Dealer

“ I had the envelope in my pocket containing the note and the cheque when I reached the club for lunch; and that afternoon I played bridge [Pg 117] so disastrously that I was glad I had not posted it.
After all (so my thoughts ran, as I destroyed the envelope and contents) such bargains are all part of the game. Buying and selling are a perfectly straightforward matter between dealer and customer. The dealer asks as much as he thinks he can extort, and the customer, having paid it, is under no obligation whatever to the dealer. ”

“ Sometimes, however, the dealer, if he is a very pious Mussulman, and sufficiently rich to hold back his ware, will take a more dignified part, maintaining a kind of judicial gravity, and receiving the applicants who come to his stall, as if they were rather suitors, than customers. ”

“ This new use has made every man a dealer in bullion; he buys it to sell it again, and the general competition of all these dealers will as surely, and as strictly, regulate its value in every country, as the competition of the same or other dealers will regulate the value of all other commodities. I have your sanction for calling every purchaser of commodities a dealer in bullion; and, though in the language of commercial men the sellers of money are in all cases called purchasers, it is not on that account less true that they are sellers of one commodity and purchasers of another. ”

“ In other cases, except a natural Vingt-un happen, the dealer pays single stakes to all whose numbers under twenty-one are higher than his own, and receives from those who have lower numbers; but nothing is paid or received by such players as have similar numbers to the dealer. When the dealer draws more than twenty-one, he pays to all who have not thrown up. In some companies ties pays the dealer. ”

“ The cuekeeper watches the dealer attentively. The latter, after taking a card, signs by prearranged signals to the former, who raps once with a chip against the side of the cue-rack, which signifies that the card taken is recorded, and at the end of the deal the cues are right.
Sometimes the cards are marked also, that the dealer may know each turn before making it. This is called “dealing at sight.”
What is all this that has been described? It is one way by which men thrust their hands into their brother’s pocket and rob him. ”

“ No, sir. I'll give that much, every day of the week, to get the attention of a large dealer. Twenty-four dollars are made in a minute and a half by a traveling man when he gets to doing business with a first-class merchant. ”

“ We have already hinted at the operations of the dishonest dealer and sharper who is not a producer of blooded stock, merely a dealer, and who does not hesitate to do anything short of murder to get your money. ”

“ I became a wholesale dealer in every thing, from barrels of gunpowder down to pickled herrings; in the civic acceptation of the word I was a merchant, amongst the vulgar I am called a dry-salter. I accumulated wealth; with my fortune my family also grew, and one male Scropps, and four female ditto, grace my board at least once in every week. ”

“ I have taken for granted that the buyer will go to a dealer for any advice of any kind is wasted upon one who would buy a horse from a friend, unless he coveted his friend’s horse and wanted that particular animal from personal knowledge of him.
213Horse dealers are frequently spoken of as unconscionable rogues. And there is no doubt that many of them do lack the virtue of probity and straight speaking. But a reputable dealer in horses with an established business can be as fair as any other business man, and I have known many such. ”

“ A wise dealer always knows how to keep up amicable relations with a possible seller or buyer, and never descends to abuse, or the assumption of a personal injury if he cannot persuade a seller to accept his price, as is the case with some dealers with less savoir faire. ”

“ The latter is likely to pay them astonishing prices, but he also154 pays for security. He knows that the dealer’s experience is absolutely at his service, and that if by mischance an object is not what it has been represented to be, the honest dealer will make it good. ”

“ Retail dealers shall pay ten dollars for each license. Every person whose business or occupation it is to sell or offer for sale any goods, wares, or merchandise of foreign or domestic production, not including spirits, wines, ale, beer, or other malt liquors, and whose annual sales exceed one thousand, and do not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars, shall be regarded as a retail dealer under this act. ”

“ He'll always go to shooting before it's necessary, and there's no security who he'll hit. But a man like that black-headed guy is (the dealer indicated the Virginian) need never worry you. And there's another point why there's no need to worry about him: it'll be too late!"
These good words ended the moralizing of the dealer. He had given us a piece of his mind. He now gave the whole of it to dealing cards. I loitered here and there, neither welcome nor unwelcome at present, watching, the cow-boys at their play. ”

“ I buy for a dealer, who snaps up everything of the kind I can bring him and hollers for more. You ought to see the crowds of people, especially tourists, who wear out his floors. I’m going to have a store of that kind myself some day. ”

“ This combination of the street-green-grocer and street-fishmonger is called a “general dealer.”
The general dealers are usually accompanied by boys (as I have elsewhere shown) , and sometimes by their wives. If a woman be a general dealer, she is mostly to be found at a stall or standing, and not “going a round.”
The general dealer “works” everything through the season. He generally begins the year with sprats or plaice: then he deals in soles until the month of May. After this he takes to mackerel, haddocks, or red herrings. Next he trades in strawberries or raspberries. ”

“ Instead, then, of attempting merely to learn the dealer's demand for selling points, put part of your effort into learning the demands of the user of the machine. Consumer suggestion or demands are apt to come only after a period of use. Obvious ones are sometimes reported by the dealer, but very often they never come to the manufacturer through the reports of the trade in time to be of service. It took a period of years for the dealer to realize the importance of enclosed moving parts. ”

“ Each dealer loudly proclaimed to the wayfarer the merits of his goods, vying with his neighbour in his endeavours to attract attention to himself or distract it from the other, especially if, as was often the case, a number of traders trafficked in the same class of merchandise. ”

