(Testimony of Edith Whitworth)
Mrs. Whitworth.
I said to Mrs. Hunter, "Well, I don't think she liked what I said about trading those children," and she didn't offer to show us the baby.
Mr. Liebeler.
You made quite a fuss over the children, I presume?
Mrs. Whitworth.
Yes; I am a great hand to notice children. I just really am, you know, and I always felt like it was one way to get in touch with the customer--is to brag on the children, you know. The closer you get to them the better off you are when you are trying to sell them something, and really, I was, you know, interested in selling him furniture when he told me he needed it.
Mr. Liebeler.
How about this little 3-year-old girl, did she seem to be an ordinarily developed girl---she could walk around and everything?
Mrs. Whitworth.
Yes; she was pretty.
Mr. Liebeler.
Did she say anything at all?
Mrs. Whitworth.
She mumbled--as she went out of the store she was about halfway crying, not really crying, but mumbling something. I couldn't understand her or anything, and that's the reason that at one time I thought--well, I'll hand her a piece of candy, but then I didn't because a lot of people don't like you to give their children candy and the woman hadn't been friendly enough with me to make me really want to, but I really would have liked to have given the little girl some candy. She was a beautiful little child.
Mr. Liebeler.
Did the ,little girl say anything you could understand at all?
Mrs. Whitworth.
No; she just kind of whined like, you know, it might have been that she was a little towed or something--I don't know.
Mr. Liebeler.
Now, as they walked out of the store, did you see them get in the car?
Mrs. Whitworth.
I probably did, but I didn't pay much attention to them---to remember how they did--I didn't--it was just like anybody else walking out of the store, you know, I didn't see them get in the car. I'm sure they got in a car and I just faintly remember that maybe that that car was a two-tone car and that they got in there and drove off and like I say, I don't know how they got into the car, because I didn't pay too much attention to them.
Mr. Liebeler.
Did you see where they went when they got in the car?
Mrs. Whitworth.
I didn't pay too much attention. Mrs. Hunter said they went back the wrong way down the street.
Mr. Liebeler.
But you didn't see that?
Mrs. Whitworth.
I probably saw it but I didn't--I wouldn't say that they did because I don't know. So many people pull that stunt anyway and it was just everyday, you know, people make mistakes on that street all the time about going the wrong way and I had seen numbers of them going the wrong way and if they did go, the wrong way, you know, I don't remember it.
Mr. Liebeler.
It wasn't such an extraordinary thing to have that happen?
Mrs. Whitworth.
No; but what was, you know, out of the ordinary person--not talking. I'm friendly--I'm just a real friendly person and going on over the babies---I would have liked to have looked at the baby and all. That was what stuck with me more than anything else, you know, the way she acted and him too. He was nothing out of the ordinary except that he thanked me for his time, you know, that he had taken, and I suggested furniture to him and tried to find out what kind they were looking for and they weren't quite ready for it and it was going to be a couple of weeks before they moved out and he told me that they were living in an apartment.
Mr. Liebeler.
What did he tell you about that?
Mrs. Whitworth.
I asked him. So many people would come in the store, you know, to buy furniture you know, and try to get it as cheap as they could because they were living in a furnished apartment, so I usually asked them if they were in apartments or something, and he told me they were and I know they wanted bedroom furniture, because I took them back there and showed .them bedroom furniture. They also had to have living room furniture and I asked him what type of furniture and I said, "So many people are using Early American or Danish Modern." I mean, young people were using a lot of that Danish Modern and I couldn't get anything out of her even after suggesting that and I thought if I suggested that that they would tell me what they were looking for, but I never did find out.
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