initial commit of ebook 6103HEADmain

5 files changed, 9070 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/6103.txt b/6103.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69bcd5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6103.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9054 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of the Road, by Charles N. Crewdson
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Tales of the Road
+
+Author: Charles N. Crewdson
+
+Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6103]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 6, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF THE ROAD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "He is the steam--and a big part of the engine too--
+that makes business move"]
+
+
+TALES OF THE ROAD
+
+BY
+CHARLES N. CREWDSON
+
+_ILLUSTRATED BY J. J. GOULD_
+
+1905
+
+
+
+
+Dedicated to Alex C. Ritchey, Salesman.
+the Author's Friend.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+I     The square deal wins
+II    Clerks, cranks and touches
+III   Social arts as salesmen's assets
+IV    Tricks of the trade
+V     The helping hand
+VI    How to get on the road
+VII   First experiences in selling
+VIII  Tactics in selling--I
+IX    Tactics in selling--II
+X     Tactics in selling--III
+XI    Cutting prices
+XII   Canceled orders
+XIII  Concerning credit men
+XIV   Winning the customer's good will
+XV    Salesmen's don'ts
+XVI   Merchants the salesman meets
+XVII  Hiring and handling salesmen
+XVIII Hearts behind the order book
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+He is the steam--and a big part of the engine too--that makes business
+move
+
+Larry let business drop entirely and danced a jig
+
+"Whenever I let go the buggy handle the baby yelled"
+
+"Tonight we dance, tomorrow we sell clothes again"
+"I listened to episodes in the lives of all those seven children"
+
+"I braced the old man--It wasn't exactly a freeze but there was a lot
+of frost in the air"
+
+"You ought to have seen his place"
+
+"My stomach was beginning to gnaw, but I didn't dare go out"
+
+"In big headlines I read 'Great Fire in Chicago'"
+
+"Well, Woody," said he, "You seem to be taking things pretty easy"
+
+"You'd better write that down with a pencil" said Harry
+
+"Shure, that cigare is a birrd"
+
+"He came in with his before breakfast grouch"
+"I'm treed" said the drayman. "They're as heavy as lead"
+
+"What explanation have you to make of this, sir?"
+
+"He tried to jolly her along, but she was wise"
+
+
+
+
+The author wishes to acknowledge his special debt of gratitude to the
+SATURDAY EVENING POST, of Philadelphia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SQUARE DEAL WINS.
+
+
+Salesmanship is the business of the world; it is about all there is to
+the world of business. Enter the door of a successful wholesale or
+manufacturing house and you stand upon the threshold of an
+establishment represented by first-class salesmen. They are the steam
+--and a big part of the engine, too--that makes business move.
+
+I saw in print, the other day, the statement that salesmanship is the
+"fourth profession." It is not; it is the first. The salesman, when he
+starts out to "get there," must turn more sharp corners, "duck"
+through more alleys and face more cold, stiff winds than any kind of
+worker I know. He must think quickly, yet use judgment; he must act
+quickly and still have on hand a rich store of patience; he must work
+hard, and often long. He must coax one minute and "stand pat" the
+next. He must persuade--persuade the man he approaches that he needs
+_his_ goods and make him buy them--yes, _make_ him. He is messenger
+boy, train dispatcher, department buyer, credit man, actor, lawyer and
+politician--all under one hat!
+
+By "salesman" I do not mean the man who stands behind the counter and
+lets the customer who comes to him and wants to buy a necktie slip
+away because the spots on the silk are blue instead of green; nor do I
+mean the man who wraps up a collar, size 16, and calls "cash;" I mean
+the man who takes his grip or sample trunks and goes to hunt his
+customer--the traveling salesman. Certainly there are salesmen
+_behind_ the counter, and he has much in common with the man on
+the road.
+
+To the position of traveling salesman attach independence, dignity,
+opportunity, substantial reward. Many of the tribe do not appreciate
+this; those do so best who in time try the "professional life." When
+they do they usually go back to the road happy to get there again. Yet
+were they permanently to adopt a profession--say the law--they would
+make better lawyers because they had been traveling men. Were many
+professional men to try the road, they would go back to their first
+occupation because forced to. The traveling man can tell you why! I
+bought, a few days ago, a plaything for my small boy. What do you
+suppose it was? A toy train. I wish him to get used to it--for when he
+grows up I am going to put him on the road hustling trunks.
+
+My boy will have a better chance for success at this than at anything
+else. If he has the right sort of stuff in him he will soon lay the
+foundation for a life success; if he hasn't I'll soon find it out. As
+a traveling salesman he will succeed quickly or not at all. In the
+latter event, I'll set him to studying a profession. When he goes on
+the road he may save a great part of his salary, for the firm he will
+represent will pay his living expenses while traveling for them. He
+will also have many leisure hours, and even months, in which to study
+for a profession if he chooses; or, if he will, he may spend his "out
+of season" months in foreign travel or any phase of intellectual
+culture--and he will have the money _of his own earning_ with which to
+do it. Three to six or eight months is as much time as most traveling
+men can profitably give to selling goods on the road; the rest is
+theirs to use as they please.
+
+Every man who goes on the road does not succeed--not by any means. The
+road is no place for drones; there are a great many drops of the honey
+of commerce waiting in the apple blossoms along the road, but it takes
+the busy "worker" bee to get it. The capable salesman may achieve
+great success, not only on the road, but in any kind of activity. "The
+road" is a great training school. The chairman of the Transportation
+Committee in the Chicago city council, only a few years ago was a
+traveling man. He studied law daily and went into politics while he
+yet drew the largest salary of any man in his house. Marshall Field
+was once a traveling man; John W. Gates sold barbed wire before he
+became a steel king. These three men are merely types of successful
+traveling men.
+
+Nineteen years ago, a boy of 15, I quit picking worms off of tobacco
+plants and began to work in a wholesale house, in St. Louis, at $5 per
+week--and I had an even start with nearly every man ever connected
+with the firm. The president of the firm today, now also a bank
+president and worth a million dollars, was formerly a traveling man;
+the old vice-president of the house, who is now the head of another
+firm in the same line, used to be a traveling man; the present vice-
+president and the president's son-in-law was a traveling man when I
+went with the firm; one of the directors, who went with the house
+since I did, is a traveling man. Another who traveled for this firm is
+today a vice-president of a large wholesale dry goods house; one more
+saved enough to go recently into the wholesale business for himself.
+Out of the lot six married daughters of wealthy parents, and thirty or
+more, who keep on traveling, earn by six months or less of road work,
+from $1200 to $6000 each year. One has done, during his period of
+rest, what every one of his fellow salesmen had the chance to do--take
+a degree from a great university, obtain a license (which he cannot
+afford to use) to practice law, to learn to read, write and speak with
+ease two foreign languages and get a smattering of three others, and
+to travel over a large part of the world.
+
+Of all the men in the office and stock departments of this firm only
+two of them have got beyond $25 a week; and both of them have been
+drudges. One has moved up from slave-bookkeeper to credit-man slave
+and partner. The other has become a buyer. And even he as well as
+being a stock man was a city salesman.
+
+Just last night I met, on leaving the street car, an old school boy
+friend who told me that he was soon going to try his hand on the road
+selling bonds. He asked me if I could give him any pointers. I said:
+"Work and be square--never come down on a price; make the price right
+in the beginning." "Oh, I don't know about that," said he. I slapped
+him on the breast and answered: "I do!"
+
+I would give every traveling man, every business man, _every man_
+this same advice. Say what you will, a square deal is the only thing
+to give your customer. You can do a little scaly work and win out at
+it for a while; but when you get in the stretch, unless you have
+played fair, the short horses will beat you under the wire.
+
+The best customer on my order book came to me because I once had a
+chance to do a little crooked work, but didn't. I had a customer who
+had been a loyal one for many years. He would not even look at another
+salesman's goods--and you know that it is a whole lot of satisfaction
+to get into a town and walk into a door where you know you are
+"solid." The man on the road who doesn't appreciate and care for a
+faithful customer is not much of a man, anyway.
+
+My old customer, Logan, had a little trouble with his main clerk. The
+clerk, Fred, got it into his head that the business belonged to him,
+and he tried to run it. But Logan wouldn't stand for this sort of work
+and "called him down." The clerk became "toppy" and Logan discharged
+him.
+
+But, still, Fred had a fairly good standing in the town and interested
+an old bachelor, a banker, who had a nephew that he wanted to start in
+business. He furnished Fred and his nephew with $10,000 cash capital;
+the three formed a partnership to open a new store and "buck" Logan.
+Well, you know it is not a bad thing to "stand in" with the head clerk
+when you wish to do business in an establishment. So I had always
+treated Fred right and he liked me and had confidence in me. In fact,
+it's a poor rule to fail to treat all well. I believe that the "boys"
+on the road are the most tolerant, patient human beings on earth. To
+succeed at their business they must be patient and after a while it
+becomes a habit--and a good one, too.
+
+You know how it goes! A merchant gets to handling a certain brand of
+goods which is no better than many others in the same line. He gets it
+into his head that he cannot do without that particular line. This is
+what enables a man on the road to get an established trade. The clerks
+in the store also get interested in some special brand because they
+have customers who come in and ask for that particular thing a few
+times. They do not stop to think that the man who comes in and asks
+for a Leopard brand hat or a Knock-'em-out shoe does not have any
+confidence in this special shoe or hat, but that he has confidence in
+the establishment where he buys it.
+
+So, when I was in Logan's town to sell him his usual bill, his clerk
+hailed me from across the street and came over to where I stood. He
+told me that he had quit his old job and that he was going to put in a
+new stock. I, of course, had to tell him that I must stay with Logan,
+but that out of appreciation of his past kindness to me I would do the
+best I could to steer him right in my line of goods. I gave him a
+personal letter to another firm that I had been with before and who, I
+knew, would deal with him fairly.
+
+Fred went in to market. When in the city he tried to buy some goods of
+my firm. He intended to take these same goods and sell them for a
+lower price than Logan had been getting, and thus cut hard into
+Logan's trade. But the big manufacturers, you know, are awake to all
+of those tricks and a first-class establishment will always protect
+its customers. My house told Fred that before they could sell to him
+they would have to get my sanction. They wired me about it, and I, of
+course, had to be square with my faithful old friend, Logan; I placed
+the matter before him. As I was near by, I wrote him, by special
+delivery, and put the case before him. He, for self-protection, wired
+my house that he would prefer that they would not sell his old clerk
+who was now going to become his competitor. In fact, he said he would
+not stand for it.
+
+The very next season things came around so that Logan went out of
+business, and then I knew that I was "up against it" in his town--my
+old customer gone out of business; Fred not wanting, then, of course,
+to buy of me. But I took my medicine and consoled myself with the
+thought that a few grains of gold would pan out in the wash.
+
+Up in a large town above Logan's I had a customer named Dave, who had
+moved out from Colorado. He was well fixed, but he had not secured the
+right location. Say what you will, location has a whole lot to do with
+business. Of course, a poor man would not prosper in the busy streets
+of Cairo, but the best sort of a hustler would starve to death doing
+business on the Sahara. A big store in Dave's new town failed. He had
+a chance to buy out the, stock at 75 cents on the dollar. He wished to
+do so; but, although he was well-to-do, he didn't have the ready cash.
+
+One night I called on Dave and he laid the case before me. He told me
+how sorry he was not to get hold of this "snap." I put my wits
+together quickly and I said to him: "Dave, I believe I can do you some
+good."
+
+The next morning I went to see a banker, who was a brother-in-law of
+Logan's and who had made enough money, merchandising and out of wheat,
+down in Logan's old town, to move up to the city and go into the
+banking business. The banker knew all about the way that I had treated
+his brother-in-law, and I felt that because I had been square with
+Logan he would have confidence in anything I would say to him. I laid
+the case before the banker. I told him I knew Dave to be well fixed,
+to have good credit, to be a good rustler and strictly straight.
+
+In a little while I brought Dave to meet the banker. The banker
+immediately, upon my recommendation, told him that he could have all
+the money he needed-$16,000. The banker also wired to the people who
+owned the stock--he was well acquainted with them--and told them he
+would vouch for Dave.
+
+The deal went through all right and Dave now buys every cent's worth,
+that he uses in my line, from me. He is the best customer I have; I
+got him by _being square_.
+
+A great mistake which some salesmen make when they first start on the
+road is to "load" their customers. The experienced man will not do
+this, for he soon learns that he will "lose out" by it. A merchant
+will not long continue to buy from a traveling man in whom he has no
+confidence. He, in great measure, depends on the judgment of the
+traveling man as to the styles and quantities he should buy. If the
+salesman sells him too much of anything it is only a matter of time
+when the merchant will buy from some other man. When a storekeeper
+buys goods he invests money; and his heart is not very far from his
+bank-book.
+
+The time when the traveling man will ram all he can into an order is
+when the merchant splits his business in the salesman's line, buying
+the same kind of goods from two or more houses. Then the salesman
+sells as much as he can, that he may crowd the other man out. But even
+this is poor policy.
+
+I once took on a new town. My predecessor had been getting only a
+share of his customer's trade; two others had divided the account with
+him. I made up my mind to have all of the account or none. The
+merchant went to my sample room and gave me an order for a bill of
+hats. He bought at random. When I asked him what sizes he wanted, he
+said: "Oh, run 'em regular." "Very well," said I, "but will it not be
+well to look through your stock and see just what sizes you need?
+Maybe you have quite a number of certain sizes on hand and it will be
+needless for you to get more of them. Let's go down to the store and
+look through your stock."
+
+We went to his store. The first item on the order he had given me was
+one dozen black "Columbias." I found that he had five dozen already on
+hand. "Look here," said I, "don't you think I would better scratch
+that item off of the bill?" I drew my pencil through the "one dozen
+Columbias."
+
+"Now let us go through your whole stock and see if there are not other
+items you have duplicated," I suggested. We worked together for four
+hours--until after midnight. It was the biggest mess of a stock I ever
+saw. When we got through I had cut down my order three-fourths.
+
+"See," said I, showing the merchant my order-book and his stock list--
+which every merchant should have when he goes to buy goods--"you have
+enough of some kinds to last you three years. Others, because they
+have gone out of style, are worth nothing. All you can get out of them
+will be clear profit; throw them out and sell them for any price.
+
+"Do you know what has been happening to you right along? Three men--
+and the one from my firm is just as guilty as the rest--have been
+loading you. Why, if I were a judge and they were brought before me,
+I'd sentence them to jail."
+
+"And I guess I ought to be made to go along with them," broke in my
+friend, "for participating in the crime."
+
+"That I will leave you to judge," said I, "but there is one thing for
+sure: You will not see me back here again for a year; it would be a
+crime for anyone to take an order from you during that time. And when
+I do come I want all of your business, or none; you haven't enough for
+three, or even for two. You can buy no more than you can sell to your
+customers, unless you go broke some day. Your interest and my interest
+are the same. In truth, I stand on the same side of the counter as you
+do. It is to my interest to treat you right. My firm is merely the one
+from which you and I together select your goods. Ought I not to see
+that they give you the right things at the right prices? If I treat
+you right, and my firm does not, you will follow me to another; if I
+treat you wrong I'll lose both your confidence and my job."
+
+That man today gives me all of his business; I got him by _being
+square_.
+
+By being over-conscientious, however, a salesman sometimes will not
+let his customer buy enough. This is frequently to the disadvantage of
+the merchant. To sell goods a merchant must have goods; to have them
+he must buy them. The stingy man has no business in business. Many a
+man becomes a merchant and, because he is either too close-fisted or
+hasn't enough capital or credit with which to buy goods, is awakened,
+some fine morning, by the tapping on his front door of the Sheriff's
+hammer. A man may think that if he goes into business his friends will
+buy "any old thing, just because it's me"; but he will find out that
+when he goes to separate his friends from their coin he must give them
+the kind of goods they want. The successful merchant is the man who
+carries the stock.
+
+One of my old friends, who was a leading hat salesman of St. Louis,
+once told me the following experience:
+
+"Several years ago I was out in western Texas on a team trip. It was a
+flush year; cattle were high. I had been having a good time; you know
+how it goes--the more one sells the more he wants to sell and can
+sell. I heard of a big cattleman who was also running a cross-roads
+grocery store. He wanted to put in dry goods, shoes and hats. His
+store was only a few miles out of my way so I thought that I would
+drive over and see him.
+
+"How I kicked myself when I drove up to his shanty, hardly larger, it
+seemed to me, than my straw-goods trunk! But, being there, I thought I
+would pick up a small bill anyway. I make it a rule never to overlook
+even a little order, for enough of them amount to as much as one big
+one. When I went in the old gentleman was tickled to see me and told
+me to open up--that he wanted a 'right smart' bill. I thought that
+meant about $75.
+
+"I had to leave my trunks outside--the store was so small--so I
+brought in at first only a couple of stacks of samples, thinking that
+they would be enough. I pulled out a cheap hat and handed it to him.
+
+"'That's a good one for the money,' said I, 'a dollar apiece.' I used
+to always show cheap goods first, but I have learned better.
+
+"He looked at my sample in contempt and, pulling a fine Stetson hat
+off his head, said: 'Haven't you got some hats like this one?'
+
+"'Yes, but they will cost you $84 a dozen,' I answered, at the same
+time handing him a fine beaver quality Stetson.
+
+"'The more they cost the better they suit us cattlemen; we are not
+paupers, suh! How many come in a box?'
+
+"'Two.'
+
+"'Two?' said he. 'You must be talking about a pasteboard box; I mean a
+wooden box, a case.'
+
+"'Three dozen come in a case, Colonel.'
+
+"'Well, give me a case.'
+
+"I had never sold a case of these fine goods in my life, so I said to
+him: 'That's lots more, Colonel, than I usually sell of that kind, and
+I don't want to overload you; hadn't we better make it a dozen?'
+
+"'Dozen? Lor', no. You must think that there's nobody in this country,
+that they haven't any money, and that I haven't any money. Did you see
+that big bunch of cattle as you came in? They're all mine--mine, suh;
+and I don't owe the bank a cent on them, suh. No, suh, not a cent,
+suh. I want a case of these hats, suh--not a little bundle that you
+can carry under yo' arm.'
+
+"I was afraid that I had made the old gentleman mad, and, knowing him
+by reputation to be worth several thousand dollars, I thought it best
+to let him have his way. I went through the two stacks with him and
+then brought in the rest of my samples. He bought a case of a kind
+right through--fine hats, medium hats and cheap hats for greasers; he
+bought blacks, browns and light colors. I was ashamed to figure up the
+bill before his face. But just as soon as I got out of sight I added
+up the items and it amounted to $2l00--the best bill I took on that
+trip.
+
+"I sent the order in, but I thought that I would not have to call
+there again for a long time. The house shipped the bill, and the old
+gentleman discounted it.
+
+"Next trip I was intending to give that point the go-by. I really felt
+that the old gentleman not only needed no more goods, but that he
+would shoot me if I called on him. But when I reached the town next to
+his, my customer there, who was a friend of the Colonel's, told me
+that the old gentleman had sent him word that he wished to buy some
+more goods and for me to be sure to come to see him.
+
+"When I came driving up to the Colonel's store the back end of it
+looked peculiar to me. He had got so many goods from me that he had
+been obliged to take the wooden cases they were shipped in and make
+out of these boxes an addition to his store. Lumber was scarce in that
+country. The Colonel came out and shook hands with me before I was out
+of my wagon. I was never greeted more warmly in my life.
+
+"'Look heah,' he began, 'I owe you an apology, suh; and I want to make
+it to you befo' you pass my threshol', suh. When you were heah befo' I
+fear that I allowed my indignation to arise. I am sorry of it, suh,
+sorry! Give me yo' hand and tell me that you will pahdon me. I can't
+look you square in the face until you do.'
+
+"'Why, Colonel, that's all right,' said I, 'I didn't want to abuse
+your confidence, but I fear that I myself was impertinent in trying to
+show you that I knew more about your business than you did. I want to
+beg your pardon.'
+
+"'No pahdon to grant, suh; and I want you to accept my apology. The
+truth is the cowboys in this country have been deviling me to death,
+nearly--ever since I started this sto'--to get them some good hats--
+good ones, suh. They told me that they couldn't get a decent hat in
+this whole country. I promised them that I would buy some of the best
+I could find. When yo's came some of the boys saw the wagon bound for
+my store, ten miles out of town. They fo'med a sort of a procession,
+suh, and marched in with the team. Every one of these boys bought one
+of those finest hats you sold me. They spread the news that I had a
+big stock and a fine stock, all over this country; and, do you know,
+people have come two hundred miles to buy hats of me? Some of my
+friends laughed at me, they say, because I bought so many that I had
+to use the cases they came in to make an addition to my sto'. But the
+more they laughed, suh, the more necessary they made the addition. If
+you can only get people to talking about you, you will thrive. Believe
+me in this, suh: If they say something good about you, that is good;
+if they say something bad about you, that is better--it spreads
+faster. Those fool merchants did not know, suh, that they were helping
+my business every time that they told about how many hats I had
+bought, until one day a fellow, when they were laughing about me,
+said: "Well, if that's the case I'll buy my hat from him; I like,
+anyway, to patronize the man who carries a good stock." Now you just
+come back and see how empty my addition is.'
+
+"I went back into my addition and found that the Colonel's hats were
+nearly all gone. He had actually sold--and out of his little shanty--
+more of my goods than any other customer I had. When I started to have
+my trunks unloaded the Colonel said to me: 'Now just hol' on there;
+that's entirely unnecessary. The last ones sold so well, you just
+duplicate my last bill, except that you leave out the poah hats. Come,
+let's go up to my house and have a julep and rest a while.'"
+
+Although a man's friends will not buy from him if he does not carry
+the goods, he will yet get their patronage over the other fellow if he
+has the right stock. Here's where a man's personality and adaptability
+are his stock in trade when he is on the road; and the good salesman
+gets the business over his competitor's head just by being able to
+turn the mood of the merchant he meets. The more moods he can turn,
+the larger his salary.
+
+One of my musician road friends once told me how he sold a bill to a
+well-known old crank, now dead, in the state of Montana.
+
+"When I used to work at the bench, years ago," said he, as we sat in
+the smoker, "evenings when I was free, for relaxation, I studied
+music. Our shop boys organized a brass band. I played the trombone,
+and learned to do so fairly well. I never thought then that my music
+would fatten my pocket-book; but since I have been on the road it has
+served me a good turn more than once--it has sold me many a bill.
+
+"You've heard of the 'Wild Irishman of Chinook,' haven't you?"
+
+"Old Larry, the crank?" said I.
+
+"Yes, old Larry, the great."
+
+[Illustration: "Larry let business drop entirely and danced a jig."]
+
+"Well, sir, the first evening I ever went into Larry's store, I hadn't
+been in a minute until he said to me: 'Oi'm all full up; Oi've got
+plinty of it, I doon't give a dom pwhat ye're silling.'
+
+"I paid no attention to him, as I had heard of him; instead of going
+out I bought a cigar and sat down by the stove. Although a man may not
+wish to buy anything from you, you know, he is always willing to sell
+you something, even if it is only a cigar. I've caught many a
+merchant's ear by buying something of him. My specialty is bone collar
+buttons--they come cheap. I'll bet that I bought a peck of them the
+first time I made a trip through this country.
+
+"I had not been sitting by the stove long until I noticed, in a show
+case, a trombone. I asked Larry to please let me see it. 'Oi'll lit ye
+say the insthrumint,' said he, 'but pwhat's the good of it? Ye can't
+play the thromboon, can ye? Oi'm the only mon in this berg that can
+bloo that hairn. Oi'm a mimber of the bhrass band.'
+
+"I took the horn and, as I ran the scale a few times, Larry's eyes
+began to dance. He wouldn't wait on the customer who came in. The
+instrument was a good one. I made 'Pratties and fishes are very foine
+dishes for Saint Pathrick in the mairnin'' fairly ring. A big crowd
+came in. Larry let business drop entirely and danced a jig. He kept me
+playing for an hour, always something 'by special rayquist'--'Molly
+Dairlint,' 'Moggie Moorphy's Hoom' and everything he could think of.
+Finally he asked me for 'Hairts Booed Doon.'
+
+"As I played 'The Heart Bowed Down,' tears came to the old Irishman's
+eyes. When I saw these, I played yet better; this piece was one of my
+own favorites. I felt a little peculiar myself. This air had made a
+bond between us. When I finished, the old man said to me: 'Thank ye,
+thank ye, sor, with all my hairt! That's enoof. Let me put the hairn
+away. Go hoom now. But coom aroond in the mairnin' and Oi'll boy a
+bill of ye; Oi doon't give a dom pwhat ye're silling. If Oi've got
+your loine in my sthore Oi'll boy a bill; if I haven't, Oi'll boy a
+bill innyway and stairt a new depairtmint. Good noight, give me yer
+hand, sor.'
+
+"Not only did Larry give me a good order, but he went to two more
+merchants in the town and made them buy from me. He bought every
+dollar's worth of his goods in my line from me as long as he lived."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CLERKS, CRANKS AND TOUCHES.
+
+
+Many a bill of goods is sold on the road through the influence of the
+clerk. The traveling man who overlooks this point overlooks a strong
+one. The clerk is the one who gets next to the goods. He checks them
+off when they come in, keeps the dust off of them every day, sells
+them to the people and often he does the selecting of the goods in the
+first place. A merchant usually buys what pleases the clerks in order
+to get them interested. In this way he puts a sort of responsibility
+upon them. If the business man neglects his clerks, they neglect his
+business; if the traveling man ignores the clerks, they ignore the
+traveling man.
+
+But in this matter the salesman must go just so far and no farther,
+for the moment that the merchant begins to think the traveling man is
+influencing the clerks unduly, down comes the hatchet! A hat man once,
+as we rode together on the train, told me this incident:
+
+"I once sold a small bill of hats to a large merchant down in
+California," said he. "The next season when I came around I saw that
+my goods were on the floor-shelf. I didn't like this. If you want to
+get your goods sold, get them where they are easy to reach. Clerks,
+and merchants too, usually follow the line of least resistance; they
+sell that which they come to first. If a man asks me where he ought to
+put his case for hats to make them move, I tell him, 'up front.'
+
+"From the base shelf I dug up a box of my goods, knocked the dust off
+the lid, took out a hat, began to crease it. One of the clerks came
+up. He was very friendly. They usually are. They like to brush up
+against the traveling man, for it is the ambition of nineteen clerks
+out of every twenty to get on the road.
+
+"My young friend, seeing the hat in my hand, said, 'Gee, that's a
+beaut. I didn't know we had a swell thing like that in the house. I
+wish I'd got one like that instead of this old bonnet.'
+
+"With this he showed me a new stiff hat. I scarcely glanced at it
+before I cracked the crown out of it over my heel, handed him the hat
+I had taken out of the box, threw three dollars on the counter and
+said, 'Well, we'll swap. Take this one.'
+
+"'Guess I will, all right, all right!' he exclaimed.
+
+"Another one of the boys who saw this incident came up with his old
+hat and asked, laughing, 'Maybe you want to swap with me?'
+
+"Crack went another hat; down I threw another three dollars. Before I
+got through, eight clerks had new hats, and I had thrown away twenty-
+four dollars.
+
+"Thrown away? No, sir. I'll give that much, every day of the week, to
+get the attention of a large dealer. Twenty-four dollars are made in a
+minute and a half by a traveling man when he gets to doing business
+with a first-class merchant.
+
+"The proprietor, Hobson, was not then in. When I dropped in that
+afternoon, I asked him if he would see my samples.
+
+"'No, sir, I will not,' he spoke up quickly. 'To be plain with you, I
+do not like the way in which you are trying to influence my clerks.'
+
+"There was the critical--the 'psychological'--moment. Weakness would
+have put an end to me. But this was the moment I wanted. In fact, I
+have at times deliberately made men mad just to get their attention.
+
+"'Hobson,' I flashed back, 'You can do just as you please about
+looking at my goods. But I'll tell you one thing: I have no apology to
+offer in regard to your clerks. You bought my goods and buried them. I
+know they are good, and I want you to find it out. I have put them on
+the heads of your men because I am not ashamed to have them wear them
+before your face. You can now see how stylish they are. In six months
+you will learn how well they wear. I would feel like a sneak had I
+stealthily slipped a twenty dollar gold piece into the hand of your
+hat man and told him to push my goods. But I haven't done this. In
+fact I gave a hat to nearly every clerk you have except your hat man.
+He was away. Even your delivery boy has one. You owe me an apology,
+sir; and I demand it, and demand it right now! I've always treated you
+as a gentleman, sir; and you shall treat me as such.' Then, softening
+down, I continued: 'I can readily see how, at first glance, you were
+offended at me; but just think a minute, and I believe you'll tell me
+you were hasty.'
+
+"'Yes, I was,' he answered quietly. 'Got your stuff open? I'll go
+right down with you.' After Hobson had, in a few minutes, given me a
+nice order, he said to me: 'Well, do you know, I like your pluck.'
+
+"It sometimes happens that a traveling man meets with a surly clerk, a
+conceited clerk, or a bribed clerk who has become buyer," continued my
+friend. "Then the thing to do is to go straight to the head of the
+establishment. The man I like to do business with is the man whose
+money pays for my goods. He is not pulled out of line by guy ropes. It
+is well to stand in with the clerks, but it is better to be on the
+right side of the boss. When it gets down to driving nails, he is the
+one to hammer on the hardest.
+
+"I once took on the territory of a man who had quit the road. About
+this same time one of his best customers had, to some extent, retired
+from business activity and put on a new buyer in my department. Now,
+this is a risky thing, you know, for a merchant to do unless the buyer
+gets an interest in the business and becomes, in truth, a merchant
+himself. It usually means the promotion of a clerk who gets a swelled
+head. The new buyer generally feels that he must do something to show
+his ability and one of the ways he does this is by switching lines.
+
+"During the illness of my predecessor, who soon after quit the road,
+another man made for him a part of his old trip. In one of the towns
+he made he struck the new buyer and, of course, got turned down. Had I
+been there, I would have received the same sort of treatment.
+
+"My immediate predecessor, who was turned down, posted me; so when I
+went to the town, I knew just what to do--go direct to the proprietor.
+I knew that my goods were right; all I needed was unprejudiced
+attention. Prejudice anyway buys most of the goods sold; merit is a
+minor partner. Were merchandise sold strictly on merit, two-thirds of
+the wholesale houses and factories would soon lock up; and the other
+third would triple their business.
+
+"When I entered the store, I went straight to the proprietor and told
+him without introducing myself (a merchant does not care what your
+name is) what my line of business was. It was Saturday afternoon. I
+would rather go out making business on Saturday than any other day
+because the merchant is doing business and is in a good humor, and you
+can get right at the point. Of course, you must catch him when he is
+not, for the moment, busy.
+
+"'Can't do anything for you, sir, I fear,' said he. 'Hereafter we are
+going to buy that line direct from the factories.'
+
+"I saw that the proprietor himself was prejudiced, and that the one
+thing to do was to come straight back at him. 'Where do you suppose my
+hats come from?' said I. 'My factory is the leading one in New
+Jersey.' I was from Chicago although my goods, in truth, were made in
+Orange Valley.
+
+"'Will you be here Monday?' he asked. This meant that he wanted to
+look at my samples. The iron was hot; then was the time to strike.
+
+"'Sorry, but I cannot,' I answered. 'But I'll tell you what I'll do.
+My line is a specialty line--only fine goods--and I'll bring in a
+small bunch of samples tonight about the time you close up.' Merchants
+like to deal with a man who is strictly business when they both get to
+doing business. Then is the time to put friendship and joking on the
+shelf.
+
+"That night at ten o'clock I was back at the store with a bundle under
+my arm. The man who is too proud to carry a bundle once in a while
+would better never start on the road. The proprietor whispered to the
+hat buyer--I overheard the words--'Large Eastern factory'--and
+together they began to look at my samples. The new buyer went to the
+shelves and got out some of the goods which had come from my house to
+compare with my samples,--which were just the same quality. But, after
+fingering both, he said right out to the proprietor: 'There's no
+comparison. I've told you all along that the factory was the place to
+buy.'
+
+"I booked my order--it was a fat one, too--solid case lots.
+
+"'Shall I ship these from Orange Valley or Chicago?' I asked.
+
+"'Why do you ask that?' asked the proprietor.
+
+"'Because you have bought a bill from a firm you have dealt with for
+twenty years, Blank and Company of Chicago, that I represent, and I do
+not want one who has favored me to pay any extra freight. You will
+pardon me, I'm sure, for not telling you the whole truth until now;
+but this was the only way in which I could overcome your prejudice.'"
+
+"That's one on me," said the merchant. "Come--boys, you are in on this
+too--I'll buy the smokes."
+
+Many traveling men make mistakes by steering shy of cranks. The so-
+called crank is the easiest man to approach, if only you go at him
+right.
+
+Once I sat at dinner with two other traveling men who were strangers
+to me--as strange as one traveling man ever is to another. This is
+not, however, very "strange," for the cosmopolitan life of the road
+breeds a good fellowship and a sort of secret society fraternity among
+all knights of the grip. My territory being new, I made inquiry
+regarding the merchants of a certain town to which I intended to go.
+
+"Don't go there," spoke up one of my table companions. "There's no one
+there who's any good except old man Duke and he's the biggest crank on
+earth. He discounts his bills,--but Lord, it's a job to get near him."
+
+Some men on the road are vulgar; but will not this comment apply to
+some few of any class of men?
+
+"My friend," said companion number two, looking straight at the man
+who had just made the above remarks, "I've been on the road these many
+years and, if my observation counts for anything, those we meet are,
+to a great extent, but reflections of ourselves. True, many call Mr.
+Duke peculiar, but I have always got along with him without any
+trouble. I consider him a gentleman."
+
+I went to the "old crank's" town. As I rode on the train, louder than
+the clacking of the car wheels, I heard myself saying over and over
+again: "_Those we meet are, to a great extent, but reflections of
+ourselves._"
+
+When I went into the old gentleman's store, he was up front in his
+office at work on his books. I merely said, "Good morning, sir," and
+went back and sat down by the stove. It's never a good thing to
+interrupt a merchant when he's busy. He, and he alone, knows what is
+most important for him to do. Maybe he has an urgent bill or sight
+draft to meet; maybe he has a rush order to get off in the next mail;
+maybe he is figuring up his profit or his loss on some transaction.
