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At nine o'clock in the morning he walked down to the little
post-office and spent about half an hour there filling a blank. The
result was the following telegram which he signed and sent at a cost
of $ 33:
To Pinkney Dawson,
Dalesburg, Ala.
Draft for $100 comes to you next mail. Ship me immediately
500 pounds dry cockleburrs. New use here in arts. Market price
twenty cents pound. Further orders likely. Rush.
II
SHIPS
Within a week a suitable building had been found, and the
stock of shoes were arranged on their shelves. The rent of the store
was moderate.
Johnny's friends kept their promise. On the first day Keough
walked casually about once every hour and bought shoes. The other
English-speaking residents also bought often and liberally.
Mr. Hemstetter was pleased with the amount of business done
so far; but was surprised that the natives were so slow with their
purchases.
One afternoon Keough came into the consul's office.
"If you have any ideas, you must hurry up with them. The boys
have bought enough foot-wear to last them ten years. And there are
no customers in the store now. I just passed by there. Your victim was
standing in the door looking through his spectacles at the bare feet
passing by. Only one pair of shoes has been sold today. Blanchard
went in and bought a pair of fur-lined house slippers because he
thought he saw Miss Hemstetter go into the store. I saw him throw
the slippers away afterwards."
"There is a fruit steamer coming in tomorrow or next day," said
Johnny. "We can't do anything until then."
"What do you want to do — try to create a demand?"
"You are not good at Political Economy," said the consul. "You
can't create a demand. But you can create a necessity for a demand.
That's what I am going to do."
Two weeks after the consul sent his telegram, a fruit steamer
brought him a big mysterious brown bale of some unknown
commodity.