FIVE POUNDS REWARD

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1920, Page 9

FIVE POUNDS REWARD

CHEAP SWEETS AND CHEAPER SWEETS. For some weeks past there has been a. wordy contest, chiefly per medium of the advertising . columns of the daily papers, between the proprietors of two confectionery shops in .Manners-street as to who sold the cheaper goods. Recently one of them, E. J. Clarke, displayed in his window a notice and challenge, offering a five pound note, also displayed as a guarantee of good faith, to the person who could prove that his prices were not as he advertised the cheapest ia the street. A young man, Roden George Collins, in due time took up the challenge, proved to his own 'satisfaction that he had earned the five pound note, but failed to get it. He, therefore, decided to take legal action, and,accordingly sued. Clarke for £5 at the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon. The case certainly took some strange turns. In answer to Mr. G. W. Mellish. for the plaintiff, Collins produced a letter from his brother-in;law, purporting to instruct him to purchase sweets and other provisions for a family party. He went to Clarke, purchased the sweets, which, by the way, were set down in detail, with probable prices, in the letter, obtained a receipt, and then, moving on to the opposition shop, purchased similar goods in-like quantities, for which he also obtained a receipt. A comparison of the prices followed, and as the charges at the second shop were lower, with the. exception of the charge for one line, he repaired once again to Clarke's shop armed with both receipts and claimed the nve pound note as his just reward. Newspaper clippings containing advertisements and a snapshot of the window display were handed up to Mr. W. G-. Biddell, S.M.

However, under cross-examination by Mr. 0. C. Mazengarb, the plaintiff admitted that he was in the employ ot the proprietor of the se.cond shop, and that the letter from his brother-in-law, which was handed to him and not posted, relerred to a quite imaginary party. He had, he said, talked to the proprietor of the second shop over the advertisements when they were first inserted by Clarke, but not just prior to his visit to the shop. He wanted the five pound not*. Counsel asked whether lie considered it a proper thing to base his opinion of the comparative cheapness or clearness of Clarke's goods on half-a-dqzen lines, when there were forty lines at least in. stock. Moreover, the goods were perhaps similar] but they were not identical.

The Court smiled broadly •when Mr.i Mellish re-examined the witness as to) whether his selection had not been made) on general "bread and butter" lines, but' the hearing of the case was brought to an untimely end, from the points of view of counsel, and the parties, by tho deci-i sion of the Magistrate that as the after--noon had worn well towards evening, further consideration of the claim must be adjourned. He accordingly fixed the date of the continued bearing for a civil day after the Easter vacation, but a, mild protest was raised by Mr. Mazengarb, ■vho said/that he would not be able to attend at the date fixed, and further deky would be occasioned.

"There are more Important cases than: this in view." xeoUed tb« Magistrate, "and it seems to me that a, d«l&y of a, monthortwo, or even a year or two, woultj not affect this case very materially.' 1