Episode 5
Welcome to this week's Poe Blog w/Peter Francis. (A day late I'm afraid, but just as tasty)
"Here's a ballsy maneuver if I've ever seen one."
-Peter Francis
Promethean Books presents
Episode Five of
"DIDDLING:
Considered as One of the Exact Sciences"
The origin of the diddle is referrible to the infancy of the Human race. Perhaps the first diddler was Adam. At all events, we can trace the science back to a very remote period of antiquity. The moderns, however, have brought it to a perfection never dreamed of by our thick-headed progenitors. Without pausing to speak of the "old saws", therefore, I shall content myself with a compendious account of some of the more "modern instances."
A very good diddle is this. A housekeeper in want of a sofa, for instance, is seen to go in and out of several cabinet warehouses. At length she arrives at one offering an excellent variety. She is acosted, and invited to enter, by a polite and voluble individual at the door. She finds a sofa well-adapted to her views, and upon inquiring the price, is surprised and delighted to hear a sum named at least twenty per cent lower than her expectations. She hastens to make the purchase, gets a bill and receipt, leaves her address, with request that the article be sent home as speedily as possible, and retires amid a profusion of bows from the shop-keeper. The night arrives and no sofa. The next day passes and still none. A servant is sent to make inquiry about the delay. The whole transaction is denied. No sofa had been sold - no money recieved - except by the diddler who played shop-keeper for the nonce.
Our cabinet warehouses are left entirely unattended, and thus afford every facility for a trick of this kind. Visitors enter, look at furniture, and depart unheeded and unseen. Should anyone wish to purchase, or to inquire the price of an article, a bell is at hand, and this is considered amply sufficient.
(To be continued...)
"Here's a ballsy maneuver if I've ever seen one."
-Peter Francis
Promethean Books presents
Episode Five of
"DIDDLING:
Considered as One of the Exact Sciences"
The origin of the diddle is referrible to the infancy of the Human race. Perhaps the first diddler was Adam. At all events, we can trace the science back to a very remote period of antiquity. The moderns, however, have brought it to a perfection never dreamed of by our thick-headed progenitors. Without pausing to speak of the "old saws", therefore, I shall content myself with a compendious account of some of the more "modern instances."
A very good diddle is this. A housekeeper in want of a sofa, for instance, is seen to go in and out of several cabinet warehouses. At length she arrives at one offering an excellent variety. She is acosted, and invited to enter, by a polite and voluble individual at the door. She finds a sofa well-adapted to her views, and upon inquiring the price, is surprised and delighted to hear a sum named at least twenty per cent lower than her expectations. She hastens to make the purchase, gets a bill and receipt, leaves her address, with request that the article be sent home as speedily as possible, and retires amid a profusion of bows from the shop-keeper. The night arrives and no sofa. The next day passes and still none. A servant is sent to make inquiry about the delay. The whole transaction is denied. No sofa had been sold - no money recieved - except by the diddler who played shop-keeper for the nonce.
Our cabinet warehouses are left entirely unattended, and thus afford every facility for a trick of this kind. Visitors enter, look at furniture, and depart unheeded and unseen. Should anyone wish to purchase, or to inquire the price of an article, a bell is at hand, and this is considered amply sufficient.
(To be continued...)
posted by R.Chip DeGlinkta at 4:57 PM
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