+Then is not the time to state your business if you wish to make your
+point. The traveling man must not forget that the merchant's store is
+a place of business; that he is on the lookout for good things and
+just as anxious to buy good goods advantageously as the salesman is to
+sell them; and that he will generally lend an ear, for a moment at
+least,--if properly approached--to any business proposition.
+
+After a while, the old gentleman came back to the stove and, as he
+approached, politely said to me, "Is there something I can do for you,
+suh?"
+
+I caught his southern accent and in a moment was on my guard. I arose
+and, taking off my hat--for he was an old gentleman--replied: "That
+remains with you, sir," and I briefly stated my business, saying
+finally, "As this is my first time in your town and as my house is
+perhaps new to you, possibly, if you can find the time to do so, you
+may wish to see what I have." Recalling that one of my table
+companions had said he considered him a gentleman I was especially
+careful to be polite to the merchant. And politeness is a jewel that
+every traveling man should wear in his cravat.
+
+"I shall see you at one thirty, suh. Will you excuse me now?" With
+this the old gentleman returned to his office. I immediately left the
+store. The important thing to get a merchant to do is to consent to
+look at your goods. When you can get him to do this, keep out of his
+way until he is ready to fulfil his engagement. Then, when you have
+done your business, pack your goods and leave town. What the merchant
+wants chiefly with the traveling man is to _do business_ with him.
+True, much visiting and many odd turns are sometimes necessary to
+get the merchant to the point of "looking," but when you get him
+there, leave him until he is ready to "look." Friendships, for sure,
+will develop, but don't force them.
+
+At one twenty-nine that afternoon I started for the "old crank's"
+store. It was just across the street from my sample room. I met him in
+the middle of the street. He was a crank about keeping his engagements
+promptly. I respect a man who does this. The old gentleman looked
+carefully, but not tediously, at my goods, never questioning a price.
+In a little while, he said: "I shall do some business with you, suh;
+your goods suit me."
+
+I never sold an easier bill in my life and never met a more pleasant
+gentleman. Our business finished, he offered me a cigar and asked that
+he might sit and smoke while I packed my samples. Yes, offered me a
+cigar. And I took it. It was lots better than offering him one. He
+enjoyed giving me one more than he would have enjoyed smoking one of
+mine. In fact, it flatters any man more to accept a favor from him
+than to do one for him. Many traveling men spend two dollars a day on
+cigars which they give away. They are not only throwing away money but
+also customers sometimes. The way for the salesman on the road to
+handle the man he wants to sell goods to in order to get his regard is
+to treat him as he does the man of whom he expects no favors. When you
+give a thing to a man he generally asks in his own mind, "What for?"
+
+Before I left the town of the "old crank" I met with another of his
+peculiarities. I was out of money. I asked him if he would cash a
+sight draft for me on my firm for a hundred dollars.
+
+"No, suh," said he. "I will not. I was once swindled that way and I
+now make it a rule never to do that."
+
+Needles stuck in me all over.
+
+"But," continued the old gentleman, "I shall gladly lend you a hundred
+dollars or any amount you wish."
+
+For the many years I went to the town of the "old crank," our
+relationship was most cordial. I believe we became friends. More than
+once did he drop business and go out fishing with me. Since the first
+day we met I have often recalled the words of my table companion:
+"Those we meet are, to a great extent, but reflections of ourselves."
+
+Recalling the predicament I was in for a moment in the town of the
+"old crank," reminds me of an experience I once had. As a rule, I
+haven't much use for the man on the road who borrows money. If he
+hasn't a good enough stand-in with his firm to draw on the house or
+else to have the firm keep him a hundred or two ahead in checks, put
+him down as no good. The man who is habitually broke on the road is
+generally the man who thinks he has the "gentle finger," and that he
+can play in better luck than the fellow who rolls the little ivory
+ball around a roulette wheel. There are not many of this kind, though;
+they don't last long. It's mostly the new man or the son of the boss
+who thinks he can pay room rent for tin horns.
+
+Even the best of us, though, get shy at least once in a life time, and
+have to call on some one for chips. I've done this a few times myself.
+I never refused one of the boys on the road a favor in all my life.
+Many a time I've dug up a bill and helped out some chap who was broke
+and I knew, at the time, that as far as getting back the money went, I
+might just as well chuck it in the sewer. Few of the boys will borrow,
+but all of them are ever ready to lend.
+
+The one time I borrowed was in Spokane. When I went down to the depot
+I learned that I could buy a baggage prepaid permit and save about
+fifty dollars. I did not know until I reached the station that I could
+do this in Spokane. Down east they haven't got on well to this system.
+You can prepay your excess baggage all the way from a coast point
+clear back to Chicago and have the right to drop your trunks off
+anywhere you will along the route. This makes a great saving. Well,
+when I went to check in I saw that I was short about four dollars. I
+did not have time to run back to my customer's up town or to the hotel
+and cash a draft. I looked to see if there was somebody around that I
+knew. Not a familiar face. I had to do one of three things: Lose a
+day, give up by slow degrees over fifty dollars to the Railroad
+Company, or strike somebody for four.
+
+Right here next to me at the baggage counter stood a tall, good
+natured fellow--I shall always remember his sandy whiskers and pair of
+generous blue eyes. He was checking his baggage to Walla Walla.
+
+"Going right through to Walla Walla?" said I.
+
+"Yes," he said, "can I do anything for you?"
+
+"Well, since you have mentioned it, you can," I answered.
+
+I introduced myself, told my new friend--Mason was his name, Billie
+Mason--how I was fixed and that I would give him a note to my
+customer, McPherson, at Walla Walla, requesting him to pay back the
+money.
+
+I gave Mason the order, written with a lead pencil on the back of an
+envelope, and he gave me the four dollars.
+
+I got down to Walla Walla in a few days. When I went in to see
+McPherson the first thing I said to him, handing him four dollars,
+was: "Mac, I want to pay you back that four."
+
+"What four?" said McPherson.
+
+"What four?" said I. "Your memory must be short. Why, that four I gave
+a traveling man, named Mason, an order on you for!"
+
+McPherson looked blank; but we happened to be standing near the
+cashier's desk, and the matter was soon cleared up.
+
+The cashier, who was a new man in the store, spoke up and said: "Yes,
+last week a fellow was in here with an order on you for four dollars,
+but it was written with a lead pencil on the back of an envelope. I
+thought it was no good. I didn't want to be out the four, so I refused
+to pay it."
+
+"The deuce you did," said my friend Mac, "Why, I've known this man
+(referring to me) and bought goods of him for ten years."
+
+The thing happened this way: On the very day that Mason presented my
+order both McPherson himself and the clerk in my department were out
+of town. When the new cashier told Mason that he did not know me,
+Mason simply thought he was "done" for four, and walked out thanking
+himself that the amount was not more.
+
+But it so happened that Mason himself that night told this joke on
+himself to a friend of mine.
+
+My friend laughed "fit to kill" and finally said to Mason: "Why that
+fellow's good for four hundred;" and he gave Mason what I had failed
+to give him--my address.
+
+I had also failed to take Mason's address. After he made me the loan
+in Spokane we sat on the train together chatting. I became well
+acquainted with him, and with a friend of his named Dickey, who was
+along with us. Yet I did not ask Mason his business, even; for, as you
+know, it's only the fresh, new man who wants to know what every man he
+meets is selling.
+
+After McPherson's new cashier had told me that he had not paid my
+order, I inquired of every man I met about Mason, but could get no
+clew on him. He was in a specialty jewelry business and made only a
+few large towns in my territory. Every time I boarded a train I would
+look all through it for those sandy whiskers. It was lucky that he
+wore that color; it made the search easy. I even looked for him after
+midnight--not only going through the day coaches, but asking the
+Pullman porters if such a man was aboard. I woke up more than one red-
+whiskered man out of his slumbers and asked him: "Is your name Mason?"
+One of them wanted to lick me for bothering him, but he laughed so
+loudly when, in apologizing, I told him the reason for my search that
+he woke up the whole car. I never found him this way, and not having
+his address, I could only wait.
+
+I had just about given up all hopes of getting a line on my confiding
+friend when, several weeks after a letter bearing the pen marks of
+many forwardings, caught me. I've got that letter; it reads this way:
+
+ "Walla Walla, Dec. 6th.
+
+"My Dear Sir:
+
+"I called on Mr. McPherson today and unfortunately found him out of
+the city. None of his clerks seemed to know you when I presented your
+request for an advance. They all began to look askance at me as if I
+were a suspicious character. I ought to have put on my white necktie
+and clerical look before going in, but unluckily I wore only my
+common, everyday, drummer appearance.
+
+"I got your address from a fellow wayfarer here just minute ago. My
+train goes soon. I am writing you care of your house as I'm a little
+leery of sending it care of your friend McPherson.
+
+"Your order for the four now reposes in the inside pocket of my vest
+amongst my firm's cash and will stand as an I. O. U. against me until
+I hear from you. Even as I write, my friend Dickey, who sits at my
+left, keeps singing into my ear:
+
+"'If I should die tonight and you should come to my cold corpse and
+say:
+
+"'"Here, Bill, I've brought you back that four,"
+
+"'"I'd rise up in my white cravat and say: "What's that?" And then
+fall dead once more.'
+
+"Beseechingly yours,
+
+"W. L. Mason, "Denver, Box --."
+
+Although I sent Mason a check, it seemed that I was ever doomed to be
+in error with him. I wrote him insisting that he wear a new hat on me
+and asked him to send me his size.
+
+He wrote back that he was satisfied to get the four dollars; but,
+since I pressed the matter, his size was seven and one-fourth.
+
+I wrote my hatter to express a clear beaver to Mason. But somehow he
+got the size wrong, for Mason wrote back:
+
+"Dear Brother: Everything that I have to do with you seems at first
+all wrong, but finally wiggles out all right. For example, while I
+stated that my size was seven and one-fourth your hatter sent a seven
+and one-half--two sizes too big under ordinary circumstances. But I
+was so tickled to get the unexpected four and a new lid besides that
+my head swelled and my bonnet fit me to a T."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SOCIAL ARTS AS SALESMEN'S ASSETS.
+
+
+Salesmanship has already been defined as the art of overcoming
+obstacles, of turning defeat into victory by the use of tact and
+patience. Courtesy must become constitutional with the drummer and
+diplomacy must become second nature to him. All this may have a very
+commercial and politic ring, but its logic is beyond question. It
+would be a decided mistake, however, to conclude that the business
+life of the skilful salesman is ruled only by selfish, sordid or
+politic motives.
+
+In the early nineties, I was going through Western Kansas; it was the
+year of the drought and the panic. Just as the conductor called "All
+aboard" at a little station where we had stopped for water, up drove
+one of the boys. His pair of bronchos fairly dripped with sweat; their
+sides heaved like bellows--they had just come in from a long, hard
+drive. As the train started the commercial tourist slung his grips
+before him and jumped on. He shook a cloud of dust out of his linen
+coat, brushed dust off his shoes, fingered dust out of his hair, and
+washed dust off his face. He was the most dust-begrimed mortal I ever
+saw. His ablutions made, he sat down in a double seat with me and
+offered me a cigar.
+
+"Close call," said I.
+
+"Yes, you bet--sixteen miles in an hour and thirty-five minutes. That
+was the last time I'll ever make that drive."
+
+"Customer quit you?"
+
+"He hasn't exactly quit me, he has quit his town. All there ever has
+been in his town was a post office and a store, all in one building;
+and he lived in the back end of that. It has never paid me to go to
+see him, but he was one of those loyal customers who gave me all he
+could and gave it without kicking. He gave me the glad hand--and that,
+you know, goes a long ways--and for six years I've been going to see
+him twice a year, more to accommodate him than for profit. The boys
+all do lots of this work--more than merchants give them credit for.
+His wife was a fine little woman. Whenever my advance card came--she
+attended to the post office--she would always put a couple of chickens
+in a separate coop and fatten them on breakfast food until I arrived.
+Her dinner was worth driving sixteen miles for if I didn't sell a sou.
+
+"But it is all off now. The man was always having a streak of hard
+luck--grasshoppers, hail, hot winds, election year or something, and
+he has finally pulled stakes. When I reached there this time it was
+the lonesomest place I ever saw, no more store and post office, no
+more nice little wife and fried chicken--not even a dog or hitching
+post. My friend had gone away and left no reminder of himself save a
+notice he had lettered with a marking brush on his front door. Just as
+a sort of a keepsake in memory of my old friend I took a copy. Here it
+goes:
+
+     "'A thousand feet to water!
+      A thousand miles to wood!
+      I've quit this blasted country
+      Quit her! Yes, for good.
+      The 'hoppers came abuzzin'
+      But I shooed them all away,
+      Next blew the hot winds furious;
+      Still, I had the grit to stay.
+      There's always something hap'ning;
+      So, while I've got the pluck--
+      Think I'll strike another country
+      And see how runs my luck.
+      God bless you, boys, I love you.
+      The drummer is my friend.
+      When I open up my doors again,
+      Bet your life, for you I'll send.'
+
+"Wouldn't that cork you? Say, let's get up a game of whist." With this
+my friend took a fresh cigar from me, and, whistling, sauntered down
+the aisle hunting partners for the game. The long drive, the dust and
+the loss of a bill no longer disturbed him.
+
+The man who grieves would better stay off the road. The traveling man
+must digest disappointments as he does a plate of blue points, for he
+swallows them about as often. One of the severest disappointments for
+a road man is to have the pins for a bill all set and then have some
+other man get the ball first and knock them down.
+
+A clothing salesman told me this story:
+
+"I have been chasing trunks for a long time but last season I got into
+the worst scrape of all my life on the road. I was a little pushed for
+time, so I wrote one of my irregular country customers that I would
+not be able to go to his town, but that I would pay his expenses if he
+would come in and meet me at Spokane.
+
+"When he showed up he brought along his wife; and his wife rolled a
+young baby into my sample room. It was a pretty little kid, and struck
+me as being the best natured little chap I had ever seen. Of course,
+you know that to jolly up my customer a little I had to get on the
+good side of the wife, and the best way to do this was to play with
+the baby. After I had danced the little fellow around for a while I
+put him back into the buggy and supposed that I was going to get down
+to business. But the father said he thought he would be in town for a
+week or so and that he thought he would go out and find a boarding
+house.
+
+"As we were talking, a friend of mine dropped in. He directed my
+customer to a boarding house, and then, just for fun, said: 'Why don't
+you leave the baby here with us while you're making arrangements. Mr.
+Percy has lots of children at home, and he knows how to take care of
+them all right.' Imagine how I felt when my country friends fell in
+with the shoe man's suggestion!
+
+"Both of us got along first rate with the baby for a while. I really
+enjoyed it until my friend left me to go down the street, and a
+customer I was expecting came in. I thought the baby would get along
+all right by himself, and so I started to show customer No. 2 my line
+of goods. But the little chap had been spoiled by too much of my
+coddling and wouldn't stand for being left alone. At first he gave a
+little whimper. I rolled him for a minute or two with one hand and ran
+the other over a line of cheviots and told my customer how good they
+were; but the very minute I let go of the buggy, out broke the kid
+again. I repeated this performance two or three times, but whenever I
+let go the buggy handle the baby yelled. In a few minutes he was going
+it good and strong, and I had to take him out and bounce him up and
+down. Now, you can imagine just how hard it is to pacify a baby and
+sell a bill of clothing. Try it if you don't. I soon began to walk the
+floor to keep the kid from howling, and presently I decided I would
+rather keep that child quiet than sell a bill of goods. Finally,
+customer number two went out, saying he would see me the next morning;
+and there I was left all alone with the baby again.
+
+[Illustration: "Whenever I let go the buggy handle the baby yelled"]
+
+"I tried to ring a bell and get a chambermaid to take care of him, but
+the bell was broken. Then I began to sing all the songs I knew and
+kept it up until I nearly wore out my throat. It seemed as if the
+baby's mother never would come back, but I had the happy satisfaction
+of knowing, though, that the baby's mother and father would certainly
+have to come back and get the little fellow, and I felt sure of
+getting a good bill of goods.
+
+"Well, what do you think happened? After two hours the mother came
+back and got the baby and I never saw her husband again! A competitor
+of mine had 'swiped' him as he came in the hotel office and sold him
+his bill of goods."
+
+Although my friend Percy who rolled the baby carriage back and forth
+lost out by this operation, I would advise my friends on the road to
+roll every baby buggy--belonging to a possible customer--that they
+have a chance to get their hands on. When the merchant gives the
+traveling man an opportunity to do him some sort of a favor outside of
+straight business dealing, he then gives the drummer the best possible
+chance to place him under obligations which will surely be repaid
+sometime. But don't go too far.
+
+Down in Texas in one of the larger towns, just after the Kishinef
+horror, the Hebrew clothing merchants held a charity ball. If you were
+to eliminate the Hebrew from the clothing business the ranks of
+dealers in men's wearing apparel would be devastated. One of my
+friends in the clothing business told me how he and a furnishing goods
+friend of his made hay at that charity ball:
+
+"The day that I struck town, one of my customers said to me, 'We want
+you to go to the show tomorrow night and open the ball with a few
+remarks. Will you?'
+
+"Just for fun I said, 'To be sure I will, Ike.' I did not think I
+would be taken in earnest, but the next day I received a program, and
+right at the head of it was my name down for the opening speech. Well,
+I was up against it and I had to make good. You may take my word for
+it that I felt a little nervous that night when I came to the big hall
+and saw it full of people waiting for the opening address. I needed to
+have both sand on the bottoms of my shoes and sand in my upper story
+to keep from slipping down on the waxed floor! But, as I was in for
+it, I marched bravely up and sat down for a few minutes in the big
+chair.
+
+"Then the first thing I knew I was introduced. Now I was really in
+sympathy with the purpose of this gathering and I felt, sincerely, the
+atrocity of the Kishinef massacre. Consequently, I was able to speak
+from the heart in telling my audience how every human being, without
+regard to race, was touched by such an outrage. Had I been running for
+Congress there, I would have received every vote in the house. The
+women sent special requests by their husbands, asking the honor of a
+dance with me.
+
+"Remember that the traveling man must not overlook the wife of his
+customer. Generally a man's nearest and truest friend is his wife. The
+business man feels that she is his best counselor. If you can get the
+good will of the 'women folks' of your customer's household you may be
+sure you will be solid with him for keeps.
+
+"But I must not overlook my furnishing goods friend. He had been
+trained for an opera singer and would have made a success of it had he
+kept up with that profession. His business, however, prospered so well
+that he could never go and look the prompter in the face. He had a
+rich, full, deep voice which, when he sang the Holy City, made the
+chandeliers fairly hum. There is something in the melodious human
+voice, anyway, that goes away down deep into the heart. My friend won
+everybody there with a song. He with his music and I with my speech
+had done a courtesy to those merchants which they and their wives
+appreciated. You know you can feel it, somehow, when you are in true
+accord with those you meet.
+
+"We really did not think anything about the business side that night.
+I forgot it altogether until, upon leaving the hall, my friend Ike
+said to me: 'Tonight we dance, tomorrow we sell clot'ing again.' Both
+of us did a good business in that town on the strength of the charity
+ball, and we have held our friends there as solid customers. I say
+'solid customers' but actually there is no such thing as a 'solid
+customer.' The very best friend you have will slip away from you
+sometime, break out your corral, and you must mount your broncho,
+chase him down and rope him in again."
+
+A mighty true saying, that! It is a great disappointment to call upon
+a customer with whom you have been doing business for a long time and
+find that he has already bought. Ofttimes this happens, however,
+because when you become intimate with a merchant you fail to continue
+to impress upon him the merits of your merchandise. However tight a
+rope the salesman feels that he has upon a merchant, he should never
+cease to let him know and make him feel that the goods he is selling
+are strictly right; for if he lets the line slacken a little the
+merchant may take a run and snap it in two.
+
+One of my hat friends once told me how he went in to see an old
+customer named Williams, down in Texas, and found that he had bought a
+bill.
+
+"When I reached home," said he, "I handed my checks to a porter,
+slipped half a dollar into his hand and told him to rush my trunks
+right up to the sample room."
+
+This is a thing that a salesman should do on general principles. When
+he has spent several dollars and many hours to get to a town he should
+bear in mind that he is there for business, and that he cannot do
+business well unless he has his goods in a sample room. The man who
+goes out to work trade with his trunks at the depot does so with only
+half a heart. If a man persuades himself that there is no business in
+a town for him he would better pass it up. When he gets to a town the
+first thing he should do is to get out samples.
+
+"When I had opened up my line," continued my friend, "I went over to
+Williams' store. I called at the window as usual and said, 'Well,
+Williams, I am open and ready for you at any time. When shall we go
+over?'
+
+"'To tell the truth, Dickie,' said he, 'I've bought your line for this
+season. I might just as well come square out with it.'
+
+"'That is all right, Joe,' said I. 'If that is the case, it will save
+us the trouble of doing the work over again.' In truth, my heart had
+sunk clear down to my heels, but I never let on. I simply smiled over
+the situation. The worst thing I could have done would be to get mad
+and pout about it. Had I done so I should have lost out for good. The
+salesman who drops a crippled wing weakens himself, so I put on a
+smiling front. This made Williams become apologetic, for when he saw
+that I took the situation good-naturedly he felt sorry that he could
+not give me business and began to make explanations.
+
+"'I tell you,' said he, 'this other man came around and told me that
+he could sell me a hat for twenty-one dollars a dozen as good as you
+are selling for twenty-four, and I thought it was to my business
+interest to buy them. I thought I might as well have that extra
+twenty-five cents on every hat as your firm.'
+
+"There! He had given me my chance! 'Williams,' said I, 'you bought
+these other goods on your judgment. Do you not owe it to yourself to
+know how good your judgment on hats is? You and I have been such good
+friends--Heaven knows I have not a better one in this country, Joe--
+that I never talk business to you and George, your buyer. Now, I'll
+tell you what is a fair proposition. You and George come over to my
+sample room this afternoon at 1:30--I leave at four--and I will find
+out how good your judgment and George's is when it comes to buying
+hats.' Williams said: 'All right, 1:30 goes.'
+
+[Illustration: "To-night we dance. To-morrow we sell clothes again."]
+
+"I immediately left, having a definite appointment. I went to my
+sample room and laid out in a line twelve different samples of hats,
+the prices of which ranged, in jumps of three dollars per dozen, from
+nine dollars to twenty-seven dollars. In the afternoon I went back to
+the store and got Williams and George. As we entered the sample room,
+I said: 'Now, Williams, we are over here--you, George and myself--to
+see what you know about hats. If there is any line of goods in which
+you should know values, certainly it is the line you have been
+handling for six years. You have fingered them over every day and
+ought to know the prices of them. Here is a line of goods right out of
+the house from which you have been buying so long. The prices range
+from nine dollars to twenty-seven dollars a dozen. Will it not be a
+fair test of your judgment and George's for you to examine these goods
+very carefully--everything but the brands--for these would indicate
+the price--and lay out this line so that the cheaper hats will be at
+one end of the bunch and the best ones at the other? Very well! Now
+just straighten out this line according to price.'
+
+"'Well, that looks fair to me,' said Williams.
+
+"He and George went to work to straighten out the goods according to
+price. They put a nine dollar hat where a twelve dollar hat should
+have been, and vice versa. They put a twenty-four dollar hat where a
+twenty-four dollar hat belonged, and an eighteen dollar hat right
+beside it, indicating that the two were of the same quality. The next
+hat I handed them was one worth sixteen dollars and a half a dozen. It
+contained considerable chalk that made it feel smooth. After examining
+the 'sweat,' name and everything they both agreed that this was a
+twenty-seven dollars a dozen hat. When they did this, I said:
+
+"'Gentlemen, I will torture you no longer. Let me preface a few
+remarks by saying that neither one of you knows a single, solitary,
+blooming thing about hats. Here is a hat that you say is worth twenty-
+four dollars a dozen. Look at the brand. You have it on your own
+shelves. You have been buying them of this quality for six years at
+eighteen dollars a dozen. And, what is worse still, here is a hat the
+price of which you see in plain figures is sixteen dollars and a half,
+and you say it is worth twenty-seven dollars a dozen.'
+
+"The faces of Williams and George looked as blank as a freshly
+whitewashed fence. I saw that I had them. Then was the time for me to
+be bold. A good account was at stake, and at stake right then.
+Besides, my reputation was at stake. When a salesman loses a good
+account the news of it spreads all over his territory, and on account
+of losing one customer directly he will lose many more indirectly; for
+merchants will hear of it and on the strength of the information, lose
+confidence in the line itself. On the other hand, if you can knock
+your competitor out of a good account it is often equal to securing
+half a dozen more. I did not wish to lose out even for one season, so
+I said: 'Now look here, Williams, you have bought this other line of
+goods, and perhaps you feel that you have enough for this season and
+that you will make the best of a bad bargain. You are satisfied in
+your own mind, and you have told me as plainly as you ever told me
+anything in your life, that my goods are better than those that you
+have bought. I am going to tell you one thing now that I would not say
+in the beginning: that you have bought from a line of samples the
+goods of which will not equal the samples you have looked at. It is
+not the samples that you buy but it is the goods that are _delivered_
+to you. Those which will be delivered will not be as good as those
+which you looked at. You know full well that my goods have always come
+up to samples. You know that they are reliable. Why do you wish to
+change? If you wish to change for the sake of making an additional
+twenty-five cents on each hat instead of giving it to my firm, why did
+you not take the hat which I have been selling you all the time for
+$18 a dozen and sell it for three dollars, the price you have always
+been getting for my twenty-four dollars a dozen hats? In that way you
+would make an additional twenty-five cents. Be logical! If that's not
+profit enough, why not sell a $15 or a $12 a dozen hat for $3? Be
+logical! If that's not enough, why not hire a big burly duffer to
+stand at your front door, knock down every man who comes in so that
+you can take all the money he has without giving him anything. You
+could bury him in the cellar. Be logical.'
+
+"''Fraid they'd put me in the "pen",' said Williams.
+
+"'If I were a judge and you were brought before me charged with
+selling the twenty-one dollars a dozen hat that you have bought to
+take the place of mine (for which I charge you twenty-four dollars a
+dozen) I would give you a life sentence. Let me tell you, Williams, a
+man who is in business, if he expects to remain in the same place a
+long time, must give good values to his customers. In the course of
+time they will find out whether the stuff he gives them is good or
+poor. Go into a large establishment with a good reputation and you
+will find out that they give to the people who come to buy merchandise
+from them good values. Now, the goods I have sold you have always
+given your trade satisfaction. Your business in my department is
+increasing, so you say, and the reason is because you are giving to
+your customers good values. Why not continue to pursue this same
+policy? I am in town to do business and to do business today. I cannot
+and I will not take a turn down. If you want to continue to buy my
+goods you must buy them and buy them right now, even if you do have to
+take them right on top of the other stuff that you have bought. I
+shall make no compromise. My price is $1,000--more than you ever
+bought from me before.'
+
+"'George,' said Williams, turning to his buyer, 'I guess Dickie has
+us. Give him an order for $1,000 and don't let's go chasing the end of
+a rainbow in such a hurry any more.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+TRICKS OF THE TRADE.
+
+
+The man who believes that on every traveling man's head should rest a
+dunce cap will some fine day get badly fooled if he continues to rub
+up against the drummer. The road is the biggest college in the world.
+Its classrooms are not confined within a few gray stone buildings with
+red slate roofs; they are the nooks and corners of the earth. Its
+teachers are not a few half starved silk worms feeding upon green
+leaves doled out by philanthropic millionaires, but live, active men
+who plant their own mulberry trees. When a man gets a sheepskin from
+this school, he doesn't need to go scuffling around for work; he
+already has a job. Its museum contains, not a few small specimens of
+ore, but is the mine itself.
+
+Let your son take an ante-graduate course of a few years on the road
+and he will know to what use to put his book learning when he gets
+that. I do not decry book lore; the midnight incandescent burned over
+the classic page is a good thing. I am merely saying that lots of good
+copper wire goes to waste, because too many college "grads" start
+their education wrong end first. They do not know for what they are
+working. If I were running a school my way and the object was to teach
+a boy _method_, I'd hand him a sample grip before I'd give him a
+volume of Euclid. Last night a few ideas struck me when I thought my
+day's work was done. I jumped out of bed seven times in twenty minutes
+and struck seven matches so I could see to jot down the points. The
+man on the road learns to _"do it now."_ Too many traveling men
+waste their months of leisure. Like Thomas Moore, in their older days
+they will wail:
+
+     "Thus many, like me, who in youth should have tasted
+      The fountain that flows by philosophy's shrine,
+      Their time with the flowers on its margin have wasted
+      And left their light urns all as empty as mine."
+
+Yet many improve their hours of leisure from business; if they do not,
+it is their own fault. I met an old acquaintance on the street
+yesterday. "My season is too short," said he. "I wish I could find
+something to do between trips." I asked him why he did not write for
+newspapers or do a dozen other things that I mentioned. "I'm
+incapable," he replied. "Well, that isn't my fault," said I. "No," he
+answered, _"it's mine!"_
+
+I know one man on the road who found time to learn the German
+language. And, by the way, he told me how it once served him a good
+turn.
+
+"Once," said he, "when I was up in Minnesota, a few years ago, I got a
+big merchant to come over and look at my goods. That, you know, was
+half of the battle."
+
+And so it is! When a merchant goes into a drummer's sample room, he is
+on the field of Liao Yang and, if he doesn't look out, the drummer
+will prove himself the Jap!
+
+"It was my first trip to the town," continued my friend. "The first
+thing my prospective customer picked up after he came into my room was
+a sample of a 'Yucatan' hat. You know how it goes--when a merchant
+comes into your sample room for the first time he picks up the things
+he knows the price of. If the prices on these are high, he soon leaves
+you; if they seem right to him he has confidence in the rest of your
+line and usually buys if the styles suit him. The way to sell goods is
+either to have lower prices or else make your line show up better than
+your competitor's. Even though your prices be the same as his, you can
+often win out by _displaying_ your goods better than your competitor
+does. Many a time he is too lazy to spread his goods and show what he
+really has; and his customer thinks the line 'on the bum' when, in
+truth, it is not.
+
+"The merchant, Alex Strauss was his name, couldn't have picked up a
+luckier thing for me than this Yucatan hat. The year previous, my
+house had imported them finished, but that year we had had them
+trimmed in our own shop. The duty was much less on the unfinished body
+than on the trimmed hat; therefore, the price had dropped
+considerably.
+
+"'How much do you vant for dis?' said Strauss, picking up the Yucatan.
+
+"Nine dollars a dozen," said I, without explaining why the price was
+so low. It would have been as foolish for me to do this, you know, as
+to play poker with my cards on the table face up.
+
+"Strauss turned to his clerk Morris, who was with him. They both
+examined the hat, and Alex said in German to Morris: _'Den selben
+Hut haben wir gehabt. Letzes Jahr haben wir sechzehn und ein halb den
+Dutzen bezahlt. Das ist sehr billig!'_ (The same hat we had. Last
+year we paid sixteen and a half a dozen. This is very cheap.)
+
+"Then Alex turned to me--he was a noted bluffer--and said in English:
+'Hefens alife! Nine tollars! Vy, I pought 'em last year for sefen and
+a half!'
+
+"I never saw such a bold stand in my life. The expression on his face
+would have won a jackpot on a bob-tailed flush. But I was in position
+to call his bluff. _His_ cards were on the table face up.
+
+"I merely repeated his own words in his own tongue: _'Den selben Hut
+haben wir gehabt. Letzes Jahr haben wir sechzehn und ein halb den
+Dutzen bezahlt. Das ist sehr billig.'_
+
+"'Hier, dake a seecar on me,' said Alex, offering me a smoke. He
+bought a good bill from me and has been a good customer ever since.
+
+"Just to let you know what a hard proposition Strauss was, I'll tell
+you another incident in connection with him:
+
+"'After I had known Alex for two years I went into his store one
+morning, when I was on my fall trip. He came from behind the counter
+to meet me, wearing upon his face a smile of triumph. He had never
+approached me before; I always had to hunt him down.
+
+"I said, 'Hello, Alex, how goes it?'
+
+"'Dis is how choes id,' said he, handing me a card. 'Dot's de way id
+choes mit ev'rypody dis season.'
+
+"On the card which he handed me--and to every traveling man who, came
+in--were these words: 'Don't waste your time on me; I will not buy any
+goods until I go to market. Alex.'
+
+"Reading the card quickly, I said to him: 'Thank you, Alex, may I have
+another one of these cards?'
+
+"He handed me another one, saying, 'Vot you vant mit anudder vun?'
+
+"'I want one to hold as a keepsake of the man, of all men, who is
+gladdest to see me when I get around; the other I shall pin to the
+order I shall take from you today and send to my firm.'
+
+"With a sweeping bow, I said, 'Adieu, Alex; _Auf wiedersehen,'_
+and left the store.
+
+"I knew Alex's habits. He always went to dinner when the town clock
+struck twelve. A deaf shoemaker in the next block regulated his watch,
+they say, by Alex's movements. A few minutes past twelve I went back
+to the store and left on the front show case a bunch of samples done
+up in a red cloth. On some of them were large green tags telling the
+quantity I had of each and the price. I also wrote on the green tags
+the words 'Job Lot.'
+
+"I knew that Alex would see the bundle; and I knew that he would open
+it--a merchant will always look at samples if you take them to his
+store. I also knew that Alex, when he saw the mystic words 'Job Lot,'
+would be half crazy. Adam and Eve were not more tempted by the
+forbidden fruit than is the Yehuda (Hebrew) merchant by a
+_metziah_ (bargain).
+
+"I went back to the hotel. After luncheon I sent out my advance cards
+and took up a book. My mind was perfectly easy, because I knew just
+exactly what was going to happen.
