OCR Text |
Show ,PECULIAR IDEAS OF BUSINESS. Maine Shoemaker Sees Financial Matters Mat-ters In Peculiar Light. A shoemaker on tho coast of Malno having been asked by a summer cottager cot-tager for tho amount of his bill for a certain cobbling Job, replied: "It shall bo 75 cents if you pay cash, and 50 If I put it on tho books." Tho patron, unablo to seo tho wisdom wis-dom of such a system, asked for an explanation. "You see," said tho shoemaker, with a smile, "if you pay mo tho 75 cents down I mako a good profit, and If I put It on tho books for 50 I don't lose so much if you never pay me." Tho above financial point of vlow may bo matched only by a somewhat similar ono which Is held by a Nantucket Nan-tucket storekeeper. Ono of his customers cus-tomers having found that which ho considered an unusually good cigar for flvo cents, thought he would economize econo-mize by purchasing a number as a discount. dis-count. "How much do you ask for these by tho hundred?" ho asked. "Six dollars," replied tho storekeeper. store-keeper. "What!" asked the patron In blank astonishment. "Do you moan to tell mo that you ask more for them by tho hundred than singly?" "I do," said tho storekeeper, who, noticing tho puzzled nlf of tho other, continued: "You see. I lay In a coudIo of boxes at tho beginning of tho season sea-son and they usually pull mo through tho summer all right If I sell them ono or two at a tlmo. Now, If I should sell them all for $4.50 a hundred, I'd cut my profit down, for some millionaires million-aires would como along and buy both boxes at once and then I'd have to send to Doston for more, and while they wore a-coming there wouldn't be anything for anybody to smoko, and there would bo trouble all round. I tell you flvo cents apiece for tho cigars ci-gars Is all right, and when a man has bo much money that he can afford to buy a box at a time he ought to bo willing to pay at the rate of six cents apleco for tho luxury. I tell you, I ain't been a-runnin' this hero store for nigh onto 27 years without learnin' nothln'." Harper's Weekly. |