THE VERMONT COUNTRY STORE PROPRIETOR
Wilfred E Perkins
Taftsville Vermont
September 2008
Below you will find one of the Proprietor's favorite jokes, and old one that still rings true today.
The Proprietor of a Vermont Country Store ordered a keg of molasses from a broker in New York, who shipped the keg by train. When the Proprietor went to the train station to pick up his molasses, he found an invoice, a keg, and no molasses (apparently the keg had allowed its contents to leak out during the trip up). The Proprietor, being a frugal Vermonter, found a use for both the wooden keg and the invoice in his wood stove back at the store.
Months later, after repeated requests for payment went unanswered, the New York broker decided to take action. He wrote a letter to the Stationmaster in Vermont to verify that the keg of molasses had indeed arrived. He wrote a letter to the president of the local bank in Vermont, inquiring into the store owner’s credit standing. He wrote a letter to the mayor of the town, asking for the name of a good lawyer, as he intended to pursue the matter in court.
Two weeks later the broker in New York received a letter. It said:
“As the Stationmaster, I can inform you that your keg arrived; no molasses. As the President of the Bank, I can assure you that my credit is excellent. As the Mayor, I can tell you that I am the only lawyer practicing in these parts. And if I wasn’t the pastor of the church, I’d tell you to go to hell.”
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