+
+"At a quarter to six, Abie, Alex's boy, disturbed me while I was in
+the middle of a chapter and said: 'Papa wants to see you right away.
+The store closes at six.'
+
+"I knew that meant business, but I said to Abie: 'Tell your papa if
+he'll excuse me I'll not come over. Won't you please say goodbye to
+him for me? And won't you, Abie, like a good boy--bring me a bundle I
+left on the show case. It has a red cloth around it.'
+
+"Finishing my chapter, I started slowly toward Alex's store. I met
+Abie. But he didn't have the red bundle--I knew he wouldn't.
+
+"'Papa says, come over. He wants to see you,' said Abie.
+
+"As I went into the store a minute before six, Alex was pacing up and
+down the floor. My samples were spread upon the show case.
+
+"'Eff you vant your samples, dake 'em avay yourself. Do you subbose I
+raice poys to vait on draveling men?' said Alex. He was keeping up his
+bluff well.
+
+"With this I began to stack together my samples.
+
+"'Vait! Vait!' said Alex, 'Aind you choing to gif a man a jance to puy
+some choots?'
+
+"'Sure,' said I, 'if you want to, but I thought you were going to wait
+until you went into market.'
+
+"'Vell, you vas a taisy,' said Alex; and in three minutes--he was the
+quickest buyer I ever saw--I booked an order for six hundred dollars.
+
+"'Now, I see,' said Alex, as he shook hands and started home, 'Vot you
+vanted mit dot udder cart.'"
+
+Strategy will win out in business, but not deception. The traveling
+man who wishes to win in the race of commerce, if he plays sharp
+tricks, will get left at the quarter post. It is rather hard,
+sometimes, to keep from plucking apples that grow in the garden of
+deception, especially if they hang over the fence. I sat one night
+beside one of the boys who was sending out his advance cards. He was
+making his first trip over a new territory.
+
+"Blast it!" said he, tearing up a card he had written.
+
+"Don't swear, or you'll not catch any fish," said I.
+
+"Yes, but I did such a fool thing. I addressed a card to a merchant
+and then turned it over and signed his name--not mine--to it. Wasn't
+that a fool thing to do?"
+
+"No, not at all," I replied, laughing. "If you had sent that card to
+him, he would have read it. Otherwise, he will chuck the one you do
+send into the basket."
+
+"Bright idea!" quoth my friend.
+
+A few months afterward I met this same man. "Say," said he, "that was
+a straight tip you gave me on that advance card scheme. It worked like
+a charm. Half of the men I went to see had kept the cards on their
+desks and I had no trouble getting their ears. Some were expecting a
+long lost relative. When they showed me my cards with their names on
+them I was always amazed at such a queer mistake. There was one
+exception. I told one man why I did it, and he nearly threw me out of
+his store."
+
+When I was told this I felt ashamed to think I had taught duplicity to
+an innocent. I did not know to what it might lead him.
+
+Stolen fruits may look like they are sweet, but taste them, and they
+are bitter. I knew a man who sold shoes in the State of Washington. He
+was shrewd and sharp. He learned of an old Englishman who, although
+his store was in an out of the way town, did a large business. The
+shoeman wrote half a dozen letters to himself care of the old
+Englishman, addressing them as "Lord" So and So. When he reached the
+town the Englishman most graciously handed him the letters, and to all
+questions of the shoeman, who commanded a good British accent,
+answered, "Yes, my lord," or "No, my lord."
+
+The shoe man explained that, like the merchant, he had hated to leave
+the old country, but that America--sad to state--was a more thrifty
+country and he had invested in a large shoe factory in Boston. He said
+he was merely out traveling for his health and to look over the
+country with a view to placing a traveling salesman on the territory.
+The Englishman gave him a large open order, supposing, of course, that
+a lord would carry no samples. The old merchant was so tickled at
+having a chance to buy from a lord that, notwithstanding his reserve,
+he one day told his dry goods man about it. This was shortly before
+the goods arrived.
+
+"Why, that fellow," said the dry goods man, "is no more of a lord than
+I am. He is not even an Englishman." He did not know that he was
+"queering" a bill, for this is one thing that one traveling man will
+never deliberately do to another. He knows too well what a battle it
+is to win a bill, and he will not knowingly snatch from the victor the
+spoils of war.
+
+The old Englishman returned the "lord's" goods without opening the
+cases.
+
+Although the lord did not steal a base on his sharp run, I know of one
+instance where a shrewd traveling man sold a bill by a smart trick.
+
+In Ohio there was a merchant notoriously hard to approach. He was one
+of the kind who, when you told him your business, would whistle and
+walk away and who would always have something to do in another part of
+the store when you drew near him the second time. What an amount of
+trouble a man of that kind makes for himself! The traveling man is
+always ready to "make it short." When he goes into a store the thing
+he wishes to know, and how quickly, is: "Can I do any business here?"
+The merchant will have no trouble getting rid of the drummer if he
+will only be frank. All he must do is to give a fair reason why he
+does not wish to do business. He can say: "I have bought"--that is the
+best one, if it is true; it is the index finger pointing out a short
+route for the salesman straight to the front door. Or, he can say: "I
+have all in that line I can use for some time." "I have an old
+personal friend to whom I give my trade for these goods--he treats me
+squarely" is a good answer. So, too, is the statement, "I have an
+established trade on this brand, my customers ask for it, and it gives
+them entire satisfaction--what's the use of changing?" Any one of
+these statements will either rid the merchant of the traveling man or
+else raise an issue soon settled.
+
+I will let my friend himself tell how he got the ear of the whistling
+merchant.
+
+"The boys had told me old Jenkins was hard to get next to, but I made
+up my mind to reach him. It's lots more fun anyway to land a trout in
+swift water than to pull a carp out of a muddy pond; besides the game
+fish is better to eat. When I went into his store, Jenkins fled from
+me, and going into his private office, slammed the door behind him. I
+made for the office. I had not come within ten feet from the window
+before the old man said gruffly: 'I don't want to buy any goods; I
+don't want even to _listen_ to a traveling man this morning.'
+
+"This did not stop me. I walked to the window, took a pad of paper out
+of my pocket and wrote on a slip: 'I have some samples I would like to
+show you. I will bring them over.' I handed the slip to old Jenkins
+and left him. The man who can do the odd, unexpected thing, is the one
+who gets the ear.
+
+"When I brought my samples in--I sell a specialty line of baby shoes--
+I spread them on the counter. The old man was curious to see what a
+'deaf and dumb man' was selling, I suppose, for up he marched and
+looked at my line. He picked up a shoe and wrote on a piece of paper:
+'How much?' I wrote the price and passed the slip back to him. 'What
+are your terms?' he wrote back. 'Bill dated November 1st, 5% off, ten
+days,' I replied on paper. 'Price your line right through,' he
+scribbled.
+
+"With this I wrote the price of each shoe on a slip and put it under
+the sample. Old Jenkins called his shoe man. They both agreed that the
+line was exceptional--just what they wanted--and that the prices were
+low. But the old man wrote: 'Can't use any of your goods; the line I
+am buying is cheaper.'
+
+"I made no answer to this but began packing my grip. The old man tried
+to write me so fast that he broke the points off his pencil and the
+clerk's. While he sharpened his pencil I kept on packing. He took hold
+of my hand and made a curious sign, saying, 'Wait.' But I went right
+on until the old man had written: 'Don't pack up. I will buy some
+goods from you because I feel sorry for you.'
+
+"'Thank you, sir,' I wrote, 'but I am no charity bird; I want to sell
+goods only to those who appreciate my values. Charity orders are
+always small ones and a small one will not be sufficient for me to
+give you the exclusive sale.' That was a clincher, for when a merchant
+sees a good thing he will overbuy, you know, just to keep his
+competitor from having a chance at it. I started again packing.
+
+"'I really like your goods and will buy a nice bill if you will sell
+no one else in town,' wrote the old man nervously. 'I was only joking
+with you.'
+
+"Just as I had finished writing down my order, never having spoken a
+word to old Jenkins, a traveling man friend came in and said, in his
+presence: 'Hello, Billy! How are you?'
+
+"'Pretty well, thank you,' said I.
+
+"'What! Can you hear and talk?' half yelled the old man.
+
+"'To be sure,' I wrote back, 'but it would have been impolite to talk
+to you; because you said, as I drew near the window, you didn't wish
+to _listen_ to a traveling man this morning. Thank you for your order.
+Good-bye.'
+
+"The old man never forgot that day. The last time I was around, he
+said, 'Confound you, Billy! What makes you ask me if I want any baby
+shoes? You know I do and that I want yours. I believe, though, if you
+were to die I'd have to quit handling the line; it would seem so
+strange to buy them from any but a deaf and dumb man.'"
+
+It is all right for the traveling man to put his wit against the
+peculiarities of a wise, crusty old buyer, but it is wrong to play
+smart with a confiding merchant who knows comparatively little of the
+world. The innocent will learn.
+
+A clothing man once told me of a sharp scheme he once worked on a
+Minnesota merchant.
+
+"When I was up in Saint Paul on my last trip," said he, "a country
+merchant--what a 'yokel' he was!--came in to meet me. He had written
+my house he wanted to see their line. But when he reached the hotel
+another clothing man grabbed him and got him to say he would look at
+_his_ line after he had seen mine. When he came into my room, I
+could see something was wrong. I could not get him to lay out a single
+garment. When a merchant begins to put samples aside, you've got him
+sure. After a while, he said: 'Well, I want to knock around a little;
+I'll be in to see you after dinner.'
+
+"'I am expecting you to dine with me,' said I. 'It's after eleven now;
+you won't have time to go around any. You'd better wait until this
+afternoon.' I smelt a mouse, as there were other clothing men in town;
+so I knew I must hold him. But he was hard to entertain. He wouldn't
+smoke and wouldn't drink anything but lemonade. Deliver me from the
+merchant who is on the water wagon or won't even take a cigar! He's
+hard to get next to. After we finished our lemonade, I brought out my
+family photographs and kept him listening to me tell how bright my
+children were--until noon.
+
+"When we finished luncheon I suggested that we go up and do our
+business as I wanted to leave town as soon as I could. Then he told me
+he felt he ought to look at another line before buying and that he had
+promised another man he would look at his line.
+
+"Had I 'bucked' on that proposition it would have knocked me out, so I
+said: 'To be sure you should. I certainly do not wish you to buy my
+goods unless they please you better than any you will see. We claim we
+are doing business on a more economical scale than any concern in the
+country. We know this, and I shall be only too glad to have you look
+at other goods; then you will be better satisfied with ours. I'll take
+pleasure even in introducing you to several clothing men right here in
+the house.'
+
+"This line of talk struck ten. My yokel friend said: 'Well, you talk
+square and I want to buy of you. I like a man who thinks lots of his
+family, anyway; I've got a big family myself--seven children--baby's
+just a month old and a fine boy. But I promised my partner I'd look
+around if I had a chance, and I think I ought to keep my word with
+him.'
+
+"Luckily there was another salesman from my firm in town and opened up
+that same day in the hotel. I sent for him, never letting my yokel
+friend get away from me a foot. I saw the other man, at whose line my
+friend wished to look, sitting in the office; but I knew he would obey
+the rule of the road and not come up to the merchant until I had let
+him go.
+
+[Illustration: "I listened to episodes in the lives of all those seven
+children"]
+
+"My partner was a deuce of a long time coming. I listened to episodes
+in the lives of all of those seven children. I took down notes on good
+remedies for whooping cough, croup, measles, and all the ills that
+flesh is heir to--and thanked Heaven we had struck that subject!
+Finally my partner, Sam, came. As he drew near I gave him the wink,
+and, introducing my friend to him, said: 'Now, Mr. Anderson is in town
+to buy clothing. I have shown him my line, but he feels he ought to
+look around. Maybe I haven't all the patterns he wants, and if I can
+get only a part of the order there is no one I'd rather see get the
+other than you. Whatever the result, you'll bring Mr. Anderson to my
+room, 112, when you get through. Show him thoroughly. I'm in no
+hurry.'
+
+"Sam marched Anderson up to his room. He caught onto my game all
+right. I knew he would hold him four hours, if necessary, and tell him
+all about his family history for seven generations.
+
+"When Sam left, I went over to the cigar stand, pulled out my order
+book and figured about long enough to add up a bill. I filled my cigar
+case and going over to my competitor, at whose line Anderson had
+promised to look, offered him one. He had made a sort of 'body snatch'
+from me anyway and was ashamed to say anything about Anderson, but he
+asked: 'How's business?'
+
+"'Coming in carriages today,' said I. 'My city customer was over early
+this morning and, no sooner had he gone than a man from the country
+came in. Two clothing bills in one day is all right, isn't it? I just
+turned my country customer over to Sam, as he has a few new patterns
+in his line I want him to show. Guess I'll go pack up shortly.'
+
+"I hadn't told a point blank lie, and my competitor had no right to
+ask about my affairs, anyway. He also went to pack up.
+
+"I let Sam entertain Anderson until I knew my competitor was out of
+the way. Then I sent a note up to him. In due time he brought the
+merchant down and soon excused himself.
+
+"'That's a mighty nice fellow,' said Anderson, 'but my! his goods are
+dear. Why, his suits are two to three dollars higher than yours.
+You'll certainly get my bill. I told my partner I believed your house
+would be all right to buy from.'
+
+"I took the order from Anderson, but I was half glad when I heard that
+he had died a few months afterward; for if he had lived he would have
+been sure to catch up with me when Sam and I were both in market. And
+then my goose would have been cooked for all time with him, sure."
+
+And so it would.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE HELPING HAND.
+
+
+The helping hand is often held out by the man on the road. Away from
+home he is dependent upon the good will of others; he frequently has
+done for him an act of kindness; he is ever ready to do for others a
+deed of friendship or charity. Road life trains the heart to
+gentleness. It carries with it so many opportunities to help the
+needy. Seldom a day passes that the traveling salesman does not loosen
+his purse strings for some one in want--no, not that; he carries his
+money in his vest pocket. Doing one kind act brings the doer such a
+rich return that he does a second generous deed and soon he has the
+habit. The liberality of the traveling man does not consist wholly of
+courting the favor of his merchant friends--he is free with them, but
+mainly because it is his nature; it is for those from whom he never
+expects any return that he does the most.
+
+A friend of mine once told this story:
+
+"It was on the train traveling into Lincoln, Nebraska, many years ago.
+It was near midnight. It was, I believe, my first trip on the road.
+Just in front of me, in a double seat, sat a poor woman with three
+young children. As the brakeman called 'Lincoln, the next station! Ten
+minutes for lunch!' I noticed the woman feeling in her pockets and
+looking all around. She searched on the seats and on the floor. A
+companion, Billie Collins, who sat beside me leaned over and asked:
+'Madam, have you lost something?'
+
+"Half crying, she replied, 'I can't find my purse--I want to get a cup
+of coffee; it's got my ticket and money in it and I'm going through to
+Denver.'
+
+"'We'll help you look for it,' said Billy.
+
+"We searched under the seats and up and down the aisle, but could not
+find the pocket book. The train was drawing near Lincoln. The poor
+woman began to cry.
+
+"'It's all the money I've got, too,' she said pitifully. 'I've just
+lost my husband and I'm going out to my sister's in Colorado. She says
+I can get work out there. I know I had the ticket. The man took it at
+Ottumwa and gave it back to me. And I had enough money to buy me a
+ticket up to Central City where my sister is. They won't put me off,
+will they? I know I had the ticket. If I only get to Denver, I'll be
+all right. I guess my sister can send me money to come up to her. I've
+got enough in my basket for us to eat until she does. I can do without
+coffee. They won't put me off, wi--ll--?'
+
+"The woman couldn't finish the sentence.
+
+"One of the boys--Ferguson was his name--who sat across the aisle
+beside a wealthy looking old man, came over. 'Don't you worry a bit,
+Madam,' said he. 'You'll get through all right. I'll see the
+conductor.' The old man--a stockholder in a big bank, I afterward
+learned--merely twirled his thumbs.
+
+"The conductor came where we were and said: 'Yes, she had a ticket
+when she got on my division. I punched it and handed it back to her.
+That's all I've got to do with the matter.'
+
+"'But,' spoke up Collins, 'this woman has just lost her husband and
+hasn't any money either. She's going through to Colorado to get work.
+Can't you just say to the next conductor that she had a ticket and get
+him to take care of her and pass her on to the next division?' "'Guess
+she'll have to get off at Lincoln,' answered the conductor gruffly,
+'our orders are to carry no one without transportation.' All railroad
+men have not yet learned that using horse sense and being polite means
+promotion.
+
+"The poor woman began to cry but my friend Billie, said: 'Don't cry,
+Madam, you shall go through all right. Just stay right where you are.'
+
+"The conductor started to move on. 'Now, you just hold on a minute,
+sir,' said Collins. 'When this train stops you be right here--_right
+here, I say_--and go with me to the superintendent in the depot. If
+you don't you won't be wearing those brass buttons much longer. It's
+your business, sir, to look after passengers in a fix like this and
+I'm going to make it my business to see that you attend to yours.'
+
+"The conductor was lots bigger than my friend; but to a coward a mouse
+seems as big as an elephant and 'brass buttons' said: 'All right, I'll
+be here; but it won't do no good.'
+
+"As the conductor started down the aisle, Ferguson turned to the woman
+and said: 'You shall go through all right, Madam; how much money did
+you have?'
+
+"'Three dollars and sixty-five cents,' she answered--she knew what she
+had to a penny--three dollars and sixty-five cents; And I'll bet she
+knew where every nickel of it came from! A cruel old world this to
+some people, for a while!
+
+"The train had whistled for Lincoln. Ferguson took off his hat,
+dropped in a dollar, and passed it over to Billie and me. Then he went
+down the aisle, saying to the boys, 'Poor woman, husband just died,
+left three children, going to hunt work in Colorado, lost her purse
+with ticket and all the money she had.' He came back with nearly
+enough silver in his hat to break out the crown--eighteen dollars!
+
+"'Will you chip in, Colonel?' said Ferguson to the old man who had
+been his traveling companion?
+
+"'No,' answered the old skinflint, 'I think the railroad company ought
+to look after cases of this kind. Ahem! Ahem!'
+
+"'Well,' said Ferguson, snatching the valise out of his seat--I never
+saw a madder fellow--'We've enough without yours even if you are worth
+more than all of us. You're so stingy I won't even let my grip stay
+near you.' "When the train stopped at Lincoln, Billie and Ferguson
+took the conductor to the superintendent's office. They sent me to the
+lunch counter. I got back first with a cup of coffee for the mother
+and a bag for the children. But pretty soon in bolted Billy and
+Ferguson. Billie handed the woman a pass to Denver, and Ferguson
+dumped the eighteen dollars into her lap.
+
+"'Oh, that's too much! I'll take just three dollars and give me your
+name so that I can send that back,' said the woman, happier than any
+one I ever saw.
+
+"But we all rushed away quickly, Billy saying: 'Oh, never mind our
+names, madam. Buy something for the children; Good-bye, God bless
+you!'"
+
+Not the poor widow, alone, but even the big, able-bodied, hungry tramp
+comes in often to share the drummer's generosity. A friend once told
+me of a good turn he did for a "Weary Willie" in Butte.
+
+Now if there is any place on earth where a man is justified in being
+mean, it is in Butte. It is a mining camp. It rests upon bleak, barren
+hills; the sulphuric fumes, arising from roasting ores, have long
+since killed out all vegetation. It has not even a sprig of grass.
+This smoke, also laden with arsenic, sometimes hovers over Butte like
+a London fog. More wealth is every year dug out of the earth in Butte,
+and more money is squandered there by more different kinds of people,
+than in any place of its size on earth. The dictionary needs one
+adjective which should qualify Butte and no other place. Many a time
+while there I've expected to see Satan rise up out of a hole. Whenever
+I start to leave I feel I am going away from the domain of the devil.
+
+"One morning I went down to the depot before five o'clock," said my
+friend. "I was to take a belated train. It was below zero, yet I paced
+up and down the platform outside breathing the sulphur smoke. I was
+anxious to catch sight of the train. Through the bluish haze, the lamp
+in the depot cast a light upon a man standing near the track. I went
+over to him, supposing he was a fellow traveling man. But he was only
+a tramp who had been fired out of the waiting room. I wore a warm
+chinchilla, but it made my teeth chatter to see this shivering 'hobo'
+--his hands in his pockets and his last summer's light weight pinned
+close around his throat.
+
+"'Fine morning, old man,' said I.
+
+"'Maybe you t'ink so, Major,' replied the hobo, 'but you stan' out in
+de breeze long's I have in Fourt' of Chuly togs an' you'll have to
+have a long pipe dream to t'ink it's a fine mornin'. Say, pard, cup o'
+coffee an' a sinker wouldn't go bad.'
+
+"I took the tramp to the lunch counter. I was hungry myself and told
+the waiter to give him what he wanted.
+
+"'Cup o' coffee an' a sand'ich--t'ick slab o' de pig, Cap'n, please,'
+said my hobo friend. "I saw some strawberries behind the counter and I
+said to the waiter: 'Just start us both in on strawberries and cream,
+then let us have coffee and some of that fried chicken.'
+
+"'Sport, you are in on this,' said I to the tramp.
+
+"He unpinned his coat and looked with longing eyes on the waiter as he
+pulled the caps off the berries; he never said a word, merely
+swallowing the secretion from his glands. When he had gulped his
+berries, I told the waiter to give him some more.
+
+"'Ever hungry, Major?' said the hobo. 'Dat's kind a feather weight for
+my ap'tite. Let me have a ham sand'ich 'stead.
+
+"'No, go on, you shall have a good square meal. Here, take some more
+berries and have this fried chicken,' I answered, shoving over another
+bowl of fruit and a big dish with a half a dozen cooked chickens on
+it. 'Help yourself like it all belonged to you.'
+
+"The hobo ate two halves of chicken, drained his cup of coffee and
+started to get down from his stool. But: he cast a hungry look at the
+dish of chicken.
+
+"'Have some more, old man,' said I.
+
+"'It's been s'long since I had a good square that I could stan' a
+little more, Major; but let me go up against a ham sand'ich--it's got
+a longer reach.'
+
+"'No, have chicken--all the chicken you want--and some more coffee,'
+said I.
+
+"Eat! How that fellow did go for it--five pieces of chicken! I'd
+rather see him repeat that performance than go to a minstrel show. He
+slid off his stool again, saying: 'Major, I guess I'm all in. T'anks.'
+
+"'Oh, no; have some pie,' I said.
+
+"'Well,' he replied, 'Major, 's you shift the deck, guess I will play
+one more frame.'
+
+"'Gash o' apple,' said Weary to the waiter.
+
+"When I insisted upon his having a third piece of pie, the hobo said:
+'No, Major, t'anks, I got to ring off or I'll break de bank.'
+
+"He, for once, had enough. I gave him a cigar. He sat down to smoke--
+contented, I thought. I paid the bill; things are high in Montana, you
+know--his part was $2.85. My hobo friend saw $3.55 rung up on the cash
+register. Then I went over and sat down beside him.
+
+"'Feeling good?' said I.
+
+"'Yep, but chee! Dat feed, spread out, would a lasted me clean to
+Sain' Paul.'"
+
+Although the traveling man will feed the hungry tramp on early
+strawberries and fried chicken when ham sandwiches straight would
+touch the spot better, all of his generosity is not for fun. A drug
+salesman told me this experience:
+
+"A few years ago," said he, "I was over in one of the towns I make in
+Oregon. I reached there on Saturday evening. I went to my customer's
+store. Just before he closed he said to me: 'I'll take you to-night to
+hear some good music.'
+
+"'Where is it?' said I. 'I'll be glad to go along.'
+
+"'It's down the street a couple of blocks; it's a kind of garden. A
+family runs it. The old man serves drinks and the rest of the family--
+his wife and three daughters--play, to draw the crowd. I want you to
+hear the oldest girl play the violin.'
+
+"Now, traveling men are ready any time to go anywhere. Sometimes they
+fly around the arc light, but they can buzz close and not get their
+wings scorched. They must keep their heads clear and they do,
+nowadays, you know. It's not as it was in the old days when the man
+who could tell the most yarns sold the most goods; the old fashioned
+traveling man is as much behind the times as a bobtailed street car.
+Well, of course, I told my friend Jerry that I'd go along. I should
+have put in my time working on new trade, but he was one of the best
+fellows in the world and one of my best friends. Yet he would not give
+me much of his business; we were too well acquainted.
+
+"When we went to the garden--Jerry, his partner ner and myself--we sat
+up front. We could look over the crowd. It was a place for men only.
+The dozen tables were nearly all full, most of the seats being
+occupied by men from the mines--some of them wearing blue flannel
+shirts. But the crowd was orderly. The music made them so. The oldest
+daughter was only seventeen, but she looked twenty-three. She showed
+that she'd had enough experience in her life, though, to be gray.
+There was a tortured soul behind her music. Even when she played a
+ragtime tune she would repeat the same notes slowly and get a chord
+out of them that went straight to the heart. The men all bought rounds
+of drinks freely between the numbers, but they let them remain
+untasted; they drank, rather, the music.
+
+"We listened for two hours. The music suited my mood. I was a long way
+from home. Most of the men there felt as I did. Twelve o'clock came,
+yet no one had left the garden. More had come. Many stood. All were
+waiting for the final number, which was the same every night, 'Home,
+Sweet Home.'
+
+"There is something more enchanting about this air than any other in
+the world. Perhaps this is because it carries one back when he once
+has 'passed its portals' to his 'Childhood's Joyland--Little Girl and
+Boyland.' It reminds him of his own happy young days or else recalls
+the little ones at home at play with their toys. I know I thought of
+my own dear little tots when I heard the strain. How that girl did
+play the splendid old melody! I closed my eyes. The garden became a
+mountain stream, the tones of the violin its beautiful ripples--
+ripples which flowed right on even when the sound had ceased.
+
+"'Home, Sweet Home!' I thought of mine. I thought of the girl's--a
+beer garden!
+
+"'Boys,' said I to Jerry and his partner, 'I am going up to shake
+hands with that girl; I owe her a whole lot. She's a genius.' I went.
+And I thanked her, too, and told her how well she had played and how
+happy she had made me.
+
+"'I'm glad somebody can be happy,' she answered, drooping her big,
+blue eyes.
+
+"'But aren't you happy in your music?' I asked.
+
+"'Yes,' she replied in such a sad way that it meant a million nos.
+
+"When I went back to my friends they told me the girl's father was not
+of much account or otherwise he would send her off to a good teacher.
+
+"'Now, that's going to take only a few hundred dollars,' said I. 'You
+are here on the spot and there surely ought to be enough money in the
+town to educate this girl. I can't stay here to do this thing, but you
+can put me down for fifty.'
+
+"Well, sir, do you know the people in the town did help that girl
+along. When the women heard what a traveling man was willing to do,
+they no longer barred her out because, for bread, she played a violin
+in a beer garden, but they opened their doors to her and helped her
+along. The girl got a music class and with some assistance went to a
+conservatory of music in Boston where she is studying today."
+
+Traveling men are not angels; yet in their black wings are stuck more
+white feathers than they are given credit for--this is because some of
+the feathers grow on the under side of their wings. Much of evil,
+anyway, like good, is in the thinking. It is wrong to say a fruit is
+sour until you taste it; is it right to condemn the drummer before you
+know him?
+
+Days--and nights, too--of hard work often come together in the life of
+the road man. Then comes one day when he rides many hours, perhaps
+twenty-four, on the train. He needs to forget his business; he does.
+Less frequently, I wager, than university students, yet sometimes the
+drummer will try his hand at a moderate limit in the great American
+game.
+
+A year or more ago a party of four commercial travelers were making
+the trip from Portland to San Francisco, a ride of thirty-six hours--
+two nights and one day. They occupied the drawing room. After
+breakfast, on the day of the journey, one of the boys proposed a game
+of ten cent limit "draw." They all took part. There is something in
+the game of poker that will keep one's eyes open longer than will the
+fear of death, so the four kept on playing until time for luncheon.
+About one o'clock the train stopped for half an hour at a town in
+Southern Oregon. The party went out to take a stretch. Instead of
+going into the dining room they bought, at the lunch counter, some
+sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, doughnuts and pies and put them in their
+compartment. On the platform an old man had cider for sale; they
+bought some of that. Several youngsters sold strawberries and
+cherries. The boys also bought some of these. In fact, they found
+enough for a wholesome, appetizing spread.
+
+The train was delayed longer than usual. The boys, tired of walking,
+came back to their quarters. They asked me to have some lunch with
+them. Just as one of the party opened a bottle of cider a little,
+barefoot, crippled boy, carrying his crutch under one arm and a basket
+half full of strawberries under the other, passed beneath the window
+of their drawing room.
+
+"Strawberries. Nice fresh strawberries, misters--only a dime a box,"
+called out the boy. "Three for a quarter if you'll take that many."
+
+There he was, the youthful drummer, doing in his boyish way just what
+we were--making a living, and supporting somebody, too, by finding his
+customer and then selling him. He was bright, clean and active; but
+sadly crippled.
+
+"Let's buy him out," said the youngest of our party--I was now one of
+them.
+
+"No, let's make a jackpot, the winner to give all the winnings to the
+boy for his berries," spoke up the oldest.
+
+The pot was opened on the first hand. The limit had been ten cents,
+but the opener said "I'll 'crack' it for fifty cents, if all are
+agreed."
+
+Every man stayed in--for the boy! Strangely enough four of us caught
+on the draw.
+
+"Bet fifty cents," said the opener.
+
+"Call your fifty," said numbers two and three, dropping in their
+chips.
+
+"Raise it fifty," spoke up number four.
+
+The other three "saw the raise."
+
+"Three Jacks," said the opener.
+
+"Beats me," said number two.
+
+"Three queens here," said number three.
+
+"Bobtail," spoke up number four.
+
+"Makes no difference what you have," broke in number three. "I've the
+top hand, but the whole pot belongs to the boy. The low hand, though,
+shall go out and get the berries."
+
+As the train pulled out, the little barefoot drummer with $6.50
+hobbled across the muddy street, the proudest boy in all Oregon; but
+he was not so happy as were his five big brothers in the receding car.
+
+Brethren, did I say. Yes, Brethren! To the man on the road, every one
+he meets is his brother--no more, no less. He feels that he is as good
+as the governor, that he is no better than the boy who shines his
+shoes. The traveling man, if he succeeds, soon becomes a member of the
+Great Fraternity--the Brotherhood of Man. The ensign of this order is
+the Helping Hand.
+
+I once overheard one of the boys tell how he had helped an old
+Frenchman.
+
+"I was down in Southern Idaho last trip," said he. "While waiting at
+the station for a train to go up to Hailey, an old man came to the
+ticket window and asked how much the fare was to Butte. The agent told
+him the amount--considerably more than ten dollars.
+
+"'_Mon Dieu!_ Is it so far as that?' said the old man. '_Eh bien!_
+(very well) I must find some work.'
+
+"But he was a chipper old fellow. I had noticed him that morning
+offering to run a foot race with the boys. He wasn't worried a bit
+when the agent told him how much the fare to Butte was. He was really
+comical, merely shrugging his shoulders and smiling when he said:
+'Very well, I must find some work.' Cares lighten care.
+
+"The old man, leaving the ticket window, sat down on a bench, made the
+sign of a cross and took out a prayer book. When he had finished
+reading I went over and sat beside him. I talked with him. He was one
+of Nature's noblemen without a title. He was a French Canadian. He
+came to Montana early in the sixties and worked in the mines. Wages
+were high, but he married and his wife became an invalid; doctors and
+medicines took nearly all of his money. He struggled on for over
+thirty years, taking money out of the ground and putting it into pill
+boxes. Finally he was advised to take his wife to a lower altitude. He
+moved to the coast and settled in the Willamette Valley, in Oregon.
+His wife became better at first; then she grew sick again. More
+medicine!
+
+"Well, sir, do you know that old man--over seventy years of age--was
+working his way back to Butte to hunt work in the mines again. I spoke
+French to him and asked him how much money he had. 'Not much,' said
+he--and he took out his purse. How much do you suppose the old man had
+in it? Just thirty-five cents! I had just spent half a dollar for
+cigars and tossed them around. To see that old man, separated from his
+wife, having to hunt for work to get money so he could go where he
+could hunt more work that he might only buy medicine for a sick old
+woman and with just three dimes and a nickel in his purse--was too
+much for me! I said to myself: 'I'll cut out smoking for two days and
+give what I would spend to the old man.'
+
+"I put a pair of silver dollars into the old man's purse to keep
+company with his three dimes and one nickel. It made them look like
+orphans that had found a home. '_Mon Dieu! Monsieur, vous etes un
+ange du ciel. Merci. Merci._' (My God, sir, you are an angel from
+Heaven. Thank you. Thank you.) said the old man. 'But you must give me
+your address and let me send back the money!'
+
+"I asked my old friend to give me his name and told him that I would
+send him my address to Butte so he would be _sure_ to get it; that he
+might lose it if he put it in his pocket.
+
+"He told me his name. I gave him a note to the superintendent at
+Pocatello, asking him to pass the old Frenchman to Butte. We talked
+until my train started. Every few sentences, the old man would say:
+'_Que Dieu vous benisse, mon enfant!_' (May God bless you, my boy!)
+
+"As I stood on the back end of my train, pulling away from the
+station, the old man looked at me saying:
+
+"'Adieu! Adieu!' Then, looking up into the sky, he made a sign of the
+cross and said: '_Que Dieu vous protege, mon enfant!_' (May God
+protect you, my boy!)
+
+"That blessing was worth a copper mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+HOW TO GET ON THE ROAD.
+
+
+Since starting on the road many have asked me: "How can I get a job on
+the road?"
+
+Young men and old men have asked me this--clerks, stock boys,
+merchants and students. Even wives have asked me how to find places
+for their husbands.
+
+Let's clear the ground of dead timber. Old men of any sort and young
+men who haven't fire in their eyes and ginger in their feet need not
+apply. The "Old Man," who sits in the head office sizes up the man who
+wishes to go out on the road and spend a whole lot of the firm's money
+for traveling expenses with a great deal more care than the dean of a
+college measures the youth who comes to enter school. The dean thinks:
+"Well, maybe we can make something out of this boy, dull as he is.
