COURTESY PAYS !

Grey River Argus, 1 August 1940, Page 10

COURTESY PAYS !

“Courtesy Pays!” was the “Co-oper-ative News” heading to a report last week of a Peterborough member’s bequest to a courteous counterman. But I know different! Life in a Colne Valley branch of East Lancashire “co-op.” was once made unendurable by the termagant widow of a cotton magnate. She was a whimsical woman! Only one man could please her! “Nice man,” his colleagues would say. “He’ll be going to his tea some Sunday!” The old lady died. To the counterhand, “for courtesy and never-failing civility,” she left thousands of cotton mill shares. To the delivery lad, hitherto unthought of, she left her house. “A reward for his cheerful demeanour.”

The house, a ramshackle place, filled a valuable site. It changed hands at a big price. The delivery lad now has a much nicer house in Cam-bridge-road, Southport. The counterman who was courteous, last time I met him, was wondering how he might meet the calls on his shares. He could not give them away! It’s a rummy world. —“Co-operative Ncw.s”