ich 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;