+We'll try." But the business man says: "That fellow is no good. He
+can't sell goods. What's the use of wasting money on him and covering
+a valuable territory with a dummy?"
+
+On the other hand, the heads of wholesale houses are ever on the watch
+for bright young men. This is no stale preachment, but a live fact!
+There are hundreds of road positions open in every city in America.
+Almost any large firm would put on ten first class men to-morrow, but
+they _can't find the men_.
+
+The "stock" is the best training school for the road--the stock boy is
+the drummer student. Once in a while an old merchant, tiring of the
+routine of the retail business, may get a "commission job"--that is,
+he may find a position to travel for some firm, usually a "snide
+outfit"--if he will agree to pay his own traveling expenses and accept
+for his salary a percentage of his sales shipped. Beware, my friend,
+of the "commission job!" Reliable firms seldom care to put out a man
+who does not "look good enough" to justify them in at least
+guaranteeing him a salary he can live on. They know that if a man
+feels he is going to _live_ and not lag behind, he will work better.
+The commission salesman is afraid to spend his own money; yet, were he
+to have the firm's money to spend, many a man who fails would succeed.
+Once in a while a retail clerk may get a place on the road, but the
+"Old Man" does not look on the clerk with favor. The clerk has had
+things come his way too easy. His customers come to him; the man on
+the road must _go after his customers_. It is the stock boy who has
+the best show to get on the road.
+
+The stock boy learns his business from the ground up or better, as the
+Germans say, "from the house out." If one young man cannot become a
+surgeon without going through the dissecting room, then another cannot
+become a successful drummer without having worked in stock. The
+merchant, who oft-times deals in many lines, wishes to buy his goods
+from the man who knows his business; and unless a man knows his
+business he would better never start on the road.
+
+But, my dear boy, to merely know your business is not all. You may
+know that this razor is worth $12.00 a dozen and that one $13.50; that
+this handle is bone and that one celluloid; but that won't get you on
+the road. _You must have a good front._ I do not mean by this that you
+must have just exactly 990 hairs on each side of the "part" on your
+head; that your shoes must be shined, your trousers creased, your
+collar clean and your necktie just so. Neatness is a "without-which-
+not;" but there must be more--a boy must work hard, be polite, honest,
+full of force, bright, quick, frank, good-natured. The "Old Man" may
+keep to sweep the floor a lazy, shiftless, stupid, silly, grouchy
+"stiff"; but when he wants some one to go on the road he looks for a
+live manly man. When you get in stock it is _up to you;_ for eyes are
+on you, eyes just as anxious to see your good qualities as you are to
+show them, eyes that are trying to see you make good.
+
+[Illustration: "I braced the old man--it wasn't exactly a freeze. But
+there was a lot of frost in the air."]
+
+How can I get "in stock?" That's easy. If you are in the city you are
+on the spot; if you are in the country, "hyke" for the city! See that
+you haven't any cigarette stains on your fingers or tobacco in the
+corners of your mouth. Go into the wholesale houses, from door to
+door--until you find a job. If you are going to let a few or a hundred
+turn-downs dishearten you, you'd better stay at home; _for when you
+get on the road, turn-downs are what you must go up against every
+day._ If you know some traveling man, or merchant, or manager, or
+stock boy, maybe he can get you a "job in stock." But remember one
+thing: When you get there, you must depend upon Number One. Your
+recommendation is worth nothing to you from that hour on. This is the
+time when the good front gets in its work.
+
+The city is a strong current, my boy, in which there are many
+whirlpools ready to suck you under; yet if you are a good swimmer you
+can splash along here faster than anywhere else. A successful
+traveling man once told me how he got on the road.
+
+"I was raised in a little town in Tennessee," said he. "A traveling
+man whose home was in my native town took me along with him, one day,
+when he made a team trip to Bucksville, an inland country town,
+fourteen miles away. That was a great trip for me--fourteen miles, and
+staying over night in a hotel!--the first time I had ever done so in
+my life. And for the first time I knew how it felt to have a strange
+landlord call me "mister." It was on that trip that I caught the fever
+for travel, and that trip put me on the road!
+
+"When, the next morning after reaching Bucksville, my drummer friend
+had finished business and packed his trunks, he said to me: 'Billie, I
+guess you may go and get the team ready.' I answered him, saying, 'The
+team _is_ ready and backed up, sir, for the trunks.' In three minutes
+the trunks were loaded in and we were off.
+
+"'Billie,' said my friend--I shall never forget it for it was the dawn
+of hope for me, as I had never had any idea what I was going to do in
+after life!--'I'll tell you, Billie, you would make a good drummer,
+suh. When we drove down yesterday you counted how many more horseflies
+lit on the bay mare than on the white horse. You reasoned out that the
+flies lit on the bay because the fly and the mare were about the same
+color and that the fly was not so liable to be seen and killed as if
+it had lit on the white. That showed me you notice things and reason
+about them. To be a good traveling man you must make a business of
+noticing things and thinking about them. Real good hoss sense is a
+rare thing. Then, this mo'nin', when I said "Get the team ready," you
+said "It is ready, suh," and showed me that you look ahead, see what
+ought to be done and do it without being told. Generally any fool can
+do what he is told to; but it takes a man of sense to find things to
+do, and if he has the grit to do them he will get along. I'm just
+going to see if I can't get a place in our house for you, Billie.
+You've got the stuff in you to make a successful drummer, suh. Yes,
+suh! Hoss sense and grit, suh--hoss sense and grit!'
+
+"Sure enough the next Christmas night--I wasn't then sixteen--I struck
+out for the city in company with my older traveling man friend. He had
+got me a place in his house. The night I left, my mother said to me:
+'Son, I've tried to raise you right. I'll soon find out if I have. I
+believe I have and that you will get along.' My father then gave me
+the only word of advice he ever gave me in his life: 'Son, be polite,'
+said he; 'this will cost you nothing and be worth lots.'
+
+"Well, sir, with those words ringing in my ears: 'Use hoss sense; have
+grit;' 'Be polite;' 'Son, I've tried to raise you right,' I struck out
+for the city. As I think it over now, the thing that did me the most
+good was my father's advice: 'Son, be polite, this will cost you
+nothing and be worth lots.' The boy can never hope to be much if he
+does not know that he should tip his hat to a lady, give his seat to a
+gray-haired man, or carry a bundle for an old woman.
+
+"How strange it was for me that night, to sleep with my friend in a
+bed on wheels! How strange, the next morning, to wash in a bowl on
+wheels! and to look out of the Pullman windows as I wiped my face! I
+was _living_ then! And when I reached the city! Such a bustle I've
+never seen since. As I walked up a narrow street from the depot,
+I fell on the slippery sidewalk. 'Better get some ashes on your feet'
+said my friend. And, indeed, I did need to keep ashes on my feet for a
+long time. I had before me a longer and more slippery sidewalk than I
+then dreamed of. Every boy has who goes to the city. But, when he gets
+his sled to the top, he's in for a long, smooth slide!
+
+"I started in to work for twenty dollars a month--not five dollars a
+week! I found there was a whole lot of difference, especially when I
+had to pay $4.50 a week for board and forty cents for laundry. I was
+too proud to send home for money and too poor to spend it out of my
+own purse. Good training this! One winter's day a friend told me there
+was skating in the park. I asked a gentleman where the park was. 'Go
+three blocks and take the car going south,' said he. I went three
+blocks and when the car came along I _followed_ it, for I could not
+afford a single nickel for car fare. What a fortune I had when, during
+busy season, I could work nights and get fifty cents extra for supper
+money! None of this did I spend, as my boarding house wasn't far away.
+The only money that I spent in a whole year was one dollar for a
+library ticket--the best dollar I ever spent in my life! Good books,
+and there are plenty of them free in all cities, are the best things
+in the world, anyway, to keep a boy out of devilment. The boy who will
+put into his head what he will get out of good books will win out over
+the one who gets his clothes full of chalk from billiard cues. One day
+the "Old Gentleman" saw me at the noon hour as I was going to the
+library with a book under my arm. 'So you read nights, do you,
+Billie,' said he. 'Well, you keep it up and you will get ahead of
+the boys who don't.'
+
+"Work? I worked like a beaver. I was due at seven in the morning. I
+was always there several minutes before seven. One morning the old
+gentleman came in real early and found me at work, while a couple of
+the other boys were reading the papers and waiting for the seventh
+strike, and before most of the stock boys had shown up. At noon I
+would wrap bundles, take a blacking pot and mark cases, run the
+elevator or do anything to "keep moving." I did not know that an eye
+was on me all the time; but there was. At the end of a year the old
+gentleman called me into the office and said: 'Billie, you've done
+more this year than we have paid you for; here's a check for sixty
+dollars, five dollars a month back pay. Your salary will be $25.00 a
+month next year. You may also have a week's vacation.
+
+"How big that sixty was! Rockefeller hasn't as much to-day as I had
+then. What he has doesn't make him happy; he wants more. I had enough.
+Why, I was able to buy a new rig-out. I can see that plaid suit of
+clothes to this day! I could afford to go home looking slick, to visit
+my mother and father; I could buy a present for my sweetheart, too.
+The good Lord somehow very wisely puts 'notions' into a young man's
+head about the time he begins to get on in the world, and the best
+thing on earth for him when he is away from home is to have some girl
+away back where he came from think a whole lot of him and send him a
+crocheted four-in-hand for a Christmas present. This makes him loathe
+foul lips and the painted cheek. When a boy 'grows wise' he stands,
+sure's you're born, on the brink of hell. It's a pity that so many,
+instead of backing away when they get their eyelashes singed a little,
+jump right in.
+
+"All during my first year I had helped the sample clerk, who had the
+best job in the house, get out samples for the salesmen. It was not
+"my business" to do this; but I did it during spare time from my
+regular work. When I came back from my visit home, the old gentleman
+found me on the floor one day while I was tagging samples. 'Billie,'
+said he, 'Fritz (the sample clerk) is going out on the road for us
+next week. I have decided to let you take his place here in the house.
+You are pretty young but we think you can do it.'
+
+"I tried to answer back, 'I'll do my best,' but I couldn't say a word.
+I only choked. The old gentleman had to turn away from me; it was too
+much for him, too. After he stepped on the elevator, he turned around
+and smiled at me. I heard him blow his nose after the elevator sunk
+out of sight. I knew then that he believed in me and I said to myself,
+'He shall never lose his faith.'
+
+"In a few days Fritz had gone out on his trip and I was left alone to
+do his work, the old gentleman handed me a sample book one afternoon
+near closing time. 'Billie,' says he, 'Gregory is in a hurry for his
+samples. Express them to Fayetteville.' He had merely written the
+stock numbers in the book. It was up to me to fill in on the sample
+book the description of the goods and the prices. This I did _that
+night at home_ from memory. I had learned the stock that well. I
+also wrote the sample tickets. It took me until after midnight. Next
+morning I was waiting at the front door when the early man came to
+unlock it. That night the samples went to Fayetteville.
+
+"Two days afterward the old gentleman called me to the office and
+asked me: 'When can Gregory expect his samples? He's in a big hurry.'
+
+"'I sent them Wednesday night, sir,' said I.
+
+"'Wednesday night! Why it was Tuesday night when I gave you the sample
+book!'
+
+"'I'm sure they went,' said I, 'because I saw the cases go into the
+express wagon.'
+
+"'All right,' said the old gentleman; and he smiled at me again the
+same way he did the morning he made me the sample clerk, a smile which
+told me I had his heart, and I have it to this day.
+
+"Next morning he sent up to me a letter from Gregory, who wrote that
+the samples came to him in better shape than ever before. At the end
+of that year I got a check for $150 back pay, and my salary was raised
+again. At the end of the third year the old gentleman gave me more
+back pay and another raise, saying to me: 'Billie, I have decided to
+put you on the road over Moore's old territory. He is not going to be
+with us any more. Be ready to start January 1st.' I was the youngest
+man that firm ever put out. I was with them sixteen years and it
+almost broke my heart to leave them."
+
+"You bet," said I, "the stock boy has a chance if he only knows it."
+
+"Yes," answered my friend, "sure he has. My mother put in my trunk
+when I left home a Sunday School card on which were the words: 'Thy
+God seeth thee, my son.' Without irreverence I would advise every
+stock boy who wants to get on the road to write these words and keep
+them before him every day: 'The eyes of the old man are upon me.'"
+
+I once heard one of the very successful clothing salesmen of Chicago
+tell how he got on the road.
+
+"I had been drudging along in the office making out bills for more
+than a year, at ten a week," said he. "My father traveled for the firm
+but he never would do anything to get me started on the road. He
+thought I would fall down. I was simply crazy to go. I had seen the
+salesmen get down late, sit around like gentlemen, josh the bosses,
+smoke good cigars and come and go when they pleased for eight months
+in the year. This looked better to me than slaving away making out
+bills from half past seven in the morning until half past six at
+night, going out at noon hungry as a hound and having to climb a
+ladder after a ham sandwich, a glass of milk and a piece of apple pie.
+
+"I had kept myself pretty well togged up and, as my father wouldn't do
+anything to get me started, I made up my mind to go straight to the
+boss myself. He was a little fat sawed-off. He wore gold-rimmed
+glasses and whenever he was interested in anybody, he would look at
+him over his specs. He did not know much about the English language,
+but he had a whole lot more good common sense than I gave him credit
+for then. It never hurts a boy in the house, you know, who wants to go
+on the road to go square up and say so. He may get a turn-down, but
+the boss will like his spunk, and he stands a better show this way
+than if he dodges back and waits always for the boss to come to him.
+Many a boy gets out by striking the 'Old Man' to go out. If the boy
+puts up a good talk to him the old man will say: 'He came at me pretty
+well. By Jove, he can approach merchants, and we will give him a
+chance.'
+
+"One day, pretty soon after I had braced the old man to send me out, a
+merchant in Iowa wrote in that he wanted to buy a bill of clothing.
+They looked him up in Dun's and found that he was in the grocery
+business. My father didn't wish to go out--the town was in his
+territory. I overheard the old man in the office say to him: 'Let's
+send Chim.'
+
+"Well, Jim started that night. They told me to take a sleeper, but I
+sat up all night to save the two dollars. I didn't save much money,
+though, because in the middle of the night I got hungry and filled up
+on peanuts and train bananas. The town was up on a branch and I didn't
+get there until six o'clock the next day. When I reached there, I went
+right up to my man's store. You ought to have seen his place! The town
+was about seven hundred, and the store just about evened up with it--
+groceries and hardware. I got a whiff from a barrel of sauer kraut as
+I went in the door; on the counter was a cheese case; frying pans and
+lanterns hung down on hooks from the ceiling; two farmers sat near the
+stove eating sardines and crackers. No clothing was in sight and I
+said to myself: 'Well, I'm up against it; this man can't buy much; he
+hasn't any place to put it if he does.' But I've since learned one
+thing: You never know who is going to buy goods and how many on the
+road must learn that the man who has _nothing_ in his line is the very
+man who can and will buy the most, sometimes, _because he hasn't any_.
+And besides, the _little_ man may be just in the notion of spreading
+himself.
+
+[Illustration: "You ought to have seen his place"]
+
+"A young man was counting eggs back near the coal oil can. He was the
+only one around who seemed to have anything to do with the store. I
+walked up to him and told him who I was. He said, 'Yes, we are glad to
+see you. I'm just out of school and father wants to put me in business
+here. He is going to put in all his time in the bank. He wants me to
+take charge of the store. I've told him we could sell other things
+besides groceries--they are dirty, anyway, and don't pay much profit;
+so we have started to build on another room right next door and are
+going to put in other lines. I've told father we ought to put in
+clothing, but he hasn't fully made up his mind. I'll ask him to come
+down after supper and you can talk to him.'
+
+"'Hasn't fully made up his mind, and here I am my first time out, 24
+hours away, and a big expense,'--all this went through me and I
+couldn't eat any supper.
+
+"The old banker that evening was just tolerably glad to see me. It
+wasn't exactly a freeze, but there was lots of frost in the air. He
+said, after we had talked the thing over, that he would look at my
+samples the next morning, but that he would not buy unless my line was
+right and the prices were right. I was sure my 'prices were right.' I
+had heard the bosses talk a whole year about how cheaply they sold
+their goods. I had heard them swear at the salesmen for cutting prices
+and tell them that the goods were marked at bare living profit; and I
+was green enough to believe this. I also knew that my line was the
+best one on the road. I had not stopped to figure out how my bosses
+could stay under their own roof all the time and know so much about
+other houses' goods and be absolutely sure that their own line was
+bound to be the best ever. I had heard the road-men many times tell
+the bosses to 'wake up,' but I did not believe the salesmen. You know
+that a young fellow, even if he is with a weak house, starts out on
+his first trip feeling that his house is the best one. Before he gets
+through with his maiden trip, even though his house is a thoroughbred,
+he will think it is a selling plater.
+
+"That night I worked until two o'clock opening up. I did not know the
+marks so I had to squirm out what the characters meant and put the
+prices on the tickets in plain figures so I would know what the goods
+were worth. But this was a good thing. The salesman or the firm that
+has the honesty and the boldness to mark samples in plain figures and
+stick absolutely to their marked price, will do business with ease.
+Merchants in the country do not wish to buy cheaper than those in
+other towns do; they only wish a square deal. And, say what you will,
+they are kind o' leery when they buy from samples marked in
+characters--not plain figures. They often use a blind mark to do scaly
+work on their own customers and they don't like to have the same game
+worked on themselves. Honest merchants, and I mean by this those who
+make only a reasonable profit, mark their goods in plain figures, cut
+prices to nobody--prefer to do business with those who do it their
+way. The traveling man who breaks prices soon loses out.
+
+"That night I couldn't sleep. I was up early next morning and had a
+good fire in my sample room. I had sense enough to make the place
+where I was going to show my goods as comfortable as I could. I sold a
+bill of $2,500 and never cut a price.
+
+"When I got home I put the order on the old man's desk and went to my
+stool to make out bills. The old man came in. He picked up the order
+and looked over it carefully, then he asked one of the boys: 'Vere's
+Chim? Tell him to com heer. I vant to see him.'
+
+"I walked into the office. The old man was looking at me over his
+specs as I went in. He grabbed me by the hand and said so loud you
+could hear him all over the house: 'Ah, Chim, dot vas tandy orter. How
+dit you do id mitoud cotting prices, Chim? You vas a motel for efery
+men we haf in der house. I did nod know we hat a salesman in der
+office. By Himmel! you got a chob on der roat right avay, Chim.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+FIRST EXPERIENCES IN SELLING.
+
+
+I sat with a group of friends around a table one evening not long ago,
+in one of the dining rooms of the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. The
+dining room was done in dark stained oak, the waiters whispered to
+each other in foreign tongues, French and German; on the walls of the
+room were pictures of foreign scenes painted by foreign hands; but,
+aside from this, everything about us was strictly American. We had
+before us blue points with water-cress salad, mountain trout from the
+Rockies, and a Porterhouse three inches thick. We had just come out of
+the brush and were going to "Sunday" in Denver. It was Saturday night,
+A man who has never been on the road does not know what it is to get a
+square meal after he has been "high-grassing it" for a week or two,
+and when such can become the pleasure of a drummer, he quickly forgets
+the tough "chuck" he has been chewing for many days.
+
+We were all old friends, had known each other in a different territory
+many years before; so, when we came together again, this time in
+Denver, not having seen each other for many years, we talked of old
+times and of when we met with our first experiences on the road.
+
+When a man first begins to hustle trunks he has a whole lot to learn.
+Usually he has been a stock-boy, knowing very little of the world
+beyond the bare walls in which he has filled orders. To his fellow
+travelers the young man on the road is just about as green as they
+make them, but the rapid way in which he catches on and becomes an
+old-timer, is a caution.
+
+A great many decry the life of the traveling man, even men on the road
+themselves are discontented, but if you want to get one who is truly
+happy and satisfied with his lot, find one who, after having enjoyed
+the free and independent (yes, and delightful!) life of the road, and
+then settled down for a little while as a merchant on his own hook,
+insurance agent, or something of that kind, and finally has gone back
+to his grips, and you will find a man who will say: "Well, somebody
+else can do other things, but, for my part, give me the road."
+
+After we had finished with the good things before us and had lighted
+cigars, we could all see in the blue curls of smoke that rose before
+us visions of our past lives. I asked one of my friends, "How long
+have you been on the road, Billy?"
+
+"Good Lord!" he yawned, "I haven't thought of that for a long time,
+but I sure do remember when I first started out. I left St. Louis one
+Sunday night on the Missouri Pacific. It was nearly twenty years ago.
+I remember it very well because that night I read in a newspaper that
+there was such a thing as a phonograph and, as I was traveling through
+Missouri, I didn't believe it. I had to wait until I could see one.
+The next day noon I struck Falls City, Nebraska. It had taken me
+eighteen hours to make the trip. To me it seemed as if I were going
+into a new world and I was surprised to find, when I reached Nebraska,
+that men way out there wore about the same sort of clothes that they
+did in St. Louis. I would not have been surprised a bit if some Indian
+had come out of the bushes and tried to scalp me. The depot was a mile
+and a half from the hotel. Here I took my first ride in an omnibus.
+The inside of that old bus, the red-cushioned seats and the
+advertisements of a livery stable, a hardware store, and "Little
+Jake's Tailor Shop" were all new to me. Mud? I never saw mud so deep
+in my life. It took us an hour to get up town. The little white hotel
+with the green shutters on it was one of the best I ever struck in my
+life. Many a time since then I have wished I could have carried it--
+the good friend, chicken and all--along with me in all my travels. My
+best friend and adviser, an old road man himself, had told me this:
+'When you get to a town, get up your trunks and open them and then go
+and see the trade. You might just as well hunt quail with your shells
+in your pocket as to try to do business without your samples open.'
+
+"I opened up that afternoon. It took me three hours. I put my samples
+in good shape so that I knew where to lay my hands on anything that a
+customer might ask for--and you know if you go out to sell anything
+you'd better know what you have to sell! My samples open, I went down
+the street and fell into the first store I came to. The proprietor had
+been an old customer of the house, but I now know that the reason he
+gave me the ice pitcher was that he had been slow in paying his bills
+and the house had drawn on him. A wise thing, this, for a house to do
+--when they want to lose a customer! This was a heart-breaker to me
+right at the start, but it was lucky, because, if I had sold him, I
+would have packed up and gone away without working the town. A man on
+the road, you know, boys, even if he doesn't do business with them,
+should form the acquaintance of all the men in the town who handle his
+line. The old customer may drop dead, sell out, or go broke, and it is
+always well to have somebody else in line. Of course there are
+justifiable exceptions to this rule, but in general I would say: 'Know
+as many as you can who handle your line.'
+
+"After the old customer turned me down I went into every store in that
+town and told my business. I found two out of about six who said they
+would look at my goods. By this time everybody had closed up and I
+came back to the hotel and went to bed, having spent the first day
+without doing any business.
+
+"Five men from my house in this same territory had fallen down in five
+years and I, a kid almost, was number six--but not to fall down! I
+said to myself, '_I am going to succeed.'_ The will to win means
+a whole lot in this road business, too, boys. You know, if you go at a
+thing half-heartedly you are sure to lose out, but if you say 'I
+will,' you cannot fall down.
+
+"Next morning I was up early and, before the clerks had dusted off the
+counters, I went in to see the old gentleman who had said he would
+look at my goods.
+
+"'Round pretty early, aren't you, son?' said the old gentleman.
+
+"'Yes, sir; but I'm after the worm,' said I.
+
+"'All right. Go up to your hotel and I'll be there in half an hour.'
+
+"Instead of waiting until he was ready for me, I went to the hotel.
+After the half hour was up I began to get nervous. It was an hour and
+a half before he came. I hadn't then learned that the best way to do
+is to go with your customer from his store to yours, instead of
+sitting around and waiting for him to come to you. This gives him a
+chance to get out of the notion.
+
+"I sold the old gentleman a pretty fair bill of hats, but it was sort
+of a hit and miss proposition. He would jump from this thing to that
+thing. I hadn't learned that the real way to sell goods is to lay out
+one line at a time and finish with that before going to another.
+Pretty soon, though, good merchants educated me how to sell a bill.
+This is a thing a beginner should be taught something about before he
+starts out.
+
+"Customer No. 2 was a poke. But I suppose this was the reason I sold
+him, because most of the boys, I afterwards learned, passed him up and
+had nicknamed him 'Old Sorgum-in-the-Winter.' It is a pretty good idea
+to let a slow man have his way, anyhow, if you have plenty of time,
+because when you are selling goods in dozen lots, no matter how slow a
+man is, you can get in a pretty good day's work in a few hours.
+
+"When I got through with 'Old Sorgum' I had several hours left before
+my train went west. Did I pack up and quit? Bet your life not! I
+didn't have sense enough then, I suppose, to know that I had placed my
+goods in about as many stores as I ought to. I then did the 'bundle
+act.'
+
+"I did up a bunch of stuff in a cloth and went down the street with
+the samples under my arm. I did have sense enough, though, to tuck
+them under my coat as I passed by the store of the man I had sold. I
+didn't know, then, of the business jealousy--which is folly, you know
+--there is between merchants; but I felt a little guilty just the
+same.
+
+The only thing I sold, however, was a dozen dog-skin gloves to the big
+clothing merchant on the corner. That night I took the two o'clock
+train out of town and had my first experience of sleeping in two beds
+in two towns in one night--but this, in those days, was fun for me.
+
+"Do you know, I had a bully good week? I was out early that season,
+ahead of the bunch. By Saturday afternoon I had worked as far west as
+Wymore. I went up to see a man there on Saturday afternoon. He said,
+'I'll see you in the morning.' Well, there I was! I had been raised to
+respect the Sabbath and between the time that he said he would see me
+in the morning and the time that I said all right--which was about a
+jiffy--I figured out that it would be better to succeed doing business
+on Sunday than to fail by being too offensively good. For a stranger
+in a strange place work is apt to be less mischievous than idling,
+even on the Sabbath Day.
+
+"Heavens! how I worked those days! After I had made the appointment
+for Sunday morning I went back to the hotel and threw my stuff into my
+trunks quickly--by this time I had learned that to handle samples in a
+hurry is one of the necessary arts of the road--and took a train to a
+little nearby town which I could double into without losing any time.
+I even had the nerve to drag a man over to my sample room _after he
+had closed up on Saturday night!_ I didn't sell him anything that
+time, but afterwards he became one of my best customers. It pays to
+keep hustling, you know.
+
+"Whew! how cold it was that night. The train west left at 3 a.m.
+Heavens! how cold my room was. A hardware man had never even slept in
+it, to say nothing of its ever having known a stove. The windows had
+whiskers on them long as a billy goat's; the mattress was one of those
+thin boys. I hadn't then learned that the cold can come through the
+mattress under you just about as fast as it can through the quilts on
+top. I hadn't got onto the lamp chimney trick."
+
+"Why, what's that?" spoke up one of the boys.
+
+"Aren't you onto that?" said Billy. "You can take a lamp chimney, wrap
+it up in a towel and put it at your feet and it will make your whole
+bed as warm as toast.
+
+"Well, I went back to Wymore the next morning and sold my man. I cut
+the stuffing out of prices because I had been told that the firm he
+bought from was the best going, and I remembered the advice that my
+old friend had given me: 'It's better, Billy, to be cussed for selling
+goods cheap than to be fired for not selling them at all.' Of course I
+don't agree with this now, but I slashed that bill just the same.
+
+"Next morning, when I reached Beatrice, the first thing I saw in the
+old hotel (I still recall that dead, musty smell) was a church
+directory hanging on the wall. In the center of the directory were
+printed these words:
+
+     "'A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content
+        And plenty of health for the morrow;
+      But a Sabbath profaned, no matter what gained,
+        Is a certain forerunner of sorrow.'
+
+"Down in the corner, where the glass was broken, one of the boys who
+had without doubt profaned the Sabbath, had written these words:
+
+     "'A man who's thrifty on Sunday's worth fifty
+        Of a half-sanctimonious duck;
+      He will get along well if he does go to dwell
+        Where he'll chew on Old Satan's hot chuck.'
+
+"My business the week before had been simply out of sight. The old man
+in the house wrote me the only congratulatory letter I ever got from
+him in my life. He was so well pleased with what I had done that he
+didn't kick very hard even on the bill that I had slashed. But that
+next week--oh, my! I didn't sell enough to buy honeysuckles for a
+humming bird. I began to think that maybe that Sunday bill had
+'queered' me."
+
+"But how about Sunday now, Bill?" spoke up one of the boys. "Do you
+think you'd like to take a good fat order to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, I've grown not to mind it out in this country," said Billy. "You
+know we've a saying out here that the Lord has never come west of
+Cheyenne."
+
+"I shall never forget my first experience," said my old friend Jim, as
+we all lighted fresh cigars--having forgotten the Dutch pictures and
+the black oak furnishings.
+
+"I had made a little flyer for the house to pick up a bill of opening
+stock out in Iowa. They all thought in the office that the bill wasn't
+worth going after, so they sent me; but I landed a twenty-five hundred
+dollar order without slashing an item, a thing no other salesman up to
+that time had ever done, so the old man called me in the office and
+gave me a job just as soon as I came back.
+
+"I started out with two hundred dollars expense money. The roll of
+greenbacks the cashier handed me looked as big as a bale of hay. I
+made a couple of towns the first two days and did business in both of
+them, keeping up the old lick of not cutting a price.
+
+"The next town I was booked for was Broken Bow, which was then off the
+main line of the 'Q,' and way up on a branch. To get there I had to go
+to Grand Island. Now, you boys remember the mob that used to hang out
+around the hotel at Grand Island. That was the time when there were a
+lot of poker sharks on the road. When I was a bill clerk in Chicago I
+used to meet with some of the other boys from the store on Saturday
+nights, play penny ante, five-cent limit, and settle for twenty-five
+cents on the dollar when we got through--I was with a clothing firm,
+you know. I had always been rather lucky and I had it in my head that
+I could buck up against anybody in a poker game. I had no trouble
+finding company to sit in with. In fact, they looked me up. In those
+days there were plenty of glass bowls full of water setting 'round for
+suckers. My train didn't leave until Monday morning and I had to
+Sunday at Grand Island.
+
+"We started in on Saturday night and played all night long. By the
+time we had breakfast--and this we had sent up to the room--I was out
+about forty dollars. I wanted to quit them and call it off. I thought
+this was about as much as I could stand to lose and 'cover' in my
+expense account, but all of the old sharks said, 'By jove, you have
+got nerve, Jim. You have the hardest run of luck in drawing cards that
+I ever saw.' They doped me up with the usual words of praise and,
+after I had put a cup of coffee or two under my belt, I went at it
+again, making up my mind that I could stand to lose another ten. I
+figured out that I could make a team trip and 'break a wheel' to even
+up on expenses.
+
+"Well, you know what that means. The time for you to quit a poker game
+(when you have money in your pocket) is like to-morrow--it never
+comes. By nightfall I was dead broke. Then I began to think. I felt
+like butting my brains out against a lamp-post; but that wouldn't do.
+I ate supper all alone and went to thinking what I'd do.
+
+"I wasn't a kitten, by any means, so I went up to my shark friends and
+struck one of them for enough to carry me up to Broken Bow and back.
+He was a big winner and came right up with the twenty. They wanted to
+let me in the game again on 'tick,' but then I had sense enough to
+know that I'd had plenty. I went to my room and wrote the house. I
+simply made a clean breast of the whole business. I told them the
+truth about the matter--that I'd acted the fool--and I promised them
+I'd never do it any more; and I haven't played a game of poker since.
+The old man of the house had wired me money to Grand Island by the
+time I returned there and in the first mail he wrote me to keep right
+on.
+
+"Business was bum with me for the next three days. I didn't sell a
+cent. One of the boys tipped me on an Irishman down in Schuyler who
+had had a squabble with his clothing house. I saw a chance right there
+and jumped right into that town. I got the man to look at my goods. He
+looked them all through from A to Z, but I couldn't start that
+Hibernian to save my life.
+
+"He said, 'Well, your line looks pretty good; but, heavens alive! your
+prices are away too high.' Then he said, picking up a coat: 'Look
+here, young man, you're new on the road and I want to figure out and
+show you that you're getting too much for your goods. Now, you put
+down there, here is a suit that you ask me $12 for. Just figure the
+cloth and the linings, and the buttons, and the work. All told they
+don't cost you people over seven dollars. You ought to be able to--and
+you can--make me this suit for $10. That's profit enough. You can't
+expect to do business with us people out here in Nebraska and hold us
+up. We're not in the backwoods. People are civilized out here. Your
+house has figured that we're Indians, or something of that kind. You
+know very well that they sell this same suit in Illinois, where
+competition is greater, for ten dollars. Now I won't stand for any
+high prices like you're asking me. I'm going to quit the old firm that
+I've been buying goods from. I've got onto them. Now I'm going to give
+my business to somebody and you're here on the spot. Your goods suit
+me as far as pattern and make and general appearance go, and I'll do
+business with you, and do it right now, if you'll do it on the right
+sort of basis.'
+
+"Well, there I was. I hadn't sold a bill for three days and I felt
+that this one was slipping right away from me, too. I had come
+especially to see the man and he had told me that he would buy goods
+from me if I would make the price right. So I lit in to cut. I sold
+him the twelve dollar suit for ten dollars. He took a dozen of them.
+It was a staple. I didn't know anything about what the goods were
+worth, but he had made his bluff good. I sold him the bill right
+through at cut prices on everything. The house actually lost money on
+the bill. I have long since learned that the only way to meet a
+bluffer is with a bluff. This man had laid out a line of goods which
+he fully intended, I know now, to buy from me at the prices which I
+had first asked him for them, but he thought he would buy them cheaper
+from me if he could.
+
+"Many a time after that, when I had got onto things better, has this
+old Irishman laughed at me about how he worked me into giving him a
+bill of goods, and enjoyed the joke of it--Irishmanlike--more, I
+believe, than he did getting the bill at low prices.