“ The dealer, who is a calm, shrewd, heartless-looking man, speaking English as well as if it were his native tongue, comes out with me, calls to the coolies, and they all stand up in a double line, facing inward, and we pass through them, preceded by a driver armed with the usual badge of the plantation driver, the short, limber whip. ”

“ A dealer need order goods only at the moment he wants them, instead of having to estimate, weeks ahead of time, what products he will require, and loading himself up with stock that he may afterward be unable to dispose of. ”

“ There is no fixed price for any article, and a dealer would be disappointed if you purchased at the first figure demanded, because it would prevent him from showing his ability at negotiation. Residents tell you that you must not pay more than half the price asked, and must dicker until the merchant comes down to your figure. ”

“ A dealer who dealt as dealers very seldom do deal.
We had our hands to play against a man who was a novice at the game. Simple and gullible, so far from smelling out the rat, he took his stink for a nosegay. And why, said he, did you not come straight to my house? It was not friendly to put up at an inn. On the footing we are likely to be upon, there should be none of those punctilios. ”

“ The dealer in bread and in clothes,—the victualler from whom he would ask a cup of beer and a night's lodging,—will give him nothing, although they [Pg 40] will exchange everything. He cannot exist, except as a beggar, unless he puts himself in the condition to become an exchanger. ”

“ This, it will be found, is a complete account of all the gains which a dealer in any commodity can derive from an accession to the number of those who deal with him: and it is evident to every one, that these advantages are real and important, and that they are the cause which induces a dealer of any kind to desire an increase of his business. ”

“ Another set are actually in trade at the moment, if that can be called a trade, which consists of a shop of all sorts; these are called "general dealers," and partake much of the character of the jobbers; only that the latter for a shop, keep a "warehouse," upstairs in a garret; or their lodging room at the public house serves the purpose of a warehouse! I have known one of these, at the same time a dealer in cutlery, coffins, pictures, paper, hose, books, bandanas, and other heterogeneous articles ”

“ It takes an astute, clear-headed man to keep himself off shore in stock dealing. I never yet heard of a dealer who occasionally did not temporarily, if not totally, go to the wall.
He need not necessarily be downright unscrupulous, but if he wishes to profit he must not be overburdened with niceties in the point of honour. ”

“ The first dealer is provided with a marker called a buck, and having, before dealing, put up the antes of all the players, passes the buck to the next dealer, who must in his turn ante for all when he deals. ”

“ Whenever a local dealer consigns a car load of wheat to a responsible merchant he can deposit the bill of lading with his banker and draw upon the merchant for some 90 per cent of the value of the grain, providing the dealer has [280] hedged so that there is no chance of loss. The banker will honor the dealer’s checks and hold the credit of the merchant as collateral. ”

“ A dealer will usually be only too glad to have a collector who knows point to him mistakes in attribution. Most of the small shops are run by men who have little time for study, and who are far more likely to be imposed upon themselves than to attempt to impose upon their customers. ”

“ Have you often paid accounts to tradesmen for meal?-Not often for meal.
2615. Or for provisions?-Very seldom. We sometimes pay small sums for such things when the people want them.
2616. But you are not able to say whether these goods are paid for directly to the dealer or through the hands of the women?-We sometimes pay for them to the dealer. For instance, if a woman was due an account to a shoemaker or any other person, and told us to pay a part of it for them, we would do it.
2617. Does the tradesman come to your shop and get the payment?-No; we just settle with him. ”

“ Here are wholesale dealers in large number engaged in interstate trade upon whom it is proposed to impose as a condition of carrying on that trade that they shall not sell in such manner that a local retail dealer may regard such sale as an infringement of his exclusive right to trade, upon pain of being reported as an unfair dealer to a large number of other retail dealers associated with the offended dealer, the purpose being to keep the wholesaler from dealing not only with the particular dealer who reports him, but with all others of the class who may be informed of his delinquency. ”

“ When a declaration by the dealer is followed by two passes and an overbid by the right-hand adversary, the dealer is frequently placed in a doubtful position as to whether he should advance his own bid. Some authorities contend that with less than six tricks he should wait for his partner, and while no inflexible rule can be made to cover all such cases, the follower of this proposition has probably adopted the safest guide. ”

“ When a dealer extends his purchases beyond his immediate means of payment, engaging to pay at a specified time, he does so in the expectation either that the transaction will have terminated favorably before that time arrives, or that he shall then be in possession of sufficient funds from the proceeds of his other transactions. ”

“ But if, instead of buying a particular horse, a man applies to a dealer to supply him with a quiet horse, and the dealer supplies him with a vicious one, the stipulation is a condition. The buyer can either return the horse, or keep it and claim damages. ”

“ Enormous profits can also be made by a single dealer, or close combination of dealers, if they are able to control some indispensable article, to monopolize its sale, so that the purchaser can only receive it from their hands. He must resign himself to the alternative of doing without it, or paying the price charged for it by the robber band. ”

“ Person.— The term person as used herein shall be deemed to mean an individual, partnership, association, company or other unincorporated body of individuals, or corporation or body politic.
Dealer.— The term dealer as used herein shall be deemed to mean any person engaged primarily or incidentally in the business (1) of buying, selling, or dealing in foreign exchange, or (2) of buying, selling, or dealing in securities for or through foreign correspondents, or (3) any person who carries accounts or securities with or for foreign correspondents. ”

“ Winchester, why did you send for me to-night, as I was dressing for the reception, and, after inquiring if I were going to wear my diamonds, say it was your pleasure that I should do so, and then add, that you wished to borrow them of me to-morrow as you desired to show them to a dealer?”
[Pg 67]
“Why? because—” It was his turn to flush now—“because I do wish to show them to a dealer.” ”