THE SAME PARTY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1185, 13 December 1883, Page 3

THE SAME PARTY.

" Commercials " (says a writer in the Sheffield Telegraph) like good "lines." Three of them engaged in the same trade where having a quiet talk in a Sheffield hotel, the point of the palaver being as to which had the largest amount to collect in the town. Each traveller agreed to produce the statements furnished by the house he represented, taking cure to suppress the name of tho party mentioned in the statement. Traveller No. 1 found he had a nice little sum of £IOOO to collect. Traveller No. 2 was clean beat, as his figure was only £7OO ; but both of them were swept out of the field by No. 3, who wanted £ISOO to settle him. One of them gently remarked that his account was nearly two months overdue, and the other two found that their little bilb were equally ancient. This singular coincidence was too much for the commercial gentlemen. The little bit of Mother Eve in them caused them to be curious, and they agreed to show each other—in the strictest confidence, of course—the names of the parties owing the bills. Imagine the length of their faces when they found the three bills were all owing by one man! They said nothing, but, like the sailor's parrot, they thought a lot; and a few minutes afterwards there was a pedestrian competition to reach first the abode of that one debtor, who, let us hope, was able to satisfy the anxious trio.