+
+"Well, my nerve was gone and I thought the only way I could do
+business then was by cutting the stuffing out of prices. I kept it up
+for a few days--until I received my next mail at Omaha. Whew! how the
+old man did pour it into me. He wrote me the meanest letter that a
+white man ever got. He said: 'Jim, you can go out and play all the
+poker that you want to, but don't cut the life out of goods. You can
+lose a hundred and fifty dollars once in a while, if you want to,
+playing cards, that will be a whole lot better than losing a hundred
+and fifty every day by not getting as much as goods are worth. Now
+we're going to forget about the hundred and fifty dollars you lost
+gambling, instead of charging it to your salary account, as you told
+us to do. We had made up our minds because you were starting out so
+well and were keeping up prices, to charge this hundred and fifty
+dollars to your expense account. We were going to forget all about
+that, Jim; but if you can't get better prices than you have been for
+the last week, just take the train and come right on in to the house.
+We can't afford to keep you out on the road and lose money on you;'
+and so on.
+
+"I was scared to death. I didn't know that the Old Man in the house
+was running a bigger bluff on me than the Irishman to whom I made cut
+prices on the bill.
+
+"But that letter gave me my nerve back and I ended up with a pretty
+fair trip. At that time I hadn't learned that this road business is
+done on confidence more than on knowledge. A salesman must feel first
+within himself that his goods and prices are right, and then he can
+sell them at those prices. If you feel a thing yourself you can make
+the other man feel it, especially when he doesn't know anything about
+the values of the goods he buys.
+
+"When I reached the house one of the boys in stock patted me on the
+back and said; 'Jim, the old man is tickled to death about what you've
+done. He says you're making better profits for him than any man in the
+house.'"
+
+"Well, I guess you held your job, all right, then, didn't you, Jim?"
+
+"Oh my, yes. I stayed with them--that was my old firm, you know--for
+fifteen years, and I was a fool for ever leaving them. I would have
+been a partner in the house to-day if I hadn't switched off."
+
+"How long have you been out, Arthur?" said my friend Jim, after ending
+his story.
+
+"Well, so long that I've almost forgotten it, boys, but I shall never
+forget my start, either. The firm that I worked for had a wholesale
+business, and they were also interested in a retail store. I was stock
+man in the retail house but I wasn't satisfied with it. I was crazy to
+go out and try my luck on the road. I braced the old man several times
+before he would let me start; but he finally said to me: 'Well,
+Arthur, you're mighty anxious to go out on the road, and I guess we'll
+let you go. It won't do much harm because I think that, after a little
+bit, you will want to get back to your old job. Then you'll be
+satisfied with it. I kind o' feel, though, that in sending you out
+we'll be spoiling a good retail clerk to make a poor traveling man.
+You've done pretty well selling gloves a pair at a time to people who
+come in and ask for them, but you're going to have a good deal harder
+time when you go to selling a dozen at a clip to a man who hasn't been
+in the habit of buying them from you. But, as you're bent on going,
+we'll start you out this season. You can get yourself ready to go
+right away.'
+
+"My territory was Iowa. In the first town I struck was the meanest
+merchant I've ever met in my life. But I didn't know it then. He was
+one of the kind who'd tell you with a grunt that he would not go to
+your sample room but if you had a few good sellers to bring them over
+and he'd look at them. The old hog! Then about the time you'd get your
+stuff over to his store something would have turned up to make him hot
+and he'd take out his spite on you.
+
+"Well, this old duck said he'd look at my samples of unlined goods. I
+rather thought that if I could get him started on unlined goods I
+could sell him on lined stuff and mittens. So I lugged over my whole
+line myself. I didn't have sense enough to give the porter a quarter
+to carry my grip over to his store and save my energy, but, instead, I
+picked up the old grip myself. It was all right for the first block,
+but then I had to sit down and rest. The store was four blocks away.
+On the home stretch I couldn't go twenty steps before I had to sit
+down and rest. It was so heavy that it almost pulled the cords in my
+wrist in two. When I finally landed the grip at the front of the old
+man's store, my tongue was hanging out. He had then gone to dinner.
+
+"I thought I wouldn't eat anything but that I would get my line ready
+for him by the time he came back, get through with him and take
+luncheon later. I carried the grip to the back end of the store and
+spread out my line on the counter. About one o'clock he came in and I
+said to him, 'I'm ready for you.' He walked away and didn't say a word
+but took out a newspaper and read for half an hour. He did it for pure
+meanness, for not a single customer came into the store while he sat
+there.
+
+"I was beginning to get a little hungry but I didn't mind that then.
+When the young lady on the dry goods side came back from dinner I
+sidled up to her and talked about the weather for another half hour.
+My stomach was beginning to gnaw but I didn't dare go out. The old man
+by this time had gone to his desk and was writing some letters. I
+waited until I saw him address an envelope and put a stamp on it, and
+then I braced him a second time.
+
+"'No, I guess I don't want any gloves.'
+
+"'Well, I've my goods all here and it'll be no trouble to show them to
+you,' I said.
+
+"'Nope,' said he, and then started to write another letter.
+
+"When he finished that one, I said: 'Now, I don't like to insist but
+as my goods are all here it won't do any harm to look at them.'
+
+"With this the old man turned on me and said:
+
+"'Looker here, young man, I've told you twict that I don't want to buy
+any of your goods. Now, you just get them in your grip and get them
+out of here right quick; if you don't I'll throw them out and you with
+them.'
+
+"Well, the old duffer was a little bigger than I was, and I didn't
+want to get into any trouble with him; not that I cared anything about
+having a scrap with him, but I thought that the firm wouldn't like it,
+and if they got onto me they'd fire me. So, without saying a word, I
+began to pack my goods together.
+
+"About that time a customer came in who wanted to buy a pair of shoes.
+Some of my samples were still on the counter near the shoe shelves.
+The old man, with a sweep of his hand, just cleaned the counter of my
+samples and there I was, picking them up off the floor and putting
+them into my grip. I felt like hitting him over the head with a nail
+puller but I buckled up the straps and started sliding the grip
+along,--it was so infernally heavy--to the front door.
+
+"Before I got to the front door, he came up and took the grip out of
+my hand and piled it out on the sidewalk and gave me a shove. Then he
+went back to show the customer the pair of shoes.
+
+"I was just a boy then--was just nineteen--and this was the first man
+I'd called on.
+
+"'If they're all like this,' thought I to myself, 'I believe I'll go
+back home and sell them a pair at a time to the boys I know who "come
+in" for them.'
+
+"I lugged that grip back to the hotel, hungry as I was. There was ice
+on the sidewalk but I was sweating like a mule pulling a bob-tailed
+street car full of fat folks. I was almost famished but I went to my
+room and cried like a child. My heart was broken.
+
+[Illustration: "My stomach was beginning to gnaw, but i didn't dare go
+out"]
+
+"But after awhile my nerve came back to me, and I thought, surely all
+the merchants I call on won't be like that man,--and I washed up and
+went down to supper. After eating something I felt better. At the
+supper table I told an old traveling man, who was sitting at the table
+with me, about the way I'd been treated.
+
+"'Well, come on, my boy, and I'll sell you a bill tonight. That old
+fellow is the meanest dog in Iowa. No decent traveling man will go
+near him. As a rule, you'll find that merchants will treat you like a
+gentleman. The best thing you can do is to scratch that old whelp off
+the list. Of course you know,' said he, giving me advice which I
+needed very much, 'you'll often run up against a man who is a little
+sour, but if you sprinkle sugar on him in the right kind of way, you
+can sweeten him up.'
+
+"You know how it is, boys, even now, all of us like to give a helping
+hand to the young fellow who's just starting out. I would almost hand
+over one of my customers to a young man to give him encouragement, and
+so would you. We've all been up against the game ourselves and know
+how many things the young fellow runs up against to dishearten him.
+
+"As I think of my early experiences, I recall with a great deal of
+gratitude in my heart the kind deeds that were done for me when I was
+the green first-tripper, by the old timers on the road. My new friend
+took me down the street to one of his customers and made him give me
+an order. That night I went to bed the happiest boy in Iowa."
+
+With this one of the boys called a waiter. As we lit our cigars my
+friend Moore, who was next to tell his story, said, "Well, boys,
+here's to Our First Experiences."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+TACTICS IN SELLING.
+
+
+The man on the road is an army officer. His soldiers are his samples.
+His enemy is his competitor. He fights battles every day. The "spoils
+of war" is _business_.
+
+The traveling man must use tactics just the same as does the general.
+He may not have at stake the lives of other men and the success of his
+country; but he does have at stake--and every day--his own livelihood,
+a chance for promotion--a partnership perhaps--and always, the success
+of his firm.
+
+Many are the turns the salesman takes to get business. He must be
+always ready when his eyes are open, and sometimes in his dreams, to
+wage war. If he is of the wrong sort, once in a while he will give
+himself up to sharp practice with his customer; another time he will
+fight shrewdly against his competitor. Sometimes he must cajole the
+man who wishes to do business with him and at the same time,
+especially when his customer's credit is none too good, make it easy
+for him to get goods shipped; and, hardest of all, he must get the
+merchant's attention that he may show him his wares. Get a merchant to
+_looking_ at your goods and you usually sell a bill.
+
+In the smoking room of a Pullman one night sat a bunch of the boys
+who, as is usual with them when they get together, were telling of
+their experiences. The smoker is the drummer's club-room when he is on
+a trip. On every train every night are told tales of the road which,
+if they were put in type, would make a book of compelling interest.
+The life of the traveling man has such variety, such a change of
+scene, that a great deal more comes into it than mere buy and sell.
+Yes, on this night of which I speak, the stories told were about
+tussles that my friends had had to get business.
+
+As the train rounded a sharp curve, one of the boys, who was standing,
+bumped his head against the door post. A New York hat man who saw the
+"broken bonnet," said, "Your cracked cady reminds me of one time when
+I sold a bill of goods that pleased me, I believe, more than any other
+order that I ever took. I was over in the mining district of Michigan.
+That's a pretty wide open country, you know. My old customer had quit
+the town. He couldn't make a 'stick' of it somehow. I had been selling
+him exclusively for so long that I thought I was queered with every
+other merchant in the town. But the season after my customer Hodges
+left there, much to my surprise, two men wrote into the house saying
+they would like to buy my goods. My stuff had always given Hodges'
+customers satisfaction. After he left, his old customers drifted into
+other stores and asked for my brand. Now, if you can only get a
+merchant's customers to asking for a certain brand of goods, you
+aren't going to have trouble in doing business with him. This is where
+the wholesale firm that sells reliable merchandise wins out over the
+one that does a cut-throat business. Good stuff satisfies and it
+builds business.
+
+"Well, when I went into this town I thought I would have easy sailing
+but I felt a little taken back when I walked down the street and sized
+up the stores of the merchants who wished to buy my goods. They both
+looked to me like tid bits. Both of them were new in the town, one of
+them having moved into Hodges' old stand. I said to myself that I
+didn't wish to do business with either one of these pikers. 'I'll see
+if I can't go over and square myself with Andrews, the biggest man in
+town,' I said. 'While I've never tried to do business with him, he
+can't have anything against me. I've always gone over and been a good
+fellow with him, so I'll see if I can't get him lined up.'
+
+"Three or four more of the boys had come in with me on the same train.
+When I went into Andrews' store, two of them were in there. Pretty
+soon afterwards I heard one of them say: 'Well, Andy, as you want to
+get away in the morning, I'll fall in after you close up. It'll suit
+me all the better to do business with you tonight.' Andrews spoke up
+and said, 'All right, eight o'clock goes.'
+
+"This man saw that I had come in to see him and, having made his
+engagement, knew enough to get out of the way. The boys, you know,
+especially the old timers, are mighty good about this. I don't believe
+the outsiders anyway know much about the fellowship among us.
+
+"The other man who was in the store was out on his first trip. He was
+selling suspenders. It was then, say, half past five. I joshed with
+the boys in the store for a few minutes. Andrews, meantime, had gone
+up to his office to look over his mail and get off some rush letters.
+The new man, who sold suspenders, was a good fellow but he had lots to
+learn. He trailed right along after Andrews as if he had been a dog
+led by a string. He stood around up in the office for a few minutes
+without having anything to say. Had he been an old-timer, you know, he
+would have made his speech and then moved out of the way. After a few
+minutes he came down and said to me, 'That fellow's a tough
+proposition. I can't get hold of him. I can't find out whether he
+wants to look at my goods or not. He joshes with me but I can't get
+him down to say that he will look. I don't know whether I ought to
+have my trunks brought up and fool with him or not.'
+
+"'Let me tell you one thing, my boy,' said I, 'if you want to do
+business, get your stuff up and do it quickly. If he doesn't come to
+look at your goods, bring 'em in. Bring 'em in. Go after him that
+way.'
+
+"'All right, I guess I will,' said he, and out he went.
+
+"As soon as Andrews came down from his office, I said 'Hello,' but
+before I could put in a word about business, in came a customer to
+look at a shirt. Well, sir, that fellow jawed over that four-bit shirt
+for half an hour. I'd gladly have given him half a dozen dollar-and-a-
+half shirts if he would only get out of my way and give me a chance to
+talk business. Just about the time that Andrews wrapped up the shirt,
+back came the new man again, having had his trunks brought up to the
+hotel. I knew then that my cake was all dough. So I skipped out,
+saying I would call in after supper. I felt then that, as Andrews was
+going away the next morning, I wouldn't get a chance at him so, being
+in the town, I thought the best thing to do was to go over and pick up
+one of the other fellows who was anxious to buy from me.
+
+"I went over to see the man who had taken Hodges' old stand. As soon
+as I went in he said: 'Yes, I want some goods. I have just started in
+here. I haven't much in the store but I'm doing first rate and am
+going to stock up. When can I see you? It would suit me a good deal
+better tonight after eight o'clock than any other time. I haven't put
+on a clerk yet and am here all alone. If you like, we'll get right at
+it and take sizes on what stock we have. Then you can get your supper
+and see me at eight o'clock and I'll be ready for you. I want to buy a
+pretty fair order. I've had a bully good hat trade this season. I've
+been sending mail orders into your house--must have bought over four
+hundred dollars from, them in the last three months. I s'pose you got
+credit for it all right.'
+
+"Well, this was news to me. The house hadn't written me anything about
+having received the mail orders and I'll say right here, that the firm
+that doesn't keep their salesmen fully posted about what's going on in
+his territory makes a great big mistake. If I'd known that this man
+had been buying so many goods, I wouldn't have overlooked him. As it
+was, I came very near passing up the town. And I'll tell you another
+thing: A man never wants to overlook what may seem to him a small bet.
+This fellow gave me that night over seven hundred dollars--a pretty
+clean bill in hats, you know, and has made me a first-class customer
+and we have become good friends.
+
+"But I'm getting a little ahead of my story! After supper, that night,
+I dropped into Andrews' store again. The suspender man was still
+there. He had taken my tip and brought in some of his samples. While
+Andrews was over at the dry goods side for a few minutes, the
+suspender man said to me:
+
+"'I don't believe I can sell this fellow. He says he wants to buy some
+suspenders but that mine don't strike him somehow--says they're too
+high prices. I've cut a $2.25 suspender to $1.90 but that doesn't seem
+to satisfy him, and I'll give you a tip, too--you've been so kind to
+me--I heard him say to his buyer that he wasn't going to look you
+over. He said to let you come around a few times and leave some of
+your money in the town, and then maybe he'd do business with you. I
+just thought I'd tell you this so that you'd know how you stood and
+not lose any time over it.'
+
+"'Thank you very much,' I said. Now, this sort of thing, you know,
+makes you whet your Barlow on your boot leg. I did thank the suspender
+man for the tip but I made up my mind that I was going to do business
+with Andrews anyway. You know there's lots more fun shooting quail
+flying in the brush than to pot-hunt them in a fence corner.
+
+"After I'd sold my other man that night, I sat down in the office of
+the hotel. Andrews was still in the sample room, just behind the
+office, looking over goods. I knew he'd have to pass out that way, so
+I sat down to wait for him. It was getting pretty late but I knew that
+he was a night-hawk and if he got interested he would stay up until
+midnight looking at goods. After a little bit out came Andrews, his
+buyer and my other traveling man friend. He asked me up with them to
+have cigars. He was wise. Only that morning we'd had to double up
+together in a sample room in the last town. We were pretty much
+crowded but were going to 'divvy' on the space. The boys, you know,
+are mighty good about this sort of thing; but when I went down the
+street I learned that my man was out of town--I sold only one man in
+that place. So I went right back up to the sample room and rolled my
+trunks out of his way so that my friend could have the whole thing to
+himself. There's no use being a hog, you know. This didn't hurt me
+any, and it was as much on account of this as anything else that I was
+asked up to take a cigar where I could get in a word with Andrews.
+
+"As the clerk was passing out the cigars, Andrews took off his hat. As
+he dropped it on the cigar case, he rubbed his hand over his head and
+said, 'Gee! but I've got a headache!'
+
+"I picked up his hat. Quick as a flash I saw my chance. It was from my
+competitor's house. I could feel, in a second, that it was a poor one.
+Getting the brim between my fingers, I said to Andrews, 'Why, you
+shouldn't get the headache by wearing such a good hat as this. Why,
+this is a splendid piece of goods!'
+
+"With this, I tore a slit in the brim as easily as if it had been
+blotting paper. Then I gave the brim a few more turns, ripping it
+clear off the crown. In a minute or two I tore up the brim and made it
+look like black pasteboard checkers.
+
+"'The cigars are on me!' said Andrews, as everybody around gave him
+the laugh.
+
+"I went up to my room soon leaving Andrews that night to wear his
+brimless hat. But I knew then that I could get his attention when I
+wanted it, next morning, about nine o'clock,--for my train and his
+left at 11:30. This would give plenty of time to do business with him
+if we had any business to do, as he was a quick buyer when you got him
+interested. I went into his store with two hats in my hand. They were
+good clear Nutrias and just the size that Andrews wore. I'd found this
+out by looking at his hat the night before.
+
+"'I don't want to do any business with you, Andrews,' said I, 'but I'm
+not such a bad fellow, you know, and I want to square up things with
+you a little. Take one of these.'
+
+"The hats were 'beauts.' Andrews went to the mirror and put on one and
+then the other. He finally said, 'I guess I'll hang onto the brown
+one. By Jove, these are daisies, old man!'
+
+"'Yes,' said I, striking as quickly as a rattlesnake, 'and there are
+lots more where these came from! Now, look here, Andrews, you know
+mighty well that my line of stuff is a lot better than the one that
+you're buying from. If you think more of the babies of the man you are
+buying your hats from than you do of your own, stay right here; but if
+you don't, get Jack, your buyer, and come up with me right now. I'm
+going out on the 11:30 train.' This line of talk will knock out the
+friendship argument when nothing else will.
+
+"'Guess I'll go you one, old man,' said Andrews.
+
+"He bought a good sized bill and, as I left him on the train where I
+changed cars, he said, 'Well, good luck to you. I guess you'd better
+just duplicate that order I gave you, for my other store.'"
+
+"That," spoke up one of the boys, "is what I call salesmanship. You
+landed the man that didn't want to buy your goods. The new man let him
+slip off his hook when he really wanted to buy suspenders."
+
+"I once landed a $3,400 bill up in Wisconsin," said a clothing man as
+we lighted fresh cigars, "in a funny way. I'd been calling on an old
+German clothing merchant for a good many years, but I could never get
+him interested. I went into his store one morning and got the usual
+stand-off. I asked him if he wouldn't come over and just _look_ at my
+goods, that I could save him money and give him a prettier line of
+patterns and neater made stuff than he was buying.
+
+"'Ach! Dat's de sonk dey all sink,' said the old German. 'I'm
+sotisfite mit de line I haf. Sell 'em eesy und maig a goot brofit.
+Vat's de use uf chanching anyvay, alretty?'
+
+[Illustration: In big headlines I read, "GREAT FIRE IN CHICAGO."]
+
+"I'd been up against this argument so many times with him that I knew
+there was no use of trying to buck up against it any more, so I
+started to leave the store. The old man, although he turned me down
+every time I went there, would always walk with me to the front door
+and give me a courteous farewell. In came a boy with a Chicago paper
+just as we were five steps from the door. What do you suppose stared
+me in the face? In big head lines I read: GREAT FIRE IN CHICAGO in big
+type. The paper also stated that flames were spreading toward my
+house. I at once excused myself and went down to the telegraph office
+to wire my house exactly where I was so that they could let me know
+what to do. As I passed to the operator the telegram I wrote, he said,
+'Why, Mr. Leonard, I've just sent a boy up to the hotel with a message
+for you. There he is! Call him back!' The wire was from the house
+stating, 'Fire did us only little damage. Keep right on as if nothing
+had happened.'
+
+"My samples were all opened up and I had to wait several hours for a
+train anyway, so an idea struck me. 'I believe I'll fake a telegram
+and see if I can't work my old German friend with it.' I wrote out a
+message to myself, 'All garments on the second floor are steam heated.
+They are really uninjured but we will collect insurance on them. Sell
+cheap.'
+
+"Armed with this telegram I walked into the old German's store again.
+'Enny noos?' said he.
+
+"'Yes; here's a telegram I've just received,' said I, handing over the
+fake message.
+
+"'Sdeam heatet,' said the old man, 'Vell dey gan be bresst oud, nicht?
+Veil, I look ad your goots.'
+
+"He dropped in right after dinner. I had laid out on one side of the
+sample room a line of second floor goods.
+
+"Among them were a lot of old frocks that the house was very anxious
+to get rid of. When I got back to the old man's store, he was pacing
+the floor waiting for me to come. He had on his overcoat ready to go
+with me.
+
+"'Vell,' said he, before giving me a chance to speak, 'I go right down
+mit you.'
+
+"He was the craziest buyer I ever saw. It didn't take me more than
+twenty minutes to sell the $3,400."
+
+"But how did you get on afterwards?" asked one of the boys.
+
+"Don't speak of it," said Leonard. "The joke was so good that I gave
+it away to one of the boys after the bill had been shipped, and do you
+know, the old man got onto me and returned a big part of the bill. Of
+course, you know I've never gone near him since. Retribution, I
+suppose! That cured me of sharp tricks."
+
+"A sharp game doesn't work out very well when you play it on your
+customer," spoke up one of the boys who sold bonds, "but it's all
+right to mislead your competitor once in a while, especially if he
+tries to find out things from you that he really hasn't any business
+to know. I was once over in Indiana. I had on me a pretty good line of
+six per cents. They were issued by a well-to-do little town out West.
+You know, western bonds are really A-1 property, but the people in the
+East haven't yet got their eyes open to the value of property west of
+the Rockies.
+
+"Well; when I reached this town, one of my friends tipped me onto one
+of my competitors who, he said, was going to be in that same town that
+afternoon. There were three prospective customers for us and we were
+both in the habit of going after the same people. Two of them were
+bankers,--one of them was pretty long winded; the other was a retired
+grain dealer who lived about a mile out of town. He was the man I
+really wished to go after. His name was Reidy and he was quite an old
+gentleman, always looking for a little inside on everything. I didn't
+wish to waste much time on the bankers before I'd taken a crack at the
+old man. I knew he'd just cashed in on some other bonds that he had
+bought from my firm and that he was probably open for another deal. I
+merely went over and shook hands with the bankers. One of them--the
+long winded one--asked me if I had a certain bond. I told him I didn't
+think I had,--that I'd 'phone in and find out. I got on the line with
+my old grain dealer friend and he said he'd be in town right after
+dinner. I would have gone out to see him but he preferred doing his
+business in town. By this time I knew my competitor would reach town
+so I ate dinner early and took chances on his still being in the
+dining room when Reidy would drive in. I knew that my competitor, if
+he got into town, would go right after the old gentleman just as
+quickly as he could.
+
+"After dinner I sat down out in the public square smoking, and
+apparently taking the world at ease,--but I was fretting inside to
+beat the band! My competitor saw me from the hotel porch. He came over
+and shook hands--you know we're always ready to cut each other's
+throats but we do it with a smile and always put out the glad hand.
+
+"'Well, Woody,' said he, 'you seem to be taking the world easy.
+Business must have been good this week.'
+
+"'Oh, fair,' I answered,--but it had really been rotten for several
+days.
+
+"'Come and eat,' said he.
+
+"'No, thanks, I've just been in. I'll see you after. I'll finish my
+cigar.'
+
+"My competitor went in to dinner. About the time I knew he was getting
+along toward pie, I began to squirm. I lighted two or three matches
+and let them go out before I fired up my cigar. Still no Reidy had
+shown up. Pretty soon out came my competitor over into the park where
+I was. I knew that if he got his eyes on Reidy I would have to
+scramble for the old man's coin. So I managed to get him seated with
+his back toward the direction from which Reidy would come to town. The
+old man always drove a white horse. As I talked to my competitor I
+kept looking up the road--I could see for nearly half a mile--for that
+old white horse.
+
+"'Well, have you left anything in town for me, Woody,' said he
+directly.
+
+"About that time I saw the old man's horse jogging slowly but surely
+toward us.
+
+"'Well, now, I'll tell you,' I said to him, 'I believe that if you'll
+go over to the bank just around the corner, you can do some business.
+I was in there this morning and they asked me for a certain kind of
+paper that I haven't any left of. If you can scare up something of
+that kind, I think you can do some business with them there. I'll take
+you over, if you like.'
+
+"I didn't want him to turn around because I knew that he, too, would
+see that old white horse and that I'd never get him to budge an inch
+until he had spoken with Reidy if he did,--and the old horse was
+coming trot! trot! trot!--closer every minute.
+
+"'Well, say, that'll be good of you. I hate to leave you out here all
+alone resting and doing nothing,' said he.
+
+"'Oh, that's all right. Come on,'--and with this I took him by the arm
+in a very friendly manner, keeping his back toward that old white
+horse, and walked him around the corner to the bank where I knew that
+he would be out of sight when the old man reached the public square.
+
+"Just as I came around the corner after leaving my competitor Richards
+in the bank, there came plodding along the old man. Luckily he went
+down about a block to hitch his horse. I met him as he was coming back
+and carried him up to my room in the hotel. I laid my proposition
+before him and he said:
+
+"'Well, that looks pretty good to me, but I'd like to go over here to
+the bank and talk to one of my friends there and see what he thinks of
+the lay-out.'
+
+"'Which bank?' thought I. Well, as luck would have it, it was the
+other bank. 'Very well,' I said, 'I'll drop over there myself in a few
+minutes and have the papers all with me. We can fix the matter up over
+there. I'm sure the people in the bank will give this their hearty
+endorsement.'
+
+"As the old man walked across the park, two or three people met him
+and stopped him. My heart was thumping away because, even though the
+banker around the corner was long winded, it was about time for him to
+get through with Richards; but the old man went into the bank all
+right before Richards came out. Then I went over and sat down in the
+park. In a few minutes Richards came over where I was.
+
+[Illustration: "Well, Woody," said he, "you seem to be taking the
+world pretty easy."]
+
+"'Say, that was a good tip you gave me, Woody, I think I'll be able to
+do some business all right. I want to run into the hotel a few
+minutes, if you'll excuse me, and get into my grip. Say; but you're
+taking things easy! I wish I could get along as well as you do without
+worrying.'
+
+"Richards left me and went into the hotel. I wanted to get him off as
+quickly as I could because I didn't know but that, any minute, the old
+gentleman would come out of the bank door. I hit a pretty lively pace
+to get in where he was. By that time, he had investigated my bonds and
+found that he wanted them. I took his check and gave him a receipt for
+it, and then walked with him over to where his horse was. I wanted to
+get him out of town as quickly as I could and keep my competitor from
+seeing him, if possible.
+
+"Well, sir, everything worked smooth as a charm. As the old man's
+buggy was just crossing the bridge, out came Richards from the hotel.
+I was again sitting in the park.
+
+"'Heavens! you're taking it easy,' said he to me. 'How is it the firm
+can afford to pay you to go around these towns, sit in parks and smoke
+cigars, Woody?'
+
+"'Oh, a man has to take a lay-off once in a while,' said I.
+
+"I went over to the bank where the old man had been, and in a few
+minutes sold them some bonds. Then I came out and again sat down in
+the park a few minutes, waiting for Richards to get through so that I
+could go and see the other people where he was dickering. Pretty soon
+he came out and he was swearing mad. He said, 'I've been wrangling
+with these people for a couple of hours and I can't get them into
+anything to save my life. I might just as well have been out here with
+you all this time, taking the world easy, for all the good I've done.'
+
+"'Well, I guess I'll go over and take a crack at them again,' said I.
+
+"'All right. Go ahead. I guess I'll skip the town,' but he didn't do a
+thing but get on the trolley which passed out by old man Reidy's
+house, where he was, of course, too late. I went in where he had not
+been able to do business, and, now that my mind was easy, I took
+plenty of time and made a nice sale in there, too.
+
+"About a week afterwards I met Richards, and he said, 'Well, Woody,
+you've got one coming on me. You weren't so idle as I thought all the
+time you were out there in the park.'"
+
+"First call for dinner in the dining car," drawled out the white-
+aproned darkey as Woody finished his story.
+
+"Boys, shall we all go in?" said Woody.
+
+"I'm not very hungry," spoke up Leonard, "I took luncheon pretty late
+today. I think I'll wait a little bit unless you all are in a hurry."
+
+"You know what you were telling me about running your competitor into
+a bank around the corner," spoke up a necktie man, "goes to show this:
+That you must have a man's attention before you can do business with
+him. I really believe that your friend, Woody, would have done
+business if he hadn't struck his man at the busy time of day. I know
+that I can usually do business if I get a man when his mind is easy
+and I can get him to look at my goods.
+
+"But I bumped into the hardest proposition the other day that I've put
+my shoulder against for a long time. There's a merchant that I call
+on, over near Duluth, that is the hardest man to get into a sample
+room I ever saw. I have been calling on him for several seasons but I
+couldn't get him away from the store. Once he had a clerk that stole
+from him and after he got onto this fellow he never leaves the store
+unless one of his own sons is right there to take his place. Even
+then, he doesn't like to go out, and he only does so to run up home
+and back right quickly for a bite to eat. I had sold him a few little
+jags by lugging stuff in and was getting tired of this sort of
+business. I wanted either to get a decent order or quit him cold. It
+is all very good, you know, to send in one or two little jags from a
+new man, but the house kicks and thinks you are n. g. if you keep on
+piking with the same man.
+
+"This time, I went into his store and said to myself, 'Well, if I
+can't get this old codger to go down to my sample room, I'm not going
+to do any business with him at all.'
+
+"When I went into his store I shook hands with him and offered him a
+cigar. He said, 'Vell, I vont smoke dis now. I lay it avay.'
+
+"If there is anything on earth that makes me mad it is to offer a
+cigar to a merchant or a clerk who, in truth, doesn't smoke, and have
+him put it aside and hand it to somebody else after I have left town;
+but, you know, you bump into that kind once in a while.
+
+"The old man was back in the office. He shook hands pretty friendly,
+and said, 'How's peezness?'
+
+"'Best ever,' said I. It's always a good thing to be cheerful. All
+traveling men who go around the country saying that business is poor
+ought to be knocked in the head. Even if they are not doing a great
+deal, they should at least say, even in the dullest of times, that
+business might be a 'lot worse.' It's these croakers on the road who
+really make business dull when there is every reason for it to be
+good. I never kick and I don't think any up-to-date man will.
+
+"Well, sir, when the old man had asked me how business was and I'd
+told him that it was strictly good, I went right square at him. I
+said: 'Now, look here, Brother Mondheimer, I have been selling you a
+few goods right along and you've told me that they were satisfactory,
+but I haven't been doing either myself or you justice. I want you,
+this time, to come right down with me and see what a line of goods I
+really have. My stuff is strictly swell. The patterns are up-to-date
+and I've styles enough to line the whole side of your house. Now,
+don't let me run in with just a handful of samples and sell you a
+little stuff, but come down and give me a square chance at a decent
+order.'
+
+"'Dot's all ride,' said he, 'but I can't get avay. I must stay hier.
+Ven cost'mers com in, somebody must be hier to vait on 'em.'
+
+"'That's all right,' said I, 'but all your clerks are idle now. There
+isn't a customer in the store. Things are quiet just now. Suppose you
+come on down with me.'
+
+"'No, I can't do dot,' said the old man. 'I'd like to but I can't.
+Von't you breeng op a leedle stoff?'
+
+"I didn't answer his question directly, but I said, 'Now, look here,
+Brother Mondheimer, suppose a man were to come into your store and
+want to buy a good suit of clothes. How much profit would you make?'
+
+"'Aboud fife tollars,' said he.
+
+"'Well, how long would you, yourself, spend on that man, trying to
+make a sale with him?'
+
+"'Vell, I vood nod led him go until I solt him,' said he.
+
+"'All right,--by the way--', said I. 'Can you give me two tens for a
+twenty?'
+
+"He handed me out two ten dollar gold pieces.
+
+"'Here' said I, slapping down one of the slugs and shoving it over to
+him, 'Here's ten dollars for ten minutes of your time. That's yours
+now,--take it! I've bought your time and I dare you come down to my
+sample room. If you do, I'll make that ten back in less than ten
+minutes and you'll stay with me an hour and buy a decent bill of
+goods.'
+
+"Well, sir, the old man wouldn't take the ten--but he did get his hat
+and he's been an easy customer ever since!"
+
+"Second and last call for dinner," called the dining car boy again.
+
+"Guess this is our last chance," spoke up one of the boys. Then,
+stretching a little, we washed our hands and went in to dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+TACTICS IN SELLING--II.
+
+
+After we had finished dinner, all of the party came back to our "road
+club room," the smoker.
+
+"The house," said the furnishing goods man, sailing on our old tack of
+conversation, "sometimes makes it hard for us, you know. I once had a
+case like this: One of my customers down in New Orleans had failed on
+me. I think his _muhulla_ (failure) was forced upon him. Even a tricky
+merchant does not bring failure upon himself if business is good and
+he can help it, because, if he has ever been through one, he knows
+that the bust-up does him a great deal more harm than good. It makes
+'credit' hard for him after that. But, you find lots of merchants who,
+when business gets dull, and they must fail, will either skin their
+creditors completely or else settle for as few cents on the dollar as
+possible.
