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Show SWINDLED THE TAILOR. KNIGHT OF THE GOOSE TELLS r OF HOW HE WAS TRICKED. A Keporter Gm Him I lie Simple Heat. k Counterfeiter Kiehawifed I'roilnrta llh llira Tlie fontorllonlet Flayed the Mlrke.t Trick of All. "Well, I've been in business a good tonny yearR, said a fashionable tailor, "and I've met aomevery queer customers In the course of my uperience. Have I rer been beat en? Why, of course I have. Every man in my business is bonnd to meet with men who swindle hint in one way or another. I don't think, however, 1 have lost a great deal of money in lute yearn. Before 1 set np in business for myself I represented a largo house in another an-other city. I came here and made quite j ' a trade among the clerks in the depart- I Bieuts. 1 used to call upon them in their offices with my book of samples, and an I'm a pretty fair talker I ninnred to get good many orders. I used to f;ive them credit, and I will say ono thinp for the public department clerks, and that is that 1 lost very little money by them. I used to have to wait a good while sometimes, but they generally paid me in full. two Kinn-B CA.SKS. "Hut you want to know about the beats.' Well, one of the worst 1 ever know was a fellow who waa hero for : gome time as u newspaper man. Ho was on a local paper, and it was ufter I had f one into bnsinese for myself that! met I im. He came into my store ono day With two or three well known btisiiieHS young men whose trade 1 had possessed j for a long time. One of the party, a j banker, ordered a IfrtO suit, and X ineaar I Bred him while the others cbaiTed him j and examined my stock. About an hour j aiterward this newspaper man returned ! and said that he would like me to make j a suit for him of the same goods selected I fcy his friend. 1 presumed he was all right, took his measure, made the suit, ent it to his address and waited for him to come and settle. But he never did, and in a short time he skipped out of j town. That was a dead loss to me. j . "That wasn't as bad, however, as a ; trick that was subsequently played upon j me. A tall, fine lookang gentleman came j in one day, and after looking over my j tock selected a piece of the most expen- ! alva goods and ordered a suit to be made i from it He wanted the suit finished in three days, as he was going to leave the city. He wag on his way south, he said, and had already spent more time than he had intended. He was very polite and appeared to lie a man of means. He -as also particular as to the cut and atyle of the coat and vest, insisting npon a collar to the latter, although the style was without one. Well, I put off some ether work and completed his suit within with-in the time agreed upon, and sent it to his hotel about dusk with the bill $80. The man brought back the money, fonr a0 bills, and I put this in the safe and m-ent home. The next day when I sent my deposit to the bank those four $J0 bills wore returned marked 'counterfeit.' Well, perhaps 1 wasn't mad. 1 sent down to the hotel, but of course the man had gone. I placed the matter in the .i- hands of the detectives, but they failed to find the swindler. Many years afterward after-ward 1 saw his picture in a rogues' gallery, gal-lery, and learned that he was one of the most expert counterfeiters in the conn-try. conn-try. I think he is now in a western penitentiary, pen-itentiary, but it was a long time before the government officers captured and convicted him. A QUESTION OF EXPANSION. "One of the funniest swindles ever played npon me was by a government clerk, who was brought to me by the chief of his division, for whom I had made clothes for years. I measured the man myself, and was particularly careful care-ful about the shoulders and chest, aa I pride myself upon the fit of my coats. I oent the suit to his boarding house on Saturday night, and the neit Monday morning, bright and early, he was down to the store very muchenraced because tho coat and vest didn't lit him. He said the trousers were all right, bnt the coat and vest were altogether too small. 1 sent up for the garment and compared com-pared their measurements with those I bad marked on the books and fonnd that they corresponded exactly; so I wrote a note asking him to call in alter his office of-fice was cut in the evening. He did so, and I asked him to try on the coat and vest. He went into tho bark part of the Btore, and when he came forward with tho garments on tuey would not meet by at least three inches. I was nonplussed. 1 was certain that I had made the correct mea.surenionts, but there waa the mitn, and the cor.t and vest evidently didn't lit. 1 offered to make him others, Lnt he was mad and wouldn't have it. He paid me for the trousers and was going to leave tho coat and vest on my hands. "Just as he was going out of the door he turned and said ho was sorry that I'd tuade such a blunder, for he liked the good. Ho added in a reflective sort of way that he might split up tho back cf the vest and set a piece in so that he Could button that, bnt that tho coat would always have to stay open. Finally Final-ly ho said he'd give me $-!0 for the gar-luents, gar-luents, the price of which waa $35. I told him 1 would prefer to make him a new coat and vest, but he wouldn't have it, and finally, rather than run the risk of not getting rid of tho garments at all I let him have hem for $30. About wec ufter I saw him at tho theatre with the coat buttoned over his chest-it chest-it was a Prince Albert and fitting him beautifully. 1 couldn't understand it until I was told that he had formerly been a contortionist, and had the power to throw ont his chest far beyond its normal size. He had just beaten me out of $1.1. I didn't make nny more clothes for him, but I heard that he Beat' another tailor in the same way." Washington Star. |