"Reel” Cheating.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 180, 22 April 1873, Page 7

"Reel” Cheating.

“ Snyder,” in the Auckland WcvMij Herald, shvs i — u As touching the giving of | short measure -I had an amusing little | narrative from ‘A pretty young girl’with a I sewing machine’ only the other day. This 1 machine needlewoman uses, she informed me : from between twenty and thirty reels of I thread in a week, and she always purchases ; those ‘ warranted SUO yards.’ Now it came to pass in an idle hour, she thought she would engage her attention by ascertaining whether one of these reels of thread did | really run out the warranted measure, when | mU(J h to her surprise and great indignation j the measurement instead of turning out 300 i yards only showed 180 yards. This pretty | young girl with a sewing machine, with very | ninoli of her native mildness taken out of hi’r | by the discovery, having donned her hat and j pinned on several braids of chignon, walked : off to the draper with whom she had been I accustomed to trade, and explained to him the ' genteel swindle she had been subjected to, ; ITe rubbed Ins hands, he chuckled, lie sat | sideways on the counter and not out an i immense amount of laughing. 1 One hundred i and eighty yards 1’ lie exclaimed. ‘ Why, tiiat s just thirty more yards than I should have gived tlio maker credit for. Now then, ; my dear,’ he continued, ‘what can I serve you ; wit.li this morning /’ The young lady did ■ not want serving. She walked'out of the t snop and into a Iriemi’s house, who drew rip a ; bill f«r £1 10s. against the shopkeeper. Then she got a summons for the amount, and the bailiff did his duty by serving it. Two hours afterwards the young seamstress had I l’ a id into lier hands the sum of thirty-seven | shillings, being exactly the amount of her I claim with costs added. Then I dare say the i shopkeeper had another laugh, lint it would • 011 the other side of the face this time.”