Six weeks from the day the order reached Chicago, the goods left New York--time enough to have had them come from Hawaii. With the goods came a single invoice. The vouchers in triplicate, which must be filled properly before the account can be paid by a governmental department, had been thrown aside as of no use. To protect the exporter, a voucher was drawn, for the ship reached port on June 30, the last day of the fiscal year. Several dollars were wasted in cable messages to expedite the return of new invoices, and the goods were unpacked. Not one piece of furniture, save a few chairs, was found whole. No American, in the States, would have accepted the goods. We had paid for them. A letter of remonstrance brought back a churlish answer, written in a cocky American spirit of superiority, to the effect that possibly some one outside could tell that house something about packing their own goods, but they would be greatly surprised to meet such a person. The trouble lay in the thinness of the packing cases. Goods are loaded into a ship by casting a rope sling about their middle, by which they are hoisted up and let down, often with a run, into the hold. Our desks, without sufficient outer protection and not being built on the principle of a truss bridge, naturally collapsed. The cases were none too good for a railway journey, and were certain to be damaged at any Central or South American port because, in nearly every case, unloading is done from the ship to a lighter, and from the lighter, by main strength and awkwardness, to a wharf. I cannot recall one instance in which American houses carried out instructions literally. I believe that there is a great future for an American exporter who will let the man on the ground do his own thinking, and take it for granted that he knows what he wants and how he wants it. The exasperation of a man who is weeks or months away from the markets, and who finds that substitution has been practiced, or his goods so packed that destruction was plainly invited, cannot be adequately described by a man on my income. We bought a typewriter in New York, one time, for two reasons: We could get the liberal discount, allowed the government if we bought direct from the maker, and we could evade a 25% duty if we received it through our custom house and not through another. Also there was a line of steamers from New York to our wharf. Some five weeks after placing the order, we were notified by an express company in Havana that it had accepted for our account a typewriter, and that when the duty, plus accrued express and forwarding charges, amounting to $45.O3, were paid, it would be dispatched in our direction.