Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1877 — Matching a Pattern. [ARTICLE]

Matching a Pattern.

One o t the fascinating young men hi an up lowndry goods store is in trouble: It Uttie custom in the establishment from which he has Just been dismissed to discharge a man who fails to sell to Onb of three successive customers. “ Swapping” is the technical term by which this failure is known In the thy goods business. The ‘ rule is not universal.hut it is by no means exceptional in dry goods stores. However unjust it may Mr, it lhis a wonderful stimulating effect on ths elegant young men amenable to it, and when they, cannot sell goods His a safe Inference that the customer ta supernatnraUjr obdurate, impecunious, or miserly. The young man referred to had “first Call" Ism 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 lot of some other clerk, knd. so on 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 qf 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: purchaser oould with difficulty have been found. An 61d striped shawl was thrown carelessly over her shoulders and partially concealed a roll of calk» which the palpitatory heart qf the clerk instinctively felt that she came to have matched. Now, if there is anything in the diy goods business more soul-harrowing 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 sickening despair permeated the heaving breast of the unfortunate clerk as he asked: “ Well, ma’am T” She laid down five yards and a half of calico of an eccentric pattern, and intimated that the success of a great dressmaking enterprise hinged on her fortune in finding another yard and a 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 T pearance of calmness that belied the turmoil of his feelings, he dived under the counter and handed out endless rolls of calico, varying from the radiant strawberry and moes rose marked to the soberest gray. But he came not within thirteen supplementary colors of the required Sattern. He burrowed In the cavernous epths of lower shelves, and ransacked upper ones from the top round of a giddy step-ladder, but he found it not. An hour and a half had gone by, and his stock was nearly exhausted. The proprietor of the store and the bookkeeper and porter had come out to witness the death struggle. Six times the wearied lady started for the door, and six times ha called her back and resumed his frenzied search. The last calico was unrolled, and ha was about to drop his hat and gracefully step down and out, when a happy thought struck him. “Excuse me. madam,” said he; “there’s one piece 1 overlooked. Let me see that goods;” and he took her bundle, and, diving under the counter, hacked off a yard and a half with the energy and promptness of a rekindled hope. “ Here ’tis, madam, exactly what you required,” said he, confidently spreading out the purloined goods. She looked at it attentively for five minutes. “ It does look like the pattern,” said she, “but still I think Us not what I •want. It’s a good deal coarser than mine. If I can’t get anything nearer to the pattern I’ll come back and take it. Good morning.” She aid come back in an hour, but not to buy the goods. He tried to dodge behind the counter, bnt with the keensiglitedness of womanly revenge she spotted him, and he was ignominioualy hauled out and arraigned before his employer. The worst of it was that the latter, in view of the unprofitable energy Shown in his attempt to effect a sale, had concluded not to discharge him. With the evidence of his guilt so unmistakable, however, it would be fatal to the discipline of the house tofkeep him, and he was promptly dismissed. Until the lady succeeds in getting a warrant for his arrest his name iB charitably suppressed.— San Francisco Post.