“Merely a Matter of Form.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 13, 26 March 1913, Page 12

“Merely a Matter of Form.”

There are many classed of “cheek,” but the “cheek” of some of the so-called “beauty doctors” who infest the. metropolis nowadays defies classification, unless the classifier is an adept in the really vulgar tongue. Here as a specimen of the methods of a lady who advertises herself as a champion wrinkle effaeer. By some means or other she gets hold of the names and addresses of girls in business and sends an account “To Goods £1 1/.” Probably most of the girls, instead of consigning this (to them) cryptic document to the wastepaper basket, write fearful or angry letters repudiating liability. In that, case they receive a' prompt reply couched in these terms: — “Your name was given to me by a lady who requested that I should keep her identity secret. This lady told me that she thought you might be interested in my treatment. ... “A complete treatment -was taken from stock and placed upon one. side for you, marked No. 1. and with your name; in fact, it is still being reserved. In order to keep our stock records in order, it had to be treated temporarily as a sale, therefore the sum of 21/, w.liieh I ask you for a full course of my treatment, was entered on iny books. The bill issued is merely a matter of form in connection with our accounting system. You will not be expected to pay this amount, unless you wish to accept my 'treatment; therefore, you are under no obligation to take the treatment unless you want it; you will clearly understand that at the present you cannot owe me any money.” In the words of that mighty atom “Lhe man-in-'the-street,” this epistle must really be awarded the biscuit for doubly-distilled and frozen “cheek.” We have heard long ago of firms dumping articles of various sorts on people without any invitation to do so, and then weeks afterwards sending in a bill for them, in the hope, probably, that the recipient may have mislaid them and therefore feel constrained to pay, but the notion of sending in a bill for goods neither ordered nor delivered is really—ahem—piquant!