The Way In Which Your Customers, For
The First Month Or So, Enjoyed Themselves By Trying To Frighten You,
The
Trader, out of your wits and goods, and into giving them fancy
prices for things you were trading in, and
For things of no earthly
use to you, or any one else! The trader's existence during this
period is marked by every unpleasantness save dulness; from that he
is spared by the presence of a mob of noisy, dangerous, thieving
savages all over his place all day; invading his cook-house, to put
some nastiness into his food as a trade charm; helping themselves to
portable property at large; and making themselves at home to the
extent of sitting on his dining-table. At night those customers
proceed to sleep all over the premises, with a view to being on hand
to start shopping in the morning. Woe betide the trader if he gives
in to this, and tolerates the invasion, for there is no chance of
that house ever being his own again; and in addition to the local
flies, etc., on the table-cloth, he will always have several big
black gentlemen to share his meals. If he raises prices, to tide
over some extra row, he is a lost man; for the Africans can
understand prices going up, but never prices coming down; and time
being no object, they will hold back their trade. Then the district
is ruined, and the trader along with it, for he cannot raise the
price he gets for the things he buys.
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