were heaps of remnants of linen, and it so
_happened_ that the remnants were exactly long enough for a shirt, or
some other garment. Any clerk who could push off one of these remnants
upon a customer was allowed a penny or twopence as a reward for his
talent; and there were certain costly articles, such as shawls and silks
of unsalable patterns, upon which there was a premium of several
shillings for selling.
There was one frightfully ugly shawl which had hung fire so long that
the master of the shop offered a reward of eight shillings (two
dollars) to any one who should sell it at the full price; which was
twenty dollars. Our lad covered himself with glory one morning, by
selling this horrid old thing. A sailor came in to buy a satin scarf for
a present. The boy saw his chance.
"As you want something for a present," said he to the sailor, "would you
not like to give something really useful and valuable that would last
for years?"
In three minutes the sailor was walking out of the store, happy enough,
with the shawl under his arm, and the sharp youth was depositing the
price thereof in the money-drawer. Very soon he had an opportunity of
assisting to gull the public on a great scale. His employer bought out
the stock of an old-fashioned dry-goods store in another part of the
town for a small sum; upon which he determined to have a grand "selling
off." To this end he filled the old shop with all his old, faded,
unsalable goods, besides looking around among the wholesale houses and
picking up several cart-loads of cheap lots, more or less damaged.
The whole town was flooded with bills announcing this selling off of the
old established store, at which many goods could be obtained at less
than half the original cost. As this was then a comparatively new trick
the public were deceived by it, and it had the most astonishing success.
The selling off lasted several weeks, the supply of goods being kept up
by daily purchases.
Our junior clerk was an apt learner in deception and trickery. Shortly
after this experiment upon the public credulity, a careless boy lighting
the lamps in the window (for this was before the introduction of gas)
set some netting on fire, causing a damage of a few shillings, the fire
being almost instantly extinguished. As business had been a little dull,
the junior clerk conceived the idea of turning the conflagration to
account. Going up to his employer, and pointing to the singed articles,
he said to him:--
"Why not have a selling off here, and clear out all the stock damaged by
fire?"
The master laughed at the enormity of the joke, but instantly adopted
the suggestion, and in the course of a day or two, flaming posters
announced the awful disaster and the sale. In preparing for this event,
the clerks applied lighted paper to the edges of whole stacks of goods,
slightly discolored the tops of stockings, and in fact, they singed to
such an extent as almost to cause a real conflagration. During these
night operations a great deal of beer was consumed, and the whole effect
of the manoeuvre was injurious and demoralizing to every clerk in the
store.
This sale also was ridiculously successful. A mob surrounded the doors
before they were opened, and to keep up the excitement some low-priced
goods were ostentatiously sold much below cost. Such was the rush of
customers that at noon the young men were exhausted by the labor of
selling; the counters were a mere litter of tumbled dry-goods; and the
shop had to be closed for a while for rest and putting things in order.
To keep up the excitement, the master and his favorite junior clerk rode
about London in hackney coaches, in search of any cheap lots that would
answer their purpose.
In the course of time, this clerk, who was at heart an honest,
well-principled fellow, grew ashamed of all this trickery and fraud, and
when at length he set up in business for himself, he adopted the
principle of "one price and no abatement." He dealt honorably with all
his customers, and thus founded one of the great dry-goods houses of
London.
Two things saved him: first, he loathed drinking and debauchery;
secondly, he was in the habit of reading.
The building up of the huge establishments, to which some persons
object, has nearly put an end to the old system of guzzling, cheating,
and lying. The clerks in these great stores go to business at eight
o'clock in the morning, and leave at six in the evening, with an
interval for dinner. They work all day in a clean and pleasant place,
and they are neither required or allowed to lie or cheat. A very large
establishment must be conducted honestly, or it cannot long go on. Its
very largeness _compels_ an adherence to truth and fact.