Blanket Company, in addressing the jury, said Mrs. Pierce was not an uneducated type of person who would be affected by letters in the way that "Mrs. Arris," of "Mrs. Gamp" fame, might have been. Mrs. Pierce was a woman of education, who was not troubled financially. Though half-demented over the trouble of her husband's illness she had not hesitated to buy herself a 55s. coat on credit.
She has broüght all this on herself, said Mr. Slade. If she had carried out the contract she made she would never have received any of the letters at all Why this tender solicitude for persons who won't pay their bills? You are not dealing with a person who could not pay or who had not the opportunity to pay, but with a person who just doesn't pay.
Mr. P. B, Merle, for the bureau, said his clients were sincerely sorry that by a most unfortunate accident they sent the communications to the plaintiff. Throughout October, November, and December, 1936, they were under the impression that the debt was still outstanding, because they had not been notified by the Witney Blanket Company that payment had been made. The only person or persons to whom the defomatory words were published—if they were published—were the servant or servants of the bureau, who merely dealt with her case as one of a large number of debtors, No single person could be brought forward who had thought a bit the worse of her because she had been called a wilful defaulter and worthy of the attention of "Inspector, Matthews." Mr. Merle said the jury had not to judge the merits or demerits of the bureau or their. methods of carrying on their business. They were not entitled to give Mrs. Pierce damages because they did not like the methods adopted by the bureau.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.