+
+"Well, I had a man in market, once, when I was traveling out of
+Philadelphia, who had 'settled' for 35 cents on the dollar. He had
+come out of his failure with enough to leave him able to go into
+business again, and, with anything like fair trade, discount all his
+bills. I knew the season was a fairly good one and felt quite sure
+that, for a few years anyway, my man would be good. What was lost on
+him was lost, and that was the end of it. The best way to play even
+was on the profits of future business.
+
+"But our credit man, a most upright gentleman, wasn't particular about
+taking up the account again. However, there I was on a commission
+basis! I knew the man would pay for his goods and that it was money in
+my pocket--and in the till of the house--to sell it.
+
+"I had seen my man at the hotel the evening before and he'd said he
+would be around the next morning about ten o'clock. I went down to the
+store before that time and talked the thing over with the credit man.
+
+"Don't want to have anything to do with that fellow,' he said. 'He
+skinned us once and it's only a matter of time until he'll do it
+again.'
+
+"The head man of the firm came by about that time and I talked it over
+with him. He had told me only the day before that he had some 'jobs'
+he was very anxious to get rid of.
+
+"'Now,' said I to him, 'I believe I have a man from New Orleans who
+can use a good deal of that plunder up on the sixth floor if you're
+willing to sell it to him. He uses that kind of "Drek" and is now
+shaped up so that he'll not wish for more than sixty day terms, and
+I'm sure he'd be able to pay for it. He's just failed, you know.'
+
+"Well, let him have it--let him have it,' said the old man. 'Anything
+to get the stuff out of the house. If he doesn't pay for it we won't
+lose much.'
+
+"'All right, if you both say so, I'll go ahead and sell him.'
+
+"This was really building a credit on 'jobs,' for I believed that my
+man would after that prove a faithful customer,--and this has been the
+case for many years.
+
+"Well, when he came in, I took him up to the 'job' floor and sold him
+about five hundred dollars. This was the limit that the credit man had
+placed on the account. Then came the rub. I had to smooth down my
+customer to sixty day terms and yet keep him in a good humor. He
+thought a great deal of me--I had always been square with him--and he
+wasn't such a bad fellow. He had merely done what many other men would
+have done under the same circumstances. When he had got into the hole,
+he was going to climb out with as many 'rocks' in his pocket as he
+could. He couldn't pay a hundred cents and keep doing business, and it
+was just as much disgrace to settle for sixty cents on the dollar,
+which would leave him flat, as it was to settle for thirty-five. So he
+argued!
+
+"I brought him up to the credit window and said to the credit man--
+Gee! I had to be diplomatic then--'Now, this is Mr. Man from New
+Orleans. You know that cotton has been pretty low for the past season
+and that he has had a little misfortune that often comes into the path
+of the business man. He, you also know, has squared this with
+everybody concerned in an honorable way,--although on account of the
+dull times he was unable to make as large a settlement as he wished
+to--isn't that the case, Joe?' said I. He nodded.
+
+"'Yes, but things are picking up with me, you know,' said he.
+
+"'Yes; so they are,' said I, taking up the thread, 'cotton is
+advancing and times are going to be pretty good down in the south next
+season. Now, what I've done,' said I to the credit man, as if I had
+never spoken to him about the matter before, 'is this: Joe, here, has
+learned a lesson. He has seen the folly, and suffered for it, of
+buying so many goods so far ahead. What he aims to do from this time
+on is to run a strictly cash business, and to buy his goods for cash
+or on very short terms. We have picked out five hundred dollars' worth
+of goods--I've closed them pretty cheap--and you shall have your money
+for this, the bill fully discounted, within sixty days. Then in
+future, Joe, here, does not wish to buy anything from you or anybody
+else that he cannot pay for within that time. One bump on the head is
+enough, eh, Joe?'
+
+"'Yes; you bet your life. I've learned a lesson.'
+
+"'That'll be very satisfactory, sir,' said the credit man, and
+everything was O. K. You see, I had put the credit man in the position
+of making short terms and I had tickled Joe and given him something
+that he needed very badly at that time--credit. This was about the
+smoothest job I think I ever did. I really don't believe that either
+the credit man or my customer was fully onto my work. Joe, however,
+has thanked me for that many a time since. He's paid up my house
+promptly and used them for reference. They could only tell the truth
+in the matter, that he was discounting his bills with them. This has
+given him credit and he's doing a thriving business now, and has been
+for several years. He is getting long time again from other houses."
+
+"Smooth work all right," said one of the boys, touching the button for
+the buffet porter.
+
+"Once in a while," said the book man, "you have to pull the wool over
+a buyer's eyes. I never like to do anything of this sort, and I never
+do but that I tell them about it afterwards. The straight path is the
+one for the traveling man to walk in, I know; but once, with one of my
+men, I had to get off of the pebbles and tread on the grass a little.
+
+"We really sell our publications for less than any other concern in
+the country. We give fifty off, straight, to save figuring, while many
+others give 40-10-5, which, added up, makes 55, but, in truth, is less
+than fifty straight. Once, in Chicago, I fell in on a department store
+man. I put it up to him and asked him if he would like certain new
+books that were having a good sale.
+
+"'Yes,' he said, 'but I tell you, John (he knew me pretty well), I
+can't stand your discounts. You don't let me make enough money. You
+only give me 50 while others give me 40-10-5.'
+
+"'All right, I'll sell them to you that way,' said I. 'We won't worry
+about it.'
+
+"'Very good then,' and he gave me his order.
+
+"Next season, when I got around to him, I had forgotten all about the
+special terms that I had made this man. But after he said he would use
+a certain number of copies of a book, he jogged my memory on that
+score with the question:
+
+"'What sort of terms are you going to give me--the same I had last
+year?'
+
+"'No, sir; I will not,' said I. 'I'm not going to do business with you
+that way.'
+
+"'Well, if you've done it once, why don't you do it again? Other
+people do it right along, and your house is still in business. They
+haven't gone broke.'
+
+"'Yes, you bet your life they're still in business!' said I, 'and
+they'd make a whole lot more money than they do now if they'd do
+business on the terms that you ask. Do you know what I did? You
+wouldn't let me have things my way and be square with you, so I
+skinned you on that little express order out of just ninety cents, and
+did it just to teach you a lesson!' I said, planking down a dollar. 'I
+don't want to trim you too close to the bone.'
+
+"'Well,' said he, after I'd figured out and shown him the difference
+between 50 off straight and 40-10-5, 'This dollar doesn't belong to
+me. Come on, let's spend it.'"
+
+"That's pretty good," chimed in the shoe man, who was sitting on a
+camp stool. The smoking compartment was full. "But it was dangerous
+play, don't you think? Suppose he'd done that figuring before you'd
+got around and shown him voluntarily that you skinned him and why. I
+know one of my customers, at any rate, who would have turned you down
+for good on this sort of a deal. He is a fair, square, frank man--most
+merchants, I find, are that way anyhow."
+
+"Yes; you're right," said John.
+
+"I got at the man I speak of this way," said the shoe man. "I had
+called on him many times. He was such a thoroughbred gentleman and
+treated me so courteously that I could never press matters upon him.
+There are merchants, you know, of this kind. I'd really rather have a
+man spar me with bare 'knucks' than with eight-ounce pillows. This
+gives you a better chance to land a knock-out blow. But there is a way
+of getting at every merchant in the world. The thing to do is to
+_find the way_.
+
+"As I stood talking to this gentleman--it was out in Seattle--in came
+a Salvation Army girl selling 'The War Cry.' When she came around
+where I was, my merchant friend gave her a quarter for one, and told
+her to keep the change. Do you know, I sized him up from that. It
+showed me just as plain as day that he was kind hearted and it struck
+me, quick as a flash, that my play was generosity. People somehow who
+are free at heart admire this trait in others. When a man has once
+been liberal and knows what a good feeling it gives him on the inside,
+to do a good turn for some poor devil that needs it, he will always
+keep it up, and he has a soft spot in his heart for the man who will
+dig up for charity.
+
+"I didn't plank down my money with any attempt to make a show, but I
+simply slipped a dollar into the Salvation Army Captain's hand, and
+said, 'Sister, the War Cry is worth that much to me. I always read it
+and I'm really very glad you brought this copy around to me.'
+
+"Now, this wasn't altogether play, boys, you know. If there is any one
+in the world who is a true and literal Christian, it is the girl who
+wears the Salvation Army bonnet. And to just give your money isn't
+always the thing. A little kind word to go along with it multiplies
+the gift.
+
+"After a while, when I got around to it--I talked with the merchant
+for some time about various things--I said, as politely as I could:
+'Now, you know your affairs a great deal better than I do myself, but
+it is barely possible that I might have something in my line that
+would interest you. My house is old established and they do business
+in a straightforward manner. If you can spare the time, I should be
+very glad indeed to have you see what I am carrying. I assure you that
+I shall not bore you in the sample room. I never do this because I
+don't like to have any one feel I'm attempting to know more of his
+affairs than he does.'
+
+"'If such were the case,' said my merchant friend, 'why, then, I ought
+to sell out to you.'
+
+"'Then you are right,' said I. 'Nothing bothers me more, on going into
+a barber shop when I'm in a rush and wish nothing but a shave, than to
+have the barber insist on cutting my hair, singing it, giving me a
+shampoo, and a face massage.'
+
+"'Well, I don't think I'm needing anything just now,' said my merchant
+friend. 'But as you're here, I'll run down and see you right after
+luncheon. 'No,' said he, pulling out his watch, 'I might as well go
+with you right now. It is half past eleven and that will give you all
+the afternoon free.'
+
+"'Very well,' said I, 'this is kind of you. I am at your service.'
+
+"It was considerate of him to go along with me right then, for the
+time of a traveling man relatively is more valuable than that of any
+other man I know of. In many lines he must make his living in four to
+six months in the year. Every minute of daylight, when he is on the
+road, means to him just twice that time or more!
+
+"Do you know, I never had in my sample room a finer man. He very
+quickly looked over what I had and when he said to me, 'Do you know,
+I'm really glad that I've come down with you. You have some things
+that strike me. I hadn't intended putting in any more goods for this
+season, but here are a few numbers that I'm sure I can use. I can't
+give you a very large order. However, if you're willing to take what I
+wish, I shall be very glad to give you a small one; but if your goods
+turn out all right, and this I have no right to question, we shall do
+more business in future.'
+
+"I took the order, which wasn't such a small one, either, and from
+that time on he has always been a pleasant customer. He was a
+gentleman-merchant!"
+
+"He's the kind that always gets the best that's coming," broke in two
+or three of the boys at once.
+
+"Yes, you bet your life!" exclaimed the shoe man. "If a man wishes to
+get the best I have, that is the way I like him to come at me. To be
+sure, I do a one price business; but even then, you know, we can all
+do a man a good turn if he makes us have an interest in his business
+by treating us courteously. We can serve him by helping him select the
+best things in our lines, and by not overloading him."
+
+"Many's the way," said the dry goods man, "that we have of getting a
+man's ear. In '96 I was traveling in Western Nebraska. That state, you
+know, is Bryan's home. Things were mighty hot out there in September,
+and nearly everybody in that part of the country was for him; but when
+you did strike one that was on the other side, he was there good and
+hard! Yet, most of those who were against Bryan by the time September
+rolled around were beginning to think that he was going to win out. I
+had just left Chicago and had been attending a great many Republican
+political meetings. I had read the Chicago newspapers, all of which
+were against Bryan that year, and thought that while there was a good
+deal of hurrah going on, he didn't stand a ghost of a show, and I was
+willing to bet my money on it.
+
+"I didn't have a customer in this town. It was Beaver City. You know
+how the stores are all built around three sides of a public square. I
+was out scouting for a looker. I dropped into one man's store--he was
+a Republican, but he said to me, 'Heavens alive! How do you expect me
+to buy any goods this year? Why, Bryan's going to be elected sure's
+your born, and this whole country is going to the devil. I'm a
+Republican and working against him as hard as I can, but I'm not going
+to get myself in debt and go broke all the same.
+
+"'The only man in this town who thinks Bryan isn't going to win is old
+man Jarvis across the way. If he keeps on buying and things come out
+the way I think they will, I'll have one less competitor when things
+all blow over.'
+
+"I looked in my agency book. As a rule, they're not worth a rap for
+anything except to give the names of merchants in a town and the sort
+of business they're in, but when I got down to the J's I saw that
+Jarvis was rated ten to twenty thousand. I stuck the book in my pocket
+and made straight for where I saw his name over the door.
+
+"First thing he boned me about was, 'Well, how's the election going in
+Illinois and back East?'
+
+"'Oh, Bryan will be put under a snow bank so deep he'll never get
+out,' said I, 'when November gets here.'
+
+"'Good!' said he. 'You're the first man I've seen for a month who's
+agreed with me. I don't think he'll run one, two, three. These fellows
+out here in this country are all crazy because Bryan's come from this
+state; and a few hayseed Populists who've always been Republican
+heretofore are going to vote for him. Shucks! They don't amount to
+anything. It's the East that settles an election, and the working man.
+Why, they're not going to see this country go to the devil because a
+few of these crazy Pops out here are going to vote the Democratic
+ticket!'
+
+"The druggist from next door, who overheard the old man, spoke up
+hotly and said, 'Well, I'm one of them crazy Pops you're talking
+about. You haven't any money that says Bryan's goin' to lose, have
+you?'
+
+"'Well, I'm not a betting man,' said Jarvis, 'but if I was, I'd put up
+my store against yours,--the building and all against your stock.'
+
+"'Well, I wish you were a betting man,' said the druggist. 'You'd
+better either put up or shut up. I'll jest bet you ten dollars even
+that Bryan does win.'
+
+"'I'll take that bet, my friend,' said I, knowing that the effect of
+the wager on Jarvis would be worth more than the bet itself. I reached
+for my roll of expense money--I had about two hundred dollars on me--
+and slipped out a 'tenner.' The druggist went in next door and got his
+money. The old man held the stakes.
+
+"I was the only man who'd been in that town for a long time who was
+willing to bet on McKinley, and pretty soon a dozen fellows were after
+me. In about twenty minutes I had put up all I had, and went over to
+the bank and drew a couple of hundred more. I drew it on personal
+account as I had plenty of money coming to me from the firm. Soon a
+couple of fellows came in who wanted to put up a hundred each. I
+covered their piles, went back to the bank and made another draft--in
+all, I planked up five hundred dollars before leaving town. Jarvis was
+my stake holder.
+
+"'Say,' said he, 'young fellow, I've never done any business with you,
+but, by Heavens! I like your pluck, and I'm going right over to your
+sample room whether you ask me to or not and give you an order. This
+is the best time for me to buy goods. All these other fellows around
+here are croaking about the election and they're not going to have
+anything to sell these people. Shoes are going to wear out and the sun
+is going to fade calico, Bryan or no Bryan! I want some goods on my
+shelves. Come on, let's go now before it gets dark!'
+
+"I never sold a bill so easy in my life. The old man would pick up a
+bundle of sample cards and say, 'Here, you send me about what you
+think I ought to have out of this lot,' and while I was writing down
+the items, he would talk politics. I sold him a nailer."
+
+"Well, you had pretty good luck in that town," spoke up one of the
+boys, "to get a good bill and also win five hundred dollars."
+
+"Didn't win it, though," said the dry goods man.
+
+"Well, how's that? Didn't McKinley win the election? You were betting
+on him."
+
+"Yes, but I got back to Chicago about the time that Bryan struck
+there. I went down to the old shack on the lake front where the Post
+Office now is, and heard Bryan speak to the business men. It looked to
+me like the whole house was with him. I heard a dozen men around where
+I sat say, after the speech was over, that they had intended to vote
+against him, but that they were sure going to vote for Bryan. That
+same day I hedged on my five hundred."
+
+"Well, you got a good customer out of the deal anyhow."
+
+"Yes, I did; but I thought I'd lost him. After the election he sent me
+the thousand and I went down to see him. You know I voted for Bryan."
+
+"Changed your mind, did you?"
+
+"_Change?_ Did you ever hear Bryan speak? When I met the old man I
+made a clean breast of it, and said, 'I'm mighty sorry to tell you,
+but I voted for Bryan.'
+
+"'Well, that's all right,' he said. 'So did I.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+TACTICS IN SELLING--III.
+
+GETTING A MERCHANT'S ATTENTION.
+
+
+"Seven and nine," said the porter, poking his head into the Pullman
+smoker, "are all made down."
+
+With this, a couple of the boys bade us goodnight and turned in, but
+soon two more drifted in and took their places.
+
+"Getting a merchant's attention," said the furnishing goods man, "is
+the main thing. You may get a man to answer your questions in a sort
+of a way but you really do not have his attention always when he talks
+to you. You would better not call on a man at all than go at him in a
+listless sort of a way. This is where the old timer has the bulge over
+the new man. I once knew a man who had been a successful clerk for
+many years who started on the road with a line of pants. He had worked
+for one of my old customers. I chanced to meet him, when I was
+starting on my trip, at the very time when he was making his maiden
+effort at selling a bill to the man for whom he had been working. Of
+course this was a push-over for him because his old employer gave him
+an order as a compliment.
+
+"Well, sir, when that fellow learned that I was going West--this was
+on the Northern Pacific--he hung right on to me and said he would like
+to go along. Of course, I told him I should be very glad to have him
+do so, and that I would do for him whatever I could. But here he made
+a mistake. When a man starts out on the road he must paddle his own
+canoe. It is about as much as his friend can do to sell his own line
+of goods, much less to put in a boost for somebody else. And,
+furthermore, a man who takes a young chick under his wing will often
+cut off some of his own feed. Still, this fellow had always been very
+friendly with me and I told him, 'Why, to be sure, Henry; come right
+along with me.'
+
+"In the second and third towns that we made, he picked up a couple of
+small bills that just about paid his expenses. He was just beginning
+to find that the road was not such an easy path to travel as, in his
+own mind, he had cracked it up to be.
+
+"The next town we struck was Bismarck, North Dakota. We got in there
+about three o'clock in the morning. It was Thanksgiving Day. To be
+sure, I went to bed and had a good sleep. A man must always feel
+fresh, you know, if he expects to do any work.
+
+"It was about eleven o'clock before I breakfasted, opened up, and
+started across the street. My old customer had burned out there and I,
+too, had to go out and rustle some man. Just as I started over toward
+town, I met my German friend Henry coming back. His face looked like a
+full moon shining through a cloud. I could see that there was trouble
+on his mind.
+
+"'Well, Henry, how goes it?' said I.
+
+"'Id don't go so goot,' said he. 'But vat can a man expect on
+Danksgifing? I vent to see von man and he said, "I haf an olt house
+dat alvays dreats me right, so vat's de use of chanching?" Vell, vat
+archument could I make against dot? I vent in to see anodder man and
+he said, "I haf an olt friend dot I buy from," and vat archument could
+I make against dot? I vent in to see still anodder, and he said, "I
+haf just bought," so, vat archument could I make against dot? The next
+man I vent to see said, "Mein Gott, man; don'd you suppose I am going
+to rest von day in de year? So I t'ought dere vas no use fooling mit
+him, so I t'ink I vill pack op and eat a goot dinner and take a goot
+nap and go vest again in de morning.'
+
+"'All right, Henry,' said I; 'but I guess I'll go over and try my
+luck.'
+
+"The first man that I went to see was the one who had said to my
+friend Henry that he thought he ought to have one day in the year to
+rest. He was the biggest merchant in the town in my line. When I
+reached his store he was putting the key in the door to lock up and go
+home for his Thanksgiving dinner.
+
+"I couldn't talk to him out there in the cold--we were strangers--so I
+said to him, 'I should like to buy a couple of collars if you please.'
+He sold me the collars and then, just for a bluff, I made out that
+mine was hurting me and took a few minutes to put on another one. I
+didn't say anything about what my business was and the merchant, in
+order to have something to say, asked, 'Are you a stranger in town?'
+
+"'Yes, sir,' said I, 'I am. But I hope that I shall not be very much
+longer. I am out looking for a location.'
+
+"'You are a physician, then?' said the merchant.
+
+"'Yes, sir,--in a way,' said I; 'but I treat diseases in rather a
+peculiar way, I fancy. I believe in going down to the cause of
+diseases and treating the cause rather than the disease itself. My
+specialty is the eye. Now, you see, if the eye looks at bright,
+sparkling snow, it is strained; but if it looks at a green pasture,
+that color rests it. In fact, if the eye looks upon anything that is
+not pleasing to it, it does it an injury. Now, my way of getting down
+to the root of all this eye trouble is to place before it things that
+are pleasing to look upon, and in this way, make eye salves and things
+of that kind unnecessary. In just a word,' said I (I had his attention
+completely), 'I am selling the prettiest, nobbiest, most up-to-date
+line of furnishing goods there is on the road. They are so attractive
+that they are good for sore eyes. Now, the only way I can back up this
+statement is by showing you what I have. When will it suit you to look
+at them? The location that I am looking for is a location for my goods
+right here on your shelves.'
+
+"Well, sir; do you know, that merchant really came down to my sample
+room on Thanksgiving Day--he hardly took time to eat his dinner--and I
+sold him.
+
+"I didn't see any more of my friend Henry until the next morning. The
+train was late and left about seven o'clock.
+
+"'Vell, what luck yesterday?' said Henry.
+
+"As he came up to me in the train where I was sitting with a friend, I
+said, 'Well, I sold a bill.'
+
+"'Who bought of you?'
+
+"'The clothing man here.'
+
+"'Vell, dot's de feller,' said Henry, 'dot told me he vas going to haf
+von day in de year for his family. And you solt him? Vell, how did you
+do id?'
+
+"I briefly told Henry of my experience.
+
+"'Vell, dot vas goot,' said he.
+
+[Illustration: You'd better write that down with a pencil," said
+Henry.]
+
+"My advance agent friend, who had sat beside me--Henry had fallen in
+with us in our double seat--said to Henry, 'Now, that's a good line of
+argument. Why don't you use that sometime?' A twinkle came into my
+theatrical friend's eye when Henry did, in fact, ask my permission to
+use this line of talk. I told Henry, 'Why, sure, go on and use that
+argument anywhere you want to. I shall not use it again because in
+every town that I shall strike, from this time on, I have an old
+established customer. I have no use for that argument. Just go and use
+it.'
+
+"'You'd better write that down with a pencil, Henry,' said the advance
+agent--Stanley was his name.
+
+"'No, dere's no use ov writing dot down,' said Henry. 'Dot archurnent
+vas so clear dot I haf it in my headt!'
+
+"But, sure enough, Henry took out his lead pencil and jotted down the
+points in the back of his order book. In the next town we struck, one
+of the merchants was a gruff old Tartar. He was the first man that
+Henry lit onto.
+
+"Now, an old merchant can size up a traveling man very soon after he
+enters the door. The shoeman will go over to where the shoes are kept;
+the hat man will turn his face toward the hat case; the furnishing
+goods man will size up the display of neckwear; in fact, a merchant
+once told me that he could even tell the difference between a clothing
+man and a pants man. A clothing man will walk up to a table and run
+his hands over the coats while a pants man will always finger the
+trousers to a suit.
+
+"Well, sir, when Henry walked into this gruff old merchant's store, he
+found him busy waiting on a customer so up he marched to a clothing
+table and began to feel of a pile of pants. After the customer went
+out he went up to the old man and said to him, 'Gootmorning, sir. I am
+a physician, sir, and I am looking for a logation--'
+
+"'You are no such a ---- thing,' said the old man. 'You are selling
+pants.'
+
+"Henry told me of this experience when he came back to the hotel and
+he was so broken hearted that he almost felt like going back home. In
+fact, he didn't last more than about three weeks. He had started too
+late in life to learn the arts of the traveling man."
+
+"You bet," said the wall paper man who had heard this story.
+"Attention is the whole cheese. I know I once tried my hardest to get
+hold of an old Irishman down in Texas. He was a jolly old chap but I
+couldn't get next. There wasn't any sample room in the town and if I
+showed my goods to any one, I would have to get his consent to let me
+bring my stuff into his store. When I struck old Murphy to let me
+bring my goods in, he gave me a stand-off so hard that another one of
+the boys who was in the store gave me the laugh. This riled me a
+little and I said to my friend who thought he had the joke on me, 'I
+am going to sell that old duck just the same.' 'I'll bet a new hat you
+don't,' said he. Something flashed across me somehow or other. I got
+bold and I said, I'll just take that bet.'
+
+"I had to wait in town anyway for several hours so that I couldn't get
+out until after supper. So I went up to the hotel for dinner. That
+afternoon I went back to Murphy's store, pulled out a cigar case and,
+passing it over to the old gentleman, said, 'Take one, neighbor. These
+are out of my private box.' It was really a good cigar and the old
+man, giving me a little blarney, said, 'Surre, that cigare is a
+birrd.' 'I'm glad you like it,' said I. 'I have those sent me from
+Chicago, a fresh box every week. If you like it so well, here, take a
+couple more. I have lots of them in my grip.' I laid a couple on the
+old man's desk and he didn't object.
+
+"'Now, Mr. Murphy,' said I, 'I know you don't wish to look at any of
+my goods whatsoever, and I'm not the man to ask you the second time.
+In fact, I am really glad you don't wish to buy some goods from me
+because it gives me a chance to run through my samples. I've been
+aiming to do some work on them for several days but really haven't had
+the time--I've been so busy. But, as there's nobody else here in the
+town that I care to see (a mild dose of "smoosh," given at the right
+time and in the right way, never does any harm, you know) and as
+there's no sample room here I'm sure you'll allow me to have my trunk
+thrown in your store where I shall not be in your way. I wish to rid
+myself of "outs."
+
+"'Surre, me b'y; surre me b'y,' said the old man. 'Toike all the room
+you will but ye know Oime not for lookin' at your goods. Oime waitin'
+fer a friend, ye know.'
+
+"'Very well, thank you; I promise you faithfully, Mr. Murphy, that
+I'll not show you any goods. I merely wish to get rid of my "tear-
+outs" and straighten up my line.'
+
+"When the drayman dumped my trunk into the back end of the store, I
+opened up on the counter and tore off several 'outs.' I let my samples
+lie there and went up the street, but came back several times and
+peeped into the front window to see what the old man was doing. I did
+this three or four times and finally I saw him and one of the clerks
+back where my samples were, fingering them over.
+
+"Then I went around to the back door, which was near where my samples
+were, marched right in and caught the old man in the act."
+
+"Sell him?" spoke up one of the boys.
+
+"Sure," said the wall paper man, "and I made the man who had lost the
+hat come down and buy one for me from the old Irishman."
+
+"Well, that was a clever sale," said the hat man, "but you have, you
+know, as much trouble sometimes holding an old customer in line as you
+do in selling a new one. For my own part, whenever a customer gets
+clear off the hook, I let him swim. You have a great deal better luck
+casting your fly for new fish than you do in throwing your bait for
+one that has got away from you. My rule is, when a man is gone--let
+him go. But, as long as I have him on the hook, I am going to play
+him.
+
+"When I was down in New Orleans a few seasons ago, one of my old
+customers said, 'Look here, I don't see any use of buying goods from
+you. I can buy them right home just as cheaply as you sell them to me,
+and save the freight. This freight item amounts to a good deal in the
+course of a year. See, here is a stiff hat that I buy for twenty-four
+dollars a dozen that is just as good as the one that you are selling
+me for the same money. Look at it.' He passed it over to me. I rubbed
+my hand over the crown and quickly I rapped the derby over my fist
+knocking the crown clean off it. I threw the rim onto the floor and
+didn't say a word. This play cost me a new hat but it was the best way
+I could answer my customer's argument. After that, my customer was as
+gentle as a dove. He afterwards admitted that he liked my goods better
+but that he was trying to work me for the difference in freight."
+
+"The clerk can always give you a good many straight tips," spoke up
+one of the boys.
+
+"Yes, and you bet your life he does his best to queer you once in a
+while, too!" said the clothing man. "I know I had a tough tussle with
+one not a great while ago down in Pittsburgh. Last season I placed a
+small bunch of stuff in a big store there. I had been late in getting
+around but the merchant liked my samples and told me that if the goods
+delivered turned out all right he would give me good business this
+season.
+
+"Now, my house delivers right up to sample. A great many houses do
+not, and so merchants go not on the samples they look at but according
+to the goods delivered to them. It is the house that _delivers_
+good merchandise that holds its business, not the one that shows
+bright samples on the road and ships poor stuff.
+
+"I went up to my man's store--this was just a few weeks ago--and asked
+him to come over with me.
+
+"'My head clothing man,' said my customer, 'does not like your stuff.
+I might as well be frank with you about it.' 'What objection has he to
+it?' said I. 'He says they don't fit. He says the trimmings and
+everything are all right and I wish they did fit because your prices
+look cheap to me.' 'Well, let's go over and see about that,' said I.
+'There's no one in the world more willing and anxious to make things
+right than I am if there is anything wrong.' I didn't know just what I
+had to go up against. The man on the road gets all the kicks.
+
+"Once in a while there is a clerk who puts out his hand like the boy
+who waits on you at table and if pretty good coin is not dropped in it
+or some favor shown him, he will have it in for you.
+
+"My customer and I walked over to where the clerk was and I came right
+out, and said, 'Johnny, what's the matter with this clothing you've
+received from me? Mr. Green (the merchant) here tells me you say it
+doesn't fit. Let's see about that.'
+
+"The clerk was slim and stoop-shouldered. The tailor to his royal
+highness could not have made a coat hang right on him.
+
+"'Now, you are kicking so much, Johnnie, on my clothing, you go here
+in this store and pick out some coats your size from other people and
+let's see how they fit. Let's put this thing to a fair test.'
+
+"'That's square,' said Green. 'If a thing is so, I want to know it; if
+it isn't, I want to know it.'
+
+"I slipped onto Johnnie three or four of my competitor's coats that he
+brought and they hung upon him about as well as they would on a scare-
+crow.
+
+"'Now, Johnnie, you are a good boy,' said I, 'but you've been inside
+so long that the Lord, kind as He is, hasn't built you just right. You
+are not the man who is to wear this clothing that comes into this
+store. It is the other fellow. My house does not make clothing for
+people who are not built right. We take the perfect man as our pattern
+and build to suit him. There are so many more people in the world who
+are strong and robust and well proportioned than there are those who
+are not, that it is a great deal better to make clothing for the
+properly built man than for the invalid. Now, I just want to show you
+how this clothing does fit. You take any coat that you wish. Bring me
+half a dozen of them if you will--one from every line that you bought
+from me, if you wish. I wear a 38. Bring my size and let's see how
+they look. If they are not all right, I am the man who, most of all,
+wishes to know it. I can't afford to go around the country showing
+good samples and selling poor stuff. If my stuff isn't right, I am
+going to change houses but I want to tell you that you're the first
+man on this whole trip that has made a single complaint. Those who
+bought small bills from me last season are buying good bills from me
+this time. They have said that my goods give splendid satisfaction.
+Now, you just simply go, Johnnie, and get me ten coats. I sold you ten
+numbers--I remember exactly--l20 suits--one from every line that you
+bought, and I want to show you that there isn't a bad fitter in the
+whole lot.'
+
+"'Yes, do that, Johnnie,' said the merchant. 'His stuff looked all
+right to me when I bought it. I, myself, have not had time to pay much
+attention to it and I will have to take your word for these things,
+but, now that the question is up, we'll see about it.'
+
+"The clerk started to dig out my size but he couldn't find a 38 in but
+three lots to save his life. I put these on and they fit to a 'T'. I
+looked in the mirror myself and could see that the fit was perfect.
+
+[Illustration: "Shure, that cigare is a birrd"]
+
+"'Now, look here, Brother Green,' said I, 'what are you in business
+for? You are in business to buy the best stuff that you can for your
+money. Now, you remember you thought when you bought my goods that
+they were from one to two dollars a suit cheaper and just as good as
+anything you had seen. Now, if you can buy something from me just as
+good as another man can give you, and buy it cheaper, you are going to
+do it, aren't you?'
+
+"'Why, to be sure, Jim,' said Green, warming up.
+
+"'Now, look here, it isn't the opinion of your clerk or your own
+opinion even that you care a rap for. The opinion that is worth
+something is that of the man who buys his goods from you. Now, you see
+very plainly that my stuff is good. Thirty-eight is a size of which
+you bought many and you haven't that size left in but three lines out
+of ten. Here you see very plainly that my goods have moved faster than
+any other clothing you have bought this season; and, as far as the fit
+is concerned, you see full well, that other stuff didn't fit Johnnie
+because he isn't built right. You did see--and you do see--I have one
+of them on right now--that my clothing fits a well-built man.'
+
+"I saw that I had the old man on my side and I knew that Johnnie had
+dropped several points in his estimation. The truth of the matter was
+the clerk was knocking on me in favor of one of his old friends. Of
+course I wouldn't come right out and say this but the old man himself
+grew wise on this point because that afternoon he came down by himself
+and bought from me a good, fat bill. The clerk simply killed himself
+by not being fair with me. No clerk who expects promotion can afford
+to play favorites."
+
+"It's all right when you can get over the clerk's head and to the
+merchant himself," chimed in the Boys' & Children's Clothing man,
+"when there is any graft going around, but it is a hard game to play
+when you must deal with a buyer who is the supreme judge. I once had
+an experience with a buyer down in California. I went into one of the
+big stores down there and jollied around with the buyer in my
+department. He said he would come over and look at my line. He took
+the hook so quickly that I ought to have been on to him to start with,
+but I didn't. He came over to my sample room in the evening. Now that,
+you know, isn't a very good time to buy clothing. Nothing is as good
+as daylight for that. He didn't question my price or anything of that
+sort. He would look at a few things and then stop and talk horse with
+me for awhile. I don't like to do business with that kind of a fellow.
+When I do business, I like to do business; when I talk horse I like to
+talk horse; and I want a man with me in the sample room who is
+interested in what he is doing. It is the busy man, anyway, that makes
+you a good customer--not the one with whom business is merely a side
+issue.
+
+"After monkeying around a couple of hours, I managed to get laid out a
+pretty fair line of stuff. 'Now,' said the buyer, 'to-night I can only
+make up a list of what's here. These things suit me pretty well, and
+in the morning I can submit it to the old man for his O.K.'
+
+"Well, that looked easy to me so we wrote down the order, and when we
+got through, that fellow was bold enough to come right out and say,
+'Now, look here, you're making a pretty good commission on this stuff
+--here's a good bill, and I can throw it to you if I wish, or I can
+kill it if I like. I'm not getting any too much over where I am, so
+don't you think your house can dig up about twenty for me on this
+bill, and I'll see that it sticks?'"
+
+"Did you dig?" said one of the boys.
+
+"Dig? You bet your life not. This funny business, I won't do. It may
+work for one bill but it won't last long because it is only a matter
+of time before the buyer who will be bribed will be jumped and lose
+his job. I simply told the fellow that I didn't do that sort of
+business; that unless he wished to do business with me strictly on the
+square, I wouldn't do business with him at all."
+
+"Well, what did he say to this?" said I.
+
+"Oh, he said to me, 'I'm just joshing with you and I really wanted to
+see if I couldn't get you down a little and make that much more for
+the house. I like to do business myself with any one who is on the
+square.'" "The order stuck then?" asked the wall paper man.
+
+"No, it didn't. That's the worst of it. A few days after I reached
+home in came a cancellation from the head of the house. At that time,
+I didn't understand it. I supposed that the head of the house himself
+had really canceled the order, so the next time I went to that town, I
+waltzed straight up to the office and asked to see the head of the
+establishment. I asked him why he had canceled my order and he told me
+that his buyer really had all of that in charge and that he only
+followed out his recommendations; that the buyer had told him to
+cancel that bill and he had done so.
+
+"I saw through the whole scheme. There was just one thing for me to
+do. I simply came right square out and told the old man that his buyer
+had wanted to get $20.00 from me to make the bill stick; and I bet him
+a hundred that the clerk had canceled my order so that he could get a
+rake-off from somebody else.
+
+"The old man sent for the buyer and told him to get his pay and leave.
+He thanked me for putting him wise and from that time on, he or some
+other member of the firm always goes to the sample room."
+
+Now, it must not be thought that every sale that is made must be put
+through by some bright turn. These stories I have told about getting
+the merchant's attention are the extreme cases. The general on the
+field of battle ofttimes must order a flank movement, or a spirited
+cavalry dash; but he wins his battle by following a well-thought-out
+plan. So with the salesman. He must rely, in the main, upon good,
+quiet, steady, well-planned work. Some merchants compel a man to use
+extraordinary means to catch them at the start. And the all-around
+salesman will be able to meet such an emergency right at the moment,
+and in an original way that will win.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+CUTTING PRICES.
+
+
+Is not the salesman on the road who sells goods to one customer at one
+price and to another at another price, a thief? Is not the house which
+allows its salesman to do this an accomplice to the crime of theft?
+
+This is a hot shot, I know; but, if you are a salesman, ask yourself
+if it is right to get the marked price of an article from a friend who
+gives you his confidence, and then sell the same thing for a lower
+price to another man who is suspicious and beats you down. Ask
+yourself, if you have men on the road, whether or not it is right for
+you to allow your salesman to do these things, and then answer "Yes"
+or "No." You will all answer "No, but we can't help ourselves."
+
+You can. A friend of mine, who travels for a large house, way down
+East, that employs one hundred road salesmen, told me recently of an
+experience directly in point. I will let him tell the story to you:
+
+"It is the custom in our house, you know, for all of the boys to meet
+together twice each year when we come in after our samples. After we
+get our samples marked and packed, and are ready for the road, the
+'old gentleman' in the house gives us all a banquet. He sits at the
+head of the table and is toastmaster.
+
+"He is wise in bringing the boys together in this way because he knows
+that the boys on the road know how things ought to be and that they
+can give him a great many pointers. He has a stenographer present who
+takes down every word that is said during the evening. The reports of
+these semi-annual meetings are the law books of this house.
+
+"At our last meeting the 'old gentleman' when he first arose to speak,
+said: 'Look here, boys'--he knew how to take us all--'there is one
+thing about our system of business that I do not like; it is this
+cutting of prices. Now, what I would like to do this very season--and
+I have thought of it since you have all packed up your trunks--is to
+have all samples marked in plain figures and for no man to deviate in
+any way from the prices. Of course this is rather a bold thing to do
+in that we have done business in the old way of marking goods in
+characters for many years, so I wish to hear from you all and see what
+you think about it. I shall wish as many of you as will to state in
+words just what you think on this subject, one by one; but first of
+all, I wish that every man who favors marking samples in plain figures
+and not varying from the price would stand up, and that those who
+think the other way would keep their seats.'
+
+"Well, sir, do you know I was the only man out of that whole hundred
+to stand up. The others sat there. After standing for a moment I sat
+down, and the 'old gentleman' arose again.
+
+"'Well, the vote is so near unanimous,' said the 'old gentleman,'
+"that it seems hardly necessary for us to discuss the matter. Yet it
+is possible that one man may be right and ninety-nine may be wrong, so
+let us hear from one of our salesmen who differs from his ninety-nine
+brethren.'
+
+"With this I stood up, and I made a speech something like this: 'Mr.
+President, and Fellow Salesmen: I am very glad that our worthy
+President has given me the right to speak. He has said that one man in
+a hundred _may be_ right even though ninety-nine do not believe
+as he does. There is no _may be_ about it. I do not think that I
+am right. I KNOW IT. I speak from experience. When I first started on
+the road one of my old friends in the house--I was just a stock boy,
+you know, going out for the first time, not knowing whether I would
+succeed or fail--this old friend gave me this advice: Said he, "Billy,
+it is better for you to be abused for selling goods cheaply than to be
+fired for not selling them at all." With this advice before me from an
+old salesman in the house, and knowing that all of the salesmen nearly
+in greater or less degree slaughtered the price of goods, I went out
+on the road. The first thing I began to do was to cut, cut, cut.
+Letters came to me from the house to quit it, but I kept on cutting,
+cutting, cutting. I knew that the other boys in the house did it, and
+I did not see any reason why I should not. It was my habit to do this:
+If a man was hard to move in any way and was mean to me I came at him
+with prices. If he treated me gentlemanly and gave me his confidence,
+I robbed him--that is, I got the full marked price, while the other
+fellow bought goods cheaper than this man. Once I got caught up with.
+Two of my customers met in market and, as merchants usually do when
+they meet in market, they began to discuss the lines of goods which
+they carried. They found that they both carried my line, and my good
+friend learned that the other fellow bought certain lines cheaper than
+he did.
+
+"'The next time I went around to his town I wore the same old good
+smile and everything of that kind but I soon saw that he did not take
+to me as kindly as before. When I asked him to come over to my sample
+room, he said to me, "No, I will not go over--I shall not buy any more
+goods from you."
+
+"'"Why, what is the matter?" I asked.
+
+"'"Oh, never mind, I just don't care to handle your line," said he.
+
+"'"Why, aren't the goods all right?" I asked.
+
+"'"Yes, the goods are all right, and since you have pressed the
+question I wish to tell you that the reason why I don't care to buy
+any more goods from you is that you have sold goods to other people
+for less money than you have to me."
+
+"'I could not deny it, and even when I offered to sell him goods at
+the same price that I had other people he said to me, "No, sir; you
+can't sell me goods at any price. I don't care to deal with a man who
+does business that way."
+
+"'This set me to thinking, and I thought about it so hard that I began
+to see that I was not doing right and, furthermore, that I was not
+doing what would help me to build up a permanent business. I saw that
+I was trying to build business by making many merchants think that I
+was a cut-throat rather than a man in whom they could place
+confidence. So I believe in marking goods in plain figures and selling
+to every one for the same price. And, gentlemen, I even changed
+territories so I could go into a new one and build a business on the
+square. Whether or not I have prospered, you all know.'
+
+"The old gentleman arose and said: 'Now, what our good friend has just
+said, strikes me just right, and if I were a salesman I would follow
+out his ideas; he has convinced me. But what do you other gentlemen
+think of this? I would like to hear from you.'
+
+"One by one the boys got up, not all of them, but many. Boiled down,
+the reasons which they gave for not wishing to mark their goods in
+plain figures, were these:
+
+"First. That ofttimes one of their customer's patrons might wish to
+make a special order and if he saw the samples marked in plain figures
+he would find out just how much profit was being made.
+
+"Second. That often they showed goods in a man's store and people who
+were standing around would see what the wholesale price was.
+
+"Third. That most merchants like to feel that they are buying goods
+cheaper than any one else.
+
+"After all of these arguments were made, the old gentleman asked me to
+reply to them. I did so in these words:
+
+"'Now, as to your first argument about special orders. The man on the
+road should not try or wish to sell one hat or one pair of shoes or
+one suit of clothes to some special customer who will take half an
+hour to make his selection. What he should do is to sell a merchant a
+good bill--and he can sell a whole bill of goods about as quickly as
+he can sell one special item. If marking my goods in plain figures
+would do nothing more than keep away from my sample room these special
+order fiends which hound every merchant in the country, that alone
+would lead me to do it.'
+
+"When I said this, several of the boys clapped their hands, and I saw
+that things were coming my way.
+
+"'Now, as to your second argument regarding showing goods in a
+merchant's store. If there is anything I detest it is to do this,
+because when you go to show a man your goods you should have his
+complete attention. This you cannot get when there are customers
+present or a lot of loafers around the store cutting into what you are
+doing. I would rather open up in the office of a burning livery stable
+than have a whole day in a store. What you want to do, gentlemen,'
+said I, 'is this: Not to carry your samples to your customer's store,
+but to take your customer to your store--your sample room. There you
+get his complete attention, without which no one can make a successful
+sale.'
+
+"Still more of the boys applauded me and I continued:
+
+"'Now, gentlemen, as to the last point. Several of you have said that
+some merchants wish to think that they buy from you cheaper than other
+merchants in neighboring towns. They do not wish to think anything of
+the kind. What they do wish to think is that they are buying them
+_as cheaply_ as their neighbors do.' Still more of the boys applauded
+what I said, and one fellow who traveled down in Missouri yelled like
+a coon hunter.
+
+"'The basis of love, gentlemen,' I persisted, 'is respect. Some of you
+have had the good sense to marry. To each of these I say: Before the
+girl who is now your wife found that she loved you, she discovered
+that you had her respect and admiration.
+
+"'And there is not a single one of you who has a customer that does
+not have at least a little confidence in you. Confidence is the basis
+of business.
+
+"'Now, I want to tell you another thing'--I was getting warm then--'It
+is impossible to tell a lie so that the man to whom you tell it will
+believe it is the truth. If a man has a lie in his heart, that lie
+will be felt and spotted by the men he talks to while he affirms with
+his lips that he speaks the truth. If a merchant asks you if you are
+selling him goods as cheaply as you sell them to other people, and you
+tell him "Yes" and you are really _not_ doing so, he will know that
+you are telling him a lie, and you will lose his confidence and
+you will lose his business. The one thing to do then, is to treat
+everybody alike--to sell them all at the same price.
+
+"Now, it is possible for a man to mark his samples in characters and
+to do a one-price business, but you can bet your life that the
+stranger will be leery of you if your goods are marked in characters.
+But if you mark your goods in plain figures and you say to a merchant
+when you begin to show them to him that your goods are marked in plain
+figures and that you do not vary from the price, he will believe you
+and will not try to beat you down. Then you will gain his confidence
+and he will have more confidence in you, the plain-figure man, than he
+will in the character-price man from whom he might have been buying
+for years.
+
+"'Judgment is scarcely a factor in business; even many good merchants
+are not judges of goods. They are all free to confess this. The best
+merchant is the best judge of men. These merchants, therefore, must
+and do depend upon the salesmen from whom they buy their goods. Here,
+again, is where confidence comes in. This whole thing is confidence, I
+say. Many a merchant passes up lines of goods that he thinks are
+better than those he is handling--passes them up because he does not
+_know_ their superiority and because he does not trust the man who
+tries to sell them to him.
+
+"'Merchants themselves--many of them--give baits to their customers.
+They know this game full well, and they do not care for baits
+themselves. I remember that I once sold a bill of goods in this way: I
+had sold this customer regularly for five or six years every season.
+This time he told me that he had bought. He said to me: "The other
+fellow gave me his price one morning and then he came over to see me
+in the afternoon and dropped on the price and I bought the goods then
+because I knew I had him at the bottom."
+
+"'Now, do you suppose I went to making cuts to get even with that
+other fellow? Not a bit of it. I first showed my old customer that he
+did not know the values of goods. Then I told him: "Now, you may buy
+my goods if you like; but you will buy them no cheaper than I have
+been selling them to you for the last five or six years. Do you
+suppose that I would come around here to-day and make an open
+confession that I have been robbing you for all of these years? No,
+sir; I try to see that my goods are marked right in the beginning and
+then I treat everybody alike." Although he had turned me down, this
+man bought my goods and countermanded the order of the other fellow.
+
+"'And, boys--you who have been so dishonest so long'--said I, 'don't
+know how happy it makes a fellow feel to know that what he is doing is
+right, and you cannot beat the right. It is good enough. When you know
+in your own heart that you are honorable in your dealings with your
+merchant friends, you can walk right square up to them and look them
+straight in the eye and make them feel that you are treating them
+right. They will then give you their confidence, and confidence begets
+business. Therefore, gentlemen, I don't care what any of you are going
+to do. I, myself, shall mark my goods in plain figures and sell them
+at the same price to everyone, and I only wish that I worked for a
+firm that would compel all their salesmen to be honest.'
+
+"With this, the old man arose. I saw that I had him won over, but I
+heard one of the boys who sat near me whisper, 'Now, watch the old man
+give it to him.' But he did not. Instead, he said to me: 'This is
+surely a case where, although there were ninety-nine against him, the
+one is right. I hereby issue an order to every salesman to mark his
+goods in plain figures and to sell his goods at the marked price. I
+wish you, furthermore, to do another thing. On every sample on which I
+told you you might make a cut, _if necessary_, I wish you would make
+that cut on the start. I have always wished to do business as our
+one-priced friend has suggested but I have never been strong enough to
+do so. I had always thought myself honest, believing that business
+expediency made it necessary to give a few people the inside over
+others; but I am going to make a frank confession to you--I can say
+that I have not been honest. "'I feel like a certain clothing
+manufacturer felt for a long time. I was talking with him at luncheon
+the other day; he is a man who marks his goods in plain figures. If
+the salesman, by mistake, sold a ten dollar suit for eleven dollars,
+the goods when shipped out are billed at ten dollars. He is the one,
+gentlemen, who put this plain-figure idea into my head. One of his
+salesmen, as we all sat together at the table, asked him: "Mr. Blank,
+how many years have you been doing the one-price, plain-figure
+business?"
+
+"'"A little over four years," said he.
+
+"'"And how old are you?" the salesman asked.
+
+"'"Fifty-five," was the answer.
+
+"'"In other words," said he, "you have been a thief for over half a
+century."
+
+"'"Yes; you're right," said the clothing manufacturer--and this was
+the only time I ever heard him agree with anybody in my life!
+
+"'His business philosophy was quaintly summed up in the one word
+PERVERSE. "Give a man what he wants," he said, "and he doesn't want
+it." "When you find other people going in one direction, go in the
+other, and you will go in the right one." He saw nearly every one else
+in the clothing business marking their goods in characters, and, true
+to his philosophy--"Perverse"--marked his goods in plain figures, and
+he is succeeding. Now, gentlemen, I am going to do the same thing.
+
+"'And, another thing--I am not going to mark just part of them in
+plain figures. Do you know, I called on a wholesale dry goods man the
+other day--the President of the concern. He told me that he marked a
+part of their manufactured goods in plain figures and the rest in
+characters. I said to him, "You confess that you are only partly
+honest; in being only half honest you are dishonest." So, gentlemen, I
+am going to mark our goods in plain figures, and I want you to sell
+them to everybody at the same price; if you do not, I will not ship
+them.
+
+"'Now, I thought I was through, but one more idea has occurred to me.
+By selling our goods at strictly one price I can figure exactly how
+much money I am making on a given volume of business. Before, this
+matter of "cuts" made it a varying, uncertain amount; in future there
+will be certainty as to the amount of profits. And another thing, so
+sure as I live, if all of you go out and make the same increase that
+the one who stood out against all of us has made, our business will
+thrive so that we can afford to sell goods cheaper still. Until to-
+night I never knew why it was that he took hold of what seemed to me a
+big business in his predecessor's territory and doubled it the second
+year. His success was the triumph of common honesty, and we all shall
+try his plan, for honesty is right, and nothing beats the right.'
+
+"When the vote was taken the second time, every man at the table stood
+up."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CANCELED ORDERS.
+
+
+"Do I like cancellations? Well, I guess not!" said a furnishing goods
+friend, straightening up a little and lighting his cigar as a group of
+us sat around the radiator after supper one night in the Hoffman
+House. "I'll tell you, boys, I'd rather keep company with a hobo, than
+with a merchant who will place an order and then cancel it without
+just cause. I can stand it all right if I call on a man for a quarter
+of a century and don't sell him a sou, but when I once make a sale, I
+want it to stick. This selling business isn't such a snap as most of
+our employers think. It takes a whole lot of hard knocking; the easy
+push-over days are all over. When a man lands a good order now it
+makes the blood rush all over his veins; and when an order it cut out
+it is like getting separated from a wisdom tooth. Of course you can't
+blame a Kansas merchant for going back on his orders in a grasshopper
+year; but it is the fellow who has half a notion of canceling when he
+buys and afterwards really does cancel, that I carry a club for.
+
+"Usually a fellow who does this sort of funny work comes to grief. I
+know I once had the satisfaction of playing even with a smart buyer
+who canceled on me.
+
+"I was down in California. I was put onto a fellow named Johnson up in
+Humboldt County, who wanted some plunder in my line--the boys, you
+know, are pretty good to each other in tipping a good chance off to
+one another. I couldn't very well run up to the place--it was a two-
+day town--so I wrote Johnson to meet me at 'Frisco at my expense. He
+came down, bought his bill all right, and I paid him his expense.
+Luckily, I put a clothing man on and we 'divied' the expense. We
+treated that fellow white as chalk; we gave him a good time--took him
+to the show and put before him a good spread.
+
+"Do you know that fellow just simply worked us. He wanted to come to
+'Frisco, anyhow, and just thought he'd let me foot the bill. How do I
+know it? Because he wrote the house canceling the order before he
+started back home. I figured up how long it would take to get a letter
+to Chicago and back; and he couldn't have gone home and written the
+firm so that I could get the notification as soon as I did unless he
+wrote the cancellation the very night we took him to the theater. I
+never had a man do me such dirt. I felt like I'd love to give him just
+one more swell dinner, and use a stomach pump on him.
+
+"But didn't I get beautifully even with Brother Johnson!
+
+"The next season, as a drawing card, I had my packer carry on the
+side, in his name, a greatly advertised line of shoes. It didn't pay a
+long commission, but everybody wanted it; and it enabled me to get
+people into my big towns so that I did not have to beat the brush.
+
+"I had failed to scratch Johnson from my mailing list, so he got a
+card from my packer--as well as a letter from myself--that if he would
+meet him in San Francisco his expenses would be paid. He did not know
+that my packer and myself were really the same man.
+
+"Johnson jumped at the advertised shoe line like a rainbow trout at a
+'royal coachman.' It's funny how some merchants get daffy over a
+little printer's ink, but it does the work and the man who advertises
+his goods is the boy who gets the fat envelopes. I'd rather go on the
+road to-day with a line of shoes made out of soft blotting paper, if
+they had good things said about them in the magazines and if flaming
+posters went with them than to try to dish out oak-tanned soles with
+prime calf uppers at half price and with a good line of palaver. It's
+the lad who sticks type that, when you get right down to it, does the
+biz.
+
+"The letter which Johnson wrote in reply to the card of my packer went
+something like this: "'My dear sir: In regard to your favor of the 23d
+inst., I beg to say that I could use about $2000 worth of your line if
+you could come up here, providing that I would be the only one that
+you would sell your line to in my town.
+
+"'Hoping to hear from you soon in regard to this matter, I remain,
+very truly, -------- Johnson.'
+
+"'P.S. If you can't possibly come up, I'll come down.'
+
+"What did I do? Well, I thought the matter over and decided that
+business was business and, there being no other chance in his town, I
+would let him come and try to play even on the old score. I wired him
+to come down, and I thought, as I had him on the run, I'd better put
+on a pusher. My message read: 'Come down but you must be here to-
+morrow.'
+
+"Just after my telegram was off--I told the girl to rush it--I called
+at the office for my mail and, bless me! I had a letter from another
+man in the same town.
+
+"Now, say what you will, boys, a man's letter reveals his character.
+If a man has mean blood in his veins he will spread some of it on the
+paper when he writes to you. I've seen the pugnacious wrinkles of a
+bull pup's face many a time wiggling between the lines of a letter.
+And if there's sunshine in a man's heart that also will brighten up
+the sheet he writes on.
+
+"The other man in the town wrote about like this:
+
+"'Your postal received and I must say I regret exceedingly that I have
+just sent in a mail order for your goods. I wish I had known that you
+were coming, for I always save my orders for the boys on the road when
+I can. Now, the next time you come to 'Frisco, let me know a few days
+ahead and I will run down to meet you. I want your goods. My business
+in your line is steadily increasing. When I started in I just kept
+them for a side line, but your goods give first class satisfaction,
+and in the near future I shall handle nothing else. It will take a
+little time to clean out the other makes, but when I do--by next
+season--I shall have a nice order for you. I hope to hear from you
+before you get to the next coast--say a month before. Truly yours,
+
+"They say a 'bird in the hand's worth two in the bush,' but that
+depends upon the kind of a bird you've got hold of. I'll let go of a
+tough old owl every time to take a chance at catching a spring
+chicken. Without a second thought, I decided that I'd risk it on the
+man who wrote me such a gentlemanly letter rather than deal with the
+fellow who had canceled on me. Furthermore, I had half an idea that
+Johnson was making me fair promises only to get the line and cut the
+other fellow's throat and that maybe he would cancel again. So I
+immediately sent Johnson a second telegram:
+
+"'Cannot place the line with you. Do not come down.'
+
+"He was anxious for the line and he wired back:
+
+"'Write particulars why you cannot sell me your shoes.'
+
+"Well, wasn't this a chance? My clothing friend was with me again. I
+told him the story. 'Soak him good and wet!' said he. Together we
+wrote the following letter, and, you bet your sweet life, I mailed it,
+signing my packer's name:
+
+"'Sir: You wire me to write you "particulars why" I cannot sell you my
+line of shoes. Two of my friends at present in the hotel inform me
+that six months ago you met them here at their expense, were royally
+entertained by them and that after buying bills of them you almost
+immediately cancelled your orders, and that you have never offered to
+return to them the $25.00 they spent for your traveling expenses.
+These gentlemen are reputable; and, to answer your question
+specifically and plainly, I do not care to place my line with you
+because in you I have no confidence, sir.'"
+
+"That was getting even with a vengeance," spoke up the furnishing
+goods man. "In this canceling business, though, sometimes the merchant
+has just cause for it. I know I once had a case where my customer did
+exactly the right thing by canceling his order.
+
+"Along the last part of October, I sold him a of ties--this was down
+in Mississippi. I sent in a little express order for immediate
+shipment, and for December first a freight shipment which my man
+wished for the Christmas trade. I also took his spring order to be
+sent out February first.
+
+"Now, my man's credit was good. For several seasons he had been
+discounting his bills. He had the personal acquaintance of our credit
+man and had made a good impression on him. I always like to have my
+customers acquainted with our credit man. It's a good thing always for
+the merchant to do and it's also a good thing for the house to know
+their trade personally. Makes the man out in the country feel that
+he's not doing business with strangers.
+
+"There was no reason, then, why there should have been any question in
+the credit department about making the shipment. The little express
+order went out all right but, by mistake, the credit man placed the
+February first shipment and the December first order away in the
+February first shipment file. This was a clear mistake--no excuse for
+it. Business men should not make mistakes.
+
+"The first I heard about the matter was about New Year. I was struck
+dumb when I received notice from the Credit Department that my man had
+canceled his entire order. The credit man told me in the letter which
+he sent along with the cancellation notice that he had simply made a
+mistake in filing the December first order away with the February
+first shipment, and confessed that he had made a mistake and begged my
+pardon.
+
+"He was a gentleman with three times as much work on his hands as the
+firm had the right to expect from him for the money they paid him, so,
+although I was much put out because of the cancellation, I really did
+not have any resentment toward the credit man. If things move along
+smoothly in a wholesale house, the man in the office and the salesman
+on the road must pull in double harness. I couldn't quite agree with
+my friend in the office, though, when he said that my customer, when
+he failed to receive an invoice soon after the first of December,
+should have written in and said so. That wasn't the customer's
+business. It was the business of the house, if they were unable to
+make the shipment December 1st, to write the man and tell him so.
+
+"Well, there I was! A good day's work had gone to the bad. My order--
+and it was a good healthy one, too--was canceled and perhaps all
+future business with a good friend and solid customer was at an end.
+
+"The house had written my friend--his name was Morris--asking him to
+reinstate the order; but that was like putting bait before a fish at
+spawning time. He wouldn't take the hook. I knew if there was any
+reinstating to be had, I must get it.
+
+"Now, Morris was a bully good friend of mine. I really liked him very
+much, and he liked me. I remember well the first time that I ever
+struck him. Really, I went around to see him just for a personal call.
+'Look here, old fellow,' I said, 'I haven't come around to do any
+business with you; but one of my old friends, Jack Persey, has told me
+what a good fellow you are and I've just dropped in to say hello.
+Come, let's have a cigar.'
+
+"After we'd lighted our cigars and talked a little, I said, 'Well, I'm
+sorry to get off in such a rush but I must quit you. I must be packing
+up. My train leaves in about an hour and a half. Now, really Morris
+(he was such a whole-souled fellow that I found myself, without any
+undue familiarity, calling him by his first name, after a very few
+minutes), I don't want to do any business with you. I don't wish to
+impose my acquaintance on you, but come on over to my sample room and
+keep me company while I'm packing.'
+
+"I really didn't intend to do any business with him. Some of the very
+best friends we all have on the road, anyhow, are those to whom we
+never sell a sou. Morris saw very plainly that I wasn't trying to work
+him--you can always pick out, anyway, the ring of truth in words you
+hear. I started to pack up without showing an item or even talking
+business. My line was displayed, however, and it was really a bird.
+Morris himself picked up a few samples and threw them down on the
+table.
+
+"'Say, dos are pretty ennyvay. Sent me a dotzen of each von of dese in
+the color dey are dere, ant also in black. I vill just gif you a
+leetle gomplimentary orter on account of Chack. There is no reeson
+anyvay vy I shouldn't do beesness mit you. You're de first man on de
+rote dot efer struck me and didn't ask me to buy goots. I don't like
+the fellow, anyvay, dot I'm buying ties from and his house is not'ing
+to me. I vill gif you a goot orter next season.' And, sure enough,
+Morris did give me a good order next season, and for several seasons
+after that.
+
+"So you can see how I was put out when I got a letter telling me that
+Morris had canceled the order. I really cared less about the amount of
+the order than I did about losing his friendship. So I sat down and
+dictated a letter to him that ran something like this:
+
+"'Dear Morris:
+
+    "'"The wordly hope men set their hearts upon
+     Turns ashes--or it prospers--and anon,
+     Like snow upon the desert's dusty face,
+     Lighting a little hour or two, is gone."
+
+"'Our business relationship, Morris, has always been so pleasant that
+many a time I've hoped it would last always. I cannot forget the kind-
+hearted and friendly way in which you gave me your first order. I had
+hoped that the firm I was with would give you the good treatment which
+your friendship for me deserved; but here they are making a mistake
+with the very man who, last of all, I would have them offend.
+
+"'Now, Morris, I want you to feel that this is not my fault. I am sure
+it is not yours. It can be nobody's fault but that of the house. They,
+like myself, are also really very sorry for this mistake.
+
+"'I enclose you the letter which I received from them in regard to
+this. Can you not see that they regret this sincerely? Can you not
+even hear the wail that our office man must have uttered when he
+dictated the letter? Now, Morris, I really know that my firm holds you
+in high esteem--and why should they not? You have always patronized
+them liberally. You have always paid your bills and you have never
+made yourself ugly toward them in any way.
+
+"'As I say, there is no excuse for this mistake but, if you are
+willing to pass that all up, Morris, I am sure you would make our
+credit man, who has made this error, very happy indeed if you would
+merely wire the house, "Ship my goods as originally ordered."
+
+"'And, after all, Morris, think this thing over and maybe you will
+conclude that "'Tis better far to bear the ills we have than fly to
+others that we know not of."
+
+    "'"Can't be always sunny
+     Dat's de lesson plain;
+     For ever' rose, my honey,
+     Am sweeter fer de rain."
+                                        "'Your friend,
+                                               "'------------'"
+
+"A good deal of poetry for a business letter," spoke up one of the
+boys. This pricked the necktie man, who flashed back, "Yes, but if
+there were more poetry in business, it would be lots more pleasant
+than it is."
+
+"Well, how did it come out?" I asked.
+
+"It so happened that I had to pass through Morris' town about ten days
+afterwards. I didn't care anything about reinstating the order for the
+amount of it, but I really did wish to go in and see my old friend and
+at least square myself. So I dropped off one day between trains at
+Morris' town, and went up to see him.
+
+"'Hello,' said he, 'How are you, old man? I'm glad to see you. Say,
+but dot vas a tandy letter. I've ortered a seventy-five-cent vrame for
+it.'
+
+"'Well, Morris,' said I, 'you know I'm really very glad that a little
+difficulty of this kind has come up between us as I like you to know
+just where I stand. Now, I haven't come here to do anything but just
+see you. Cut the order clear out--I wish you would. It would teach the
+house a lesson and make them more careful hereafter. Come on down with
+me now. It's about supper time and we're going to have a little feed.'
+
+"I really meant every word I said. After we had finished a fried
+chicken or two, we started back to Morris' store.
+
+"'Say,' said he, 'Haf you got the copy of dot orter I gafe you?'
+
+"I said, 'Why no, Morris, I haven't a copy of it. You have one. Don't
+you remember that I gave you one?'
+
+"'Yes, but ven I didn't get my goots on time--I kapt vaiting, und
+vaiting, und vaiting, und still dey ditn't com, I took dot copy and I
+vas so mad dot I tore it op and trew id in der stofe.'
+
+"'Well, if you wish to look over the copy, Morris, I can easily run
+down to the depot and tear my tissue paper one out of my order book.'
+
+"'Vell, you go down und get it,' said Morris. 'Dere's some off the
+Gristmas goots it is too late for me to use, but we'll fix op de
+Spring shipment som vay.'
+
+"When Morris and I looked over my copy, he cut out a few items of the
+December 1st shipment but added to the February 1st order a great deal
+more than he canceled from the other one.
+
+"'Say,' said Morris, 'do you know vy I reinsdadet dot orter. It vas
+dot letter you sent me.'
+
+"'Well, I thank you very much,' said I.
+
+"'You know, I don't care so much aboud dose "vorldly hopes" and dot
+"sonshine," but vat dit strike me vas vere you saidt: "It's better
+fair to bear de ilts ve half don vly to odders dot we know not of."
+Dot means, Vat's de use of chanching 'ouses.'"
+
+"You can handle some men like that," said a hat man friend who sat
+with us, but I struck one old bluffer out in South Dakota once that
+wouldn't stand for any smoothing over. He was the most disagreeable
+white man to do business with I ever saw. He was all right to talk
+fishing and politics with, and was a good entertainer. He always
+treated me decently in that way but when it got down to business he
+was the meanest son of a gun on earth. A fishing trip for half an hour
+or the political situation during luncheon is a pretty good thing to
+talk over, but when it comes to interfering with business, I think it
+is about time to cut it out.
+
+"My house had been selling this man for several years. He handled a
+whole lot of goods but it worried the life out of me to get his bill.
+
+"Last time I did business with him he had monkeyed with me all day
+long, and I had struck him as many as four times to go over to my
+sample room. If he had made a positive engagement and said that he
+would see me at twelve o'clock that night, it would have been all
+right; but he would turn away with a grunt the subject of going to
+look at samples, not even giving me the satisfaction of saying he
+didn't want anything at all.
+
+"I felt that I'd spent time enough in the town so, after supper, I
+brought over a bunch of soft hats under my arm, and about nine o'clock
+he looked at them, picked out a few numbers, and said he had to go to
+lodge. I boned him about straw hats--I was on my spring trip then.
+
+"'Look at them to-morrow,' he grunted.
+
+"I was beginning to get tired of this sort of thing so next morning
+early I went around to see another man in the town. I'd made up my
+mind I'd rather take less business from some one else and get it more
+agreeably; but, to my surprise, I sold this other fellow $1,300, the
+best order I took on that trip. And easy! I believe he was one of the
+easiest men I ever did business with; and his credit was A1. He had no
+objections whatever to my doing business with others in the same town,
+because he wished his goods put up under his own name rather than with
+our brands on them, so this really made no interference.
+
+[Illustration: "He came in with his before-breakfast grouch."]
+
+"I finished with him in the morning about 11:30. On going over to my
+other man's store I found that he was still in bed. Pretty soon he
+came in with his before-breakfast grouch. It was afternoon before I
+got him over to my sample room. Meantime I had gone to sell another
+man and sold him a bunch of children's and misses' goods--such stuff
+as a clothing house has no use for.
+
+"After I'd taken the dogging of the gruff old codger for a couple of
+hours--he kicked on everything, the brims being a quarter of an inch
+too wide or too narrow, and the crowns not shaped exactly right--I
+finally closed the order and handed him his copy. As he put his hand
+on the door-knob to go, he cast his eye over a pile of misses' sailors
+and growled: 'Well, who bought them?'
+
+"I told him that I'd sold a little handful of goods to a dry goods
+store, knowing there would be no interference as he didn't carry that
+line of goods.
+
+"'Well, a man that sells me can't do business with no other man in
+this town,' he grunted, and with this, slammed the door and left me.
+He didn't know that I'd sold his competitor a $1,300 bill.
+
+"When I was about half through packing up, the old growler's clerk,
+who was a gentlemanly young fellow, came in and said to me,
+hesitatingly: 'Old man, I hate to tell you, but the boss told me to
+come over and say to you not to ship that bill of goods he gave you
+until he ordered it. He is very unreasonable, you know, and is kicking
+because you sold some stuff to the dry goods man down the street.'
+
+"'Thank you, Gus,' said I to the clerk. I was mad as fire, but not at
+him, of course. 'Now, Gus, the old man has sent me a message by you.
+I'll let you take one back to him. Now, mind you, you and I are good
+friends, Gus. Tell him I say he can take his business, including this
+order, and go with it now and forever clean smack back to--well, you
+know the rest. Then tell him, Gus, that I've sold not only this dry
+goods man a bill but also his strongest competitor over $1,300 worth
+of goods. Tell him, furthermore, that I personally appreciate all the
+favors he has done for me in the past, in a personal way; that I have
+enjoyed visiting with him; that whenever I come back to this town
+again in the future, I shall come in to see him; that if I can do him
+a personal favor in any way, at any time, anywhere, I shall be only
+too glad to do so, but that, absolutely, our business relationship is
+at an end.'
+
+"'All right,' said Gus. 'I'll repeat to the old man every word you've
+said. I'm glad you've called him down. It'll do him good.'
+
+"And you bet your life I tore his order up without sending it in to
+the house and drew a line through his name on my book, and have never
+solicited his business since."
+
+"You did him just exactly right," said the necktie man. "While I
+squared myself with my friend Morris, I was once independent with a
+customer who cancelled an order on me. He came in to meet me at Kansas
+City. Two more of the boys were also there then. He placed orders with
+all of us. His name was Stone. The truth is he came in and brought his
+wife and boy with him just because he wanted to take a little flyer at
+our expense. We had written him telling him that we'd pay his expenses
+if he would come in. He went ahead and took a few hours of our time to
+place his orders. At the time he did so I merely thought him a good
+liberal buyer but, as I now look back at the way he bought, he slipped
+down most too easy to stick.
+
+"Sure enough, in three or four weeks the firm wrote me that Stone had
+cancelled his order, stating that he believed he had enough goods on
+hand to run him, that season, but that possibly very late he might
+reinstate the order.
+
+"The fellow was good so I thought it wouldn't do very much harm to try
+to get him to take the goods. However, I employed very different
+tactics from those I used with my friend Morris. I wrote him this way:
+
+"'My dear Brother Stone: I have received a letter from the firm
+stating that you have cancelled the order which you placed with me in
+Kansas City. You know not how much I thank you for cancelling this
+order. It gave me a great deal of pleasure to sell you this bill of
+goods, and now that you have cancelled it, I want you to be sure and
+make your cancellation stick because then, sooner than I had really
+expected, I shall have that same old pleasure over again.
+
+"'It isn't always profit that a man should look for in business. What
+good does it do him to make a whole lot of money unless he can feel
+good on the inside? The _feel_ is about all there is in life anyway.
+
+"'Now in future, you go right on as you have in the past, buy your
+goods from the other fellow. He will not charge you a great deal more
+for them than I would and your loss will not be very great in that
+regard; but each time that I come around be sure to take a lot of my
+time and place an order with me, even if you do cancel it.
+
+"'Don't even trouble yourself about returning the fifteen dollars
+expense money that was given you, because the pleasure I had with you
+was worth that much to me alone. I shall square this matter myself
+with the other boys. No, I won't do that because I'm sure that they
+feel in this matter just as I do.
+
+"'With very kindest regards, and ever at your service, believe me,
+ Brother Stone,
+                             "'Truly yours,
+                                "'------------'"
+
+"He wired the house to ship the bill and sent the message paid."
+
+"That was what I call a grafter," said one of the boys.
+
+"Yes, you bet your life," said the wall paper man.
+
+"I myself once cured a man of the cancelling habit. You know there are
+some merchants over the country who are afflicted with this disease.
+
+"I had heard of a druggist out in Pennsylvania who was noted for
+placing an order one morning and cancelling it that very night. He had
+done a trick of this kind on me once and I'd made up my mind that I
+was going to play even with him. I walked him over to my sample room
+early in the morning. I had my samples all spread out so that I could
+handle him quickly. There were a lot of new patterns out that season--
+flaming reds, greens, cherry colors, blues, ocean greens--all sorts of
+shades and designs.
+
+"The druggist picked out a cracking good order. He took a copy of it
+himself in his own book. As we were working the wind turned the sheets
+of his memo. book and I saw that he had in it a copy of an order in my
+line to another firm. This he had given only a few days before. Every
+season this druggist would really buy one big bill of wall paper, but
+this was his trick: He would look at the line of every man that came
+along. Sometimes he would place six or eight orders a season. After
+placing an order he would immediately cancel it. At his leisure he
+would figure out which order pleased him best and reinstate that one.
+
+"Well, sir, when I finished with him it was close onto luncheon time,
+but I didn't do anything but go hungry for awhile. I took my notebook,
+made out his order, as quickly as I could, wired it into the firm (it
+cost me twelve dollars to do this), and told them to be absolutely
+sure to put all hands to work on that order and ship it on the four
+o'clock fast freight that very day. I had to be in town the next day.
+Soon after breakfast I went into the druggist's store. I caught him
+back at his desk. I saw him blot the ink on an envelope he had just
+addressed. About this time a lady came in to get a prescription
+filled. As the druggist turned his back I quickly lifted the blotter
+and, seeing that the letter was addressed to my firm, let it cover the
+envelope again. I knew this was a cancellation letter.
+
+"After the lady had gone out with her medicine, I asked the druggist
+to show me some hair brushes which were in the case at the other end
+of the store from the desk. I made up my mind that it was going to
+take me longer to buy that hairbrush than it did the old man to buy my
+bill of wall paper. I was getting his time. But I didn't rub my
+fingers over many bristles before up backed a dray loaded to the
+guards with the goods from my firm. The drayman came in and handed the
+druggist the bill of lading.
+
+"'What's this?' said he.
+
+"'I'm treed,' said the drayman. 'They're as heavy as lead.'
+
+[Illustration: "I'm treed," said the drayman, "they're as heavy as
+lead."]
+
+"With this the drayman rolled the cases into the druggist's store.
+Well, sir, he was the cheapest looking fellow you ever saw, but he
+kept the goods, all right, and this cured him of _cancelitis_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CONCERNING CREDIT MEN.
+
+
+The credit man was the subject of our talk as a crowd of us sat, one
+Sunday afternoon, in the writing-room of the Palace Hotel at San
+Francisco. The big green palm in the center of the room cast, from its
+drooping and fronded branches, shadows upon the red rugs carpeting the
+stone floor. This was a peaceful scene and wholly unfitting to the
+subject of our talk.
+
+"I would rather herd sheep in a blizzard," blurted out the clothing
+man, "than make credits. Yes, I would rather brake on a night way-
+freight; be a country doctor where the roads are always muddy; a dray
+horse on a granite-paved street; anything for me before being a credit
+man! It is the most thankless job a human being can hold. It is like
+being squeezed up against the dock by a big steamship. If you ship
+goods and they're not paid for, the house kicks; if you turn down
+orders sent in, the traveling man raises a howl. None of it for me.
+No, sir!"
+
+"I have always been fairly lucky," spoke up the hat man. "I've never
+been with but two houses in my life and I've really never had any
+trouble with my credit men. They were both reasonable, broad-minded,
+quick-witted, diplomatic gentlemen. If a man's credit were doubtful in
+their minds, they would usually ask me about him, or even wire me,
+sometimes, if an order were in a rush, to tell them what I thought of
+the situation. And they would always pay attention to what I said."
+
+"Well, you are one in a hundred," spoke out the clothing man. "You
+ought to shake hands with yourself. You don't know what a hard time
+I've had with the various men who've made credits on the goods I have
+sold.
+
+"The credit man, you know, usually grows up from office boy to
+cashier, and from cashier to bookkeeper, from bookkeeper to assistant
+credit man and then to credit man himself. Most of them have never
+been away from the place they were born in, and about all they know is
+what they have learned behind the bars of their office windows. You
+couldn't, for all sorts of money, hire a man who has been on the road,
+to be a credit man. He can get his money lots easier as a salesman; he
+has a much better chance for promotion, too. Still, if the salesman
+could be induced to become a credit man, he would make the best one
+possible, because he would understand that the salesman himself can
+get closer to his customer than any one else and can find out things
+from him that his customer would not tell to any one else and, having
+been on the road himself, he would know that really about the only
+reliable source of information concerning a merchant is the salesman
+himself.
+
+"When a merchant has confidence enough in a man to buy goods from him
+--and he will not buy goods from him unless he has that confidence--he
+will tell him all about his private affairs. He will tell him how much
+business he is doing, how much profit he is making, how much he owes,
+what are his future prospects, and everything of that kind. The credit
+man who was once a salesman would also know that these commercial
+agency books--the bibles of the average credit man--don't amount to a
+rap. For my own part, I wish old Satan had every commercial agency
+book on earth to chuck into the furnace, when he goes below, to roast
+the reporters for the agencies. A lot of them will go there because a
+lot of reports are simply outright slander. Commercial agencies break
+many a good merchant. The heads of the agencies aim to give faithful
+reports, but they haven't the means.
+
+"Now, just for example, let me tell you what they did to a man who did
+one of my customers when he first started in business. This man had
+been a clerk for several years in a clothing store over in Wyoming. He
+was one of the kind that didn't spend his money feeding slot machines,
+but saved up $3,500 in cold, hard cash. This was enough for him to
+start a little clothing shack of his own.
+
+"Now, Herbert was a straight, steady boy. I recommended him to my
+house for credit. He didn't owe a dollar on earth. He bought about
+five thousand dollars' worth of goods and was able to discount his
+bills, right from the jump. Now, what do you suppose one of the
+commercial agencies said about him? Mind you, he had for four or five
+years run his uncle's store. The uncle was sick and left things really
+in the hands of Herbert. The agency said he was worth not over five
+hundred dollars and that he was no good for credit.
+
+"I, of course, learned of this through our office and I told Herbert
+all about it and insisted that he ought to get that thing straightened
+out. He said, when I spoke to him of it, 'Why, I did fill out the
+blanks that they sent in to me--told them the straight of it, exactly
+what I had, $3,500, and they surely reported it as I gave it to them.'
+'No, they haven't done any such thing, Herbert, because I looked into
+the matter myself when I was last in your office.'
+
+"Well, Herbert had no trouble in getting goods from the houses whose
+salesmen he knew real well, but he had to suffer the inconvenience of
+having a great many orders turned down that he placed--either that or
+else he was written that he would have to pay cash in advance before
+shipping. It caused him a whole lot of worry. The boy--well, he wasn't
+such a boy after all, he was nearly thirty years old and strictly
+capable--was worried about all this, and I saw it. I told him, 'Look
+here, Herbert, you must get this thing straightened up. You write the
+agencies again and tell them just how you stand and that you want them
+to give you the proper sort of a report.'
+
+"It wasn't a great while before the representative of this agency came
+around. Herbert went at him hammer and tongs for not doing him
+justice--then what do you think that fellow did? Nothing!
+
+"In spite of all this Herbert paid up all his bills all right and soon
+established his credit by being able to give references to first-class
+firms who stated that he paid them promptly. So, he became independent
+of the agencies altogether and when they asked him for any statement
+after that, he told them, 'Go to ----.' Now, of course, this wasn't
+the thing for him to do.
+
+"A merchant should see that the commercial agencies give him a good
+report because, if he doesn't, he is simply cutting off his nose to
+spite his face. If he ever starts to open a new account with some
+house, the first thing the credit man of that concern will do, when he
+gets his order, will be to turn to his 'bibles' and see how the man is
+rated. These commercial agencies are going to say something about a
+man. That's the way they make their living. If they don't say
+something good, they will say something indifferent or positively bad.
+So, what's the merchant to do but truckle to them and take chances on
+their telling the truth about him?"
+
+"Yes, you're right," chimed in the drygoods man, "but even then, try
+as hard as he will, the merchant can't get justice, sometimes. One of
+my customers, who is one of the most systematic business men I know
+of, for years and years had no report. Half the goods he bought was
+turned down simply because the agent in his town for the commercial
+agency was a shyster lawyer who had it in for him. And he had all he
+could do to retain his credit. Just to show you how good the man was
+in the opinion of those with whom he did business, let me say that
+right after he had had a big fire and had suffered a big loss, one
+firm wired him: 'Your credit is good with us for any amount. Buy what
+you will, pay when you can.'
+
+"Well, sir, this man was mad as fire at the agencies, and for years
+and years he would have absolutely nothing to do with them, but I
+finally told him: 'Look here, Dick; now this thing is all right but
+there's no use fighting those fellows. Why don't you get what's coming
+to you?' And I talked him into the idea of getting out after a right
+rating, and told him how to go about it.
+
+"One day, in another town where he had started a branch store, he met
+one of the representatives of the agency that had done him dirt, and
+said to him: 'Now, Mr. Man, I sometimes have occasion to know how
+various firms that I do business with over the country stand, and if
+it doesn't cost too much to have your book, I'd like to subscribe.'
+'Well, that won't cost you a great deal,' said the agent. My friend
+subscribed for the agency book, and in the next issue he was reported
+as being worth from ten to twenty thousand dollars. Another agency
+soon chimed in and had him listed as worth from five to ten thousand
+and with third-grade credit. Now, one or the other of these wrong--and
+the truth of the matter is that both of them had slandered him for
+years; he hadn't made ten to twenty thousand dollars in ninety days.
+And just to show you how much good that rating did my friend, he soon
+began to receive circulars and catalogues galore from houses which,
+before that time, had turned him down."
+
+"The worst feature of turning down an order," said the drygoods man,
+"is that when you have an order turned down you also have a customer
+turned away. I was waiting on a man in the house. He was from out
+West. He was about half through buying his bill. The account was worth
+over twelve thousand a year to me. He thought so much of my firm that
+he had his letters sent in my care and made our store his headquarters
+while in the city. One morning when he came in to get his mail I saw
+him open one of his letters and, as he read it, a peculiar expression
+came over his face. When he had read his mail I asked him if he was
+ready to finish up. He said to me, 'No, Harry, I want to go over and
+see your credit man.'
+
+[Illustration: What explanation have you to make of this, sir?]
+
+"I went with him. One of the old man's sons, who had just come back
+from college, had taken charge of the western credits. The old man
+would have been a great deal better off if he'd pensioned the kid and
+put one of the packers in the office, instead. My customer went up to
+the credit _boy_ and said to him: 'Now, Mr. ----, I've just received a
+letter from home stating that you've drawn on me for three hundred and
+eighty-five dollars. What explanation have you to make of this, sir? I
+have always, heretofore, discounted every bill that I have bought from
+this establishment, and this bill for which you have drawn on me is
+not yet due.'
+
+"'I'll look the matter up,' said the young credit man. He looked over
+his books a few minutes and then tried to make some sort of an
+explanation in a half-haughty kind of a way. My customer interrupted
+him right in the midst of his explanation and said, 'Well, you needn't
+say anything more about this, sir. Just see what I owe you.'
+
+"This was looked up and my customer right then and there wrote his
+check for what he owed and said to me:
+
+"'Old man, I'm mighty sorry to have to do this, but I cannot interpret
+this gentleman's conduct (pointing to the credit man) to mean anything
+but that my credit is no longer good here. I shall see if there is not
+some one else in the city who will trust me as I thought that this
+firm was willing to trust me. This thing hurts me!'
+
+"I couldn't explain matters in any way, and my customer--_and my
+friend!_--walked out of the store and has never been back since.
+That piece of Tom foolery on the part of our snob of a credit man lost
+the house and me an account worth over twelve thousand dollars a
+year."
+
+"That fellow," broke in the clothing man, "should have got the same
+dose that was once given a credit man in the house I used to work for.
+He had been turning down order after order on good people, for all of
+us boys. When we came home from our fall trip we were so dissatisfied
+that we got together and swore that we would not sign a contract with
+the house unless the credit man they had was fired. We all signed a
+written agreement to this effect. Also, we agreed, upon our honor,
+that if one of us was fired for taking the stand, we would all go.
+
+"Now, you know, boys, it is the salesmen that make the house. The
+house may have a line of goods that is strictly _it_, but unless
+they have good salesmen on the road they might as well shut up shop. A
+salesman, of course, gets along a great deal better with a good line
+than he does with a poor one, but a wholesale house without a line of
+first-class representatives cannot possibly succeed. And the house
+knows this, you bet.
+
+"Well, sir, I was the first salesman the old man struck to make a
+contract with for the next year. I, had been doing first rate, making
+a good salary and everything of that kind, and when the old man called
+me into the sweat-box, he said to me:
+
+"'Well, I suppose we haven't very much to talk over. What you have
+done has been satisfactory to us, and I hope we've been satisfactory
+to you. If it suits you we will just continue your old contract.'
+
+"'There will have to be one condition to it,' said I to the old man.
+'Well, what's that?' 'I simply will not work for this establishment if
+the fool credit man that you have here is to continue. He has taken
+hundreds of dollars out of my pocket this year by turning down orders
+on good people who are worthy of credit. Now, it doesn't make any
+difference as to his salary if he turns down good people; in fact, if
+he is in doubt about any man at all, or even the least bit skittish,
+what does he do but turn him down? This is nothing out of his jeans,
+but it's taking shoes away from my babies, and I simply won't stand
+for it.'
+
+"The long and short of it was that I didn't sign with the old man that
+day but he soon 'caved' after he had talked with a few more of the
+boys--one of whom told him point blank that we would all quit unless
+he gave the credit man his walking papers. And, you bet your life, the
+credit man went and today he is where he ought to be--keeping books at
+a hundred a month!"
+
+"It is not alone against the credit man who turns down orders that I
+have a grudge," said the furnishing goods man, "but also against the
+fellow who monkeys with old customers. If there is anything that makes
+a customer sour it is to be drawn on by a firm that he has dealt with
+for a long time. Some of the merchants out in the country, you know,
+get themselves into the notion of thinking that the house they deal
+with really loves them. They don't know what a cold-blooded lot our
+houses really are. What they're all looking for is the coin and they
+don't care very much for a man when they believe he can't pay his
+bills. I know I never felt cheaper in my life than I did last trip. I
+went into an old customer's store and what should I see upon his
+shelves but another man's goods. I felt as if somebody had hit me
+between the eyes with a mallet, for he was a man I had nursed for four
+or five years and brought him up to be a good customer. He had a sort
+of a racket store when I started with him--groceries, tin pans, eggs,
+brooms, a bucket of raw oysters, and all that sort of stuff. One day I
+said to him, 'Why don't you throw out this junk and go more into the
+clothing and furnishing goods business? Lots cleaner business and pays
+a great deal more profit. Furthermore, this line of goods is sold on
+long datings and you can stretch your capital much further than in
+handling other lines.'
+
+"Well, sir, he talked with me seriously about the matter and from that
+time on he began to drop out the tin pan and grocery end of his line.
+When I saw he was doing this, I asked him to let me have the hook in
+the ceiling from which for so long had swung his bunch of blackening
+bananas, so I could have a souvenir of his past folly! I had worked
+him up until his account was strictly a good one.
+
+"In fact, he prospered so well with this store that after a while he
+had started another one. When he did this he, of course, stretched his
+capital a little and depended upon his old houses to take care of him.
+He had always discounted his bills in full, sometimes even
+anticipating payments and making extra discounts.
+
+"I was tickled to sell him about twice as much as usual, on one of my
+trips. It was just ninety days after this when I got around again and
+saw the other fellow's goods in the store. When I looked at the
+strange labels I felt like some fellow had landed me one on the jaw.
+You know it hurts to lose a customer, especially if he is one that you
+have fed on the bottle and thinks a great deal of you personally.
+
+"Well, when I saw the other stuff, all I could do was to march right
+up and say, 'Well, Fred, the other fellow's been getting in his work,
+I see. What's the matter? The sooner we get through with the
+unpleasant part of it, the better.' 'Now, there isn't anything the
+matter with you, old man,' said my customer. 'Come up here in the
+office. I want to show you how your house treated me.'
+
+"And there he showed me a letter he had received from the house
+stating that he must pay up his old account before they would ship him
+any more goods; and the old bill was one which was dated May 1st, four
+months, and was not due until September 1st. They wrote him this
+before the first of June, at which time he was entitled to take off
+six per cent. He simply sent a check for what he owed them and, to be
+sure, wrote them to cancel his order. There was a good bill and a
+loyal customer gone--all on account of the credit man."
+
+"Once in a while, though," said the shoe man, "you strike a fellow
+that will take a thing of this sort good-naturedly, but they are rare.
+I once had a customer down in Missouri who got a little behind with
+the house. The credit man wrote him just about the same sort of a
+letter that your man received, but my friend, instead of getting mad,
+wrote back a letter to the house, something like this:
+
+"'Dear House: I've been buying goods from you for a long time. I have
+paid you as well as I knew how. You know I am pretty green. I started
+in life pulling the cord over a mule and when I made a little money at
+this I started a butcher shop. My neighbors who sold other stuff,
+drygoods and things of that sort, it looked to me didn't have much
+more sense than I, and they lived in nice houses and had sprinklers
+and flowers in their yards. So it looked to me like that was a good
+business to go into. I tried my hand at it and have got on fairly
+well. Of course, I have been a little slow, you know, being fool
+enough to think everybody honest and to do a credit business myself.
+
+"'Now I really want to thank you for telling me I must pay up before I
+can get any more goods. I kind of look on you people as my friends, I
+have dealt with you so long, and if you are getting a little leery
+about me, why I don't know what in the world the other fellows that
+don't care anything about me must be beginning to think. When I got
+your letter telling me to pay up before you would ship the bill I had
+bought, I felt like I had run into a stone fence, but this lick over
+the head has really done me a whole lot of good and I am going to go a
+little more careful hereafter.
+
+"'Just now I am not able to dig up all that I owe but here is my check
+for a hundred. Now, I want to keep out of the hole after this so you
+had better cut down the order I gave your man about a half. After all,
+the best friend that a man has is himself, and hereafter I am going to
+try a little harder to look after Number One.
+                     "Yours truly,
+                             "'______'"
+
+"Another thing that makes it hard for us," said the furnishing man,
+"is to have the credit man so infernally long in deciding about a
+shipment, holding off and holding off, brooding and brooding, waiting
+and waiting, and wondering and wondering whether they shall ship or
+whether they shall not, and finally getting the notion to send the
+goods just about the time a man countermands his order. A countermand,
+you know, is always a pusher and I would advise any merchant who
+really wants to get goods, to place an order and then immediately
+countermand it. Whenever he does this the credit man will invariably
+beg him to take the stuff. Oh, they're a great lot, these credit men.
+
+"I know I once sold a man who, while he was stretching his capital to
+the limit pretty far, was doing a good business and he wanted some
+red, white, and blue neckties for Fourth of July trade. I had sold him
+the bill in the early part of May. About the 2Oth of June, I received
+a letter from the credit man asking me to write him further
+information about my man. Well, I gave it to him. I sent him a
+telegram that read like this: 'Ship this man today by express sure.
+Heavens alive, he is good. You ought to make credits for a coffin
+house for a while.'"
+
+"The credit man is usually bullet-headed about allowances for another
+thing," said the shoe man. His kind will fuss around about making
+little allowances of a couple of dollars that come out of the house
+and never stop to think we often spend that much on sundries twice
+over every day. I had a man a great while ago to whom I had sold a
+case of shoes that were not at all satisfactory. I could see that they
+were not when I called upon him and I simply told him right out, 'Look
+here, Mark, this stuff isn't right. Now, I wish to square it. What
+will make this right?' 'Oh,' he said, 'I don't think these shoes are
+worth within two dollars a dozen of what you charged me.' 'No, they're
+not worth within three dollars,' said I. 'I will just give you a
+credit bill for three dollars and call it square.' It was nothing more
+than right because the stuff was bum.
+
+"I came into the house soon after this and, passing the credit memo,
+into the office, the credit man howled as if I were pulling his jaw
+tooth. It hurt him to see that little three dollars go on the profit
+and loss account. 'Well, I won't insist upon it,' said I. 'I will just
+ask the man to return the goods.' 'All right,' he said.
+
+"When I wrote out to my man, I told him the truth about the matter,--
+that the house had howled a little because I had made the credit
+allowance, and to just simply fire the stuff right back, but not to
+forget to ask that he be credited with the amount of freight which he
+had already paid on the case of shoes. It was just a small item, but
+what do you think the credit man said when I showed him my customer's
+letter, asking for the freight?'
+
+"He said, 'Well, that fellow's mighty small.'"
+
+"I have never had any of these troubles that you boys are talking
+about," said the hat man.
+
+"Lucky boy! Lucky boy!" spoke up the clothing man in his big, heavy
+voice.
+
+"Yes, you bet," chimed in the others.
+
+"It's a strange thing to me," chimed in the clothing man, "that credit
+men do not exercise more common sense. Now, there is one way, and just
+one way, in which a credit department can be properly conducted. The
+credit man and the man on the road must work in double harness and
+pull together. The salesman should know everything that is going on
+between his house and his customer. And when it comes to the scratch,
+his judgment is the judgment that should prevail when any matter of
+credits is to be decided upon. The salesman should have a copy of
+every letter that his customer writes his house, and he should be sent
+a duplicate of every line that the house writes to the customer. He
+should be kept posted as to the amount of shipment the house makes,
+and he should be notified whenever the customer makes a remittance.
+This puts the salesman in position to know how much to sell his
+customer, and also when to mark the new bill he sells for shipment. At
+the time of making the sale, it is very easy for the man on the road
+to say to his customer, 'Now look here, friend, as you haven't been
+quite able to meet your past obligations promptly, suppose that we
+stand off this shipment for a little while and give you a chance to
+get out of the hole. I don't want to bend your back with a big load of
+debt.' For saying this, the customer will thank his salesman; but the
+house cannot write the letter and say this same thing without making a
+customer hot.
+
+"And another thing: If a salesman has shown himself strictly square in
+his recommendations, the salesman's recommendations regarding a
+shipment should be followed. The salesman is the man--and the one man
+--who can tell whether his customer is playing ball or attending to
+business. Now, for example, not a great while ago, I saw a merchant
+that one big firm in this country thinks is strictly good, playing
+billiards on the Saturday before Christmas. If there is any time on
+earth when a retail merchant should be in his store, it is on this
+day, but here was this man, away from his store and up at the hotel,
+guzzling high balls and punching ivory. That thing alone would have
+been enough to queer him with me and if I had been selling him and he
+was not meeting his bills promptly, I should simply tell the house to
+cut him off.
+
+"The salesman also knows how much business a man is doing,--whether it
+is a credit business and all the other significant details. The
+merchant will take the traveling man that he buys goods from, and
+throw his books and his heart and everything wide open, and tell him
+how he stands. Even if he is in a little hole of some kind, it is of
+the traveling man that he asks advice as to how to get out.
+
+"Again, the traveling man knows all about the trade conditions in his
+customer's town; whether there has been a good crop and prices high;
+whether the pay roll is keeping up or not; whether there is some new
+enterprise going to start that will put on more men and boom things.
+He knows all about these things, and he is on the spot and has a
+personal interest in finding out about them, if he is honest, and most
+salesmen are. It is to his interest to be so. And he can give
+information to the credit department that nobody else can.
+
+"The report of a salesman to his firm is worth forty times as much as
+these little printed slips that have been sent in by some ninny,
+numskull reporter for a commercial agency. These fellows, before they
+go around soliciting reports from merchants, have usually been lily-
+fingered office boys who have never been in a place where a man can
+learn much common sense until they have grown too old to get on to
+things that have come in their way."
+
+"Yes, you bet," spoke up the furnishing goods man. "They are the
+fellows who do us boys on the road a whole lot of harm. If the
+agencies wanted to get men who would know how to secure good, sound
+reports from merchants, they should hire first-class salesmen and send
+them out instead of office boys.
+
+"The credit man," he continued, "should do another thing. He should
+not only send to the salesman the letter he writes, but he should
+confer with the man on the road _before_ he writes. What he should do,
+if the references the merchant gives return favorable reports and the
+salesman recommends the account, he should, without going any further,
+pass out an order to save himself a whole lot of worry. But it matters
+not how bad are the reports from any and all sources, the credit man
+should write the salesman if he is near, or even wire him if he is far
+away, laying before him the facts and asking for further information
+and judgment. I once asked our credit man to do this but he kicked
+because a telegram would cost the house four bits. He hadn't stopped
+to think that it cost me out of my own pocket from ten to twenty
+dollars expenses on every order I took. Oh, they are wise, these
+credit men!
+
+"It is strange, too, that credit men do not average better than they
+do. If the heads of firms really knew what blunders their credit men
+make, I believe that two-thirds of them would be fired tomorrow. There
+isn't any way of getting at their blunders except through the kicking
+of the traveling man and when he makes a howl, the heads of the house
+usually dismiss him with, 'You sell the goods and we'll attend to the
+rest.'
+
+"A really 'broad minded, quick witted, diplomatic, courteous credit
+man,' as you say, is worth a great deal to a house. They are almost as
+rare as roses on the desert. Now, just to show you how the credit man
+and the salesman can pull together, let me give you an example.
+
+"I sold a man a fair bill of goods. I knew he was a straightforward,
+square, capable man of good character. He was a pusher. I was in a
+rush and I took from him just a brief statement of his affairs. I
+wrote the house that I thought well of the man but didn't especially
+recommend him. You see, if you recommend strongly every man you sell,
+it is the same as recommending none. So, unless it comes to a hard
+pinch, I say no more than is necessary. Our credit man got the agency
+reports on this man, which made him out as no good and having no
+capital, and a whole lot of things of that sort and he wrote the man
+refusing to ship the bill. It looked to him that this man's condition
+was so hopeless that it was unnecessary for him to write me. He simply
+turned the order down straight out. When I came in and went over my
+list of turn-downs, I simply broke right out and said to the credit
+man, 'Here, you've made a bull on this.' 'Do you really think so?'
+said he. 'Heavens alive, yes! I know it. Why, this fellow made five
+thousand dollars last year on a saw mill that he has. He is in a
+booming country. Maybe he had a little bad luck in the past but he is
+a hustler and sinks deep into the velvet every time he takes a step
+now.' 'Why, I am awfully sorry. What shall I do about it?' 'Leave it
+to me,' said I.
+
+"I wrote out to my man and told him the straight of it, that the
+agencies had done him a great injustice, and for him to write me
+personally exactly how he stood and that I would see things through
+for him in the office; that my house meant him no harm; that he was a
+stranger to them, but upon my recommendation, if his statement were
+anything like what I thought it should be, they would fill the order.
+At the same time, I suggested that the bill be cut about half for the
+first shipment.
+
+"Well, sir, that man sent me in his statement showing that he not only
+had merchandise for which he owed very little, but also over four
+hundred dollars in the bank. I remember the amount. His statement
+showed that he had a net worth of nearly eleven thousand dollars,--and
+that man told the truth. Now, this information he would give me
+direct, but the house was not able to obtain it elsewhere.
+
+"Now, this is a case, you know, where there is now good feeling all
+around and this is so just because the credit man paid attention to
+the salesman."
+
+The outer door of the hotel was opened. In blew a gust of wind. The
+green leaves of the big palm rustled noisily as we scattered to our
+rooms, thankful we were not credit men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+WINNING THE CUSTOMER'S GOOD WILL.
+
+
+To win the customer's good will is the aim of every successful
+salesman.
+
+"Ah, but how can I do this?" asks the new man.
+
+The ways must be as many as the men he meets. The dispositions of men
+are as varied as their looks. A kind word will win one man and a bluff
+another. A generous deed will go right into the heart of one merchant;
+another will resent it, thinking that the man who does him a favor
+seeks only to buy his good will. The one thing, however, that the man
+on the road must do, and always do, is to _gain the confidence_ of the
+man with whom he seeks to do business. His favor will as surely
+follow this as day follows night. The night may sometimes be long,
+like that at the North Pole, but when day does finally dawn it will
+also be of long duration. The man whose confidence it is slow for you
+to gain, will probably prove to be the man whose faith in you will
+last the longest.
+
+Then, the salesman must not only have the knack of getting the good
+will of his customer on first sight, but he must also possess patience
+and, if need be, let confidence in himself be a slow growth. He must
+do business from the jump when he starts out with samples but, to be
+truly successful, his business must always grow.
+
+A little group of us, having come back from our trips, fell in
+together one day at luncheon in Chicago. Our meeting was not planned
+at all, but before the first of us had forgotten the sting of the
+tabasco on our Blue Points, so many old friends had foregathered that
+we had our waiters slide two tables together. There was quite a bunch
+of us. The last one to join the party was a dry goods man. He was a
+jolly good fellow.
+
+"Hello! Ed, Hello!" spoke up all the boys at once. "How are you? Just
+home? Sorry to hear your old customer out at Columbus finally had to
+quit business," said the clothing man.
+
+"Yes; so am I," said Ed. "He was a mighty hard man for me to get
+started with but when once I landed him he was one of the most
+faithful customers I had. Do you know that for more than eight years
+he never bought a sou in my line from any other man? It's too bad that
+he had to leave this world. He was a fine old gentleman. I'll never
+forget, though, the first time I sold him. I had been calling on him
+for three or four years. His town was one of the first ones I made
+when I started on the road--I was not quite twenty, then.
+
+"He always treated me courteously--he was a Southerner, you know--but
+I couldn't get next to him to save my life. One day as I walked toward
+his store, a little German band stationed itself just before his door
+and started in to play Yankee Doodle. I didn't pay any attention to
+this at the time, but when I went up to shake hands with the old
+gentleman, as usual, I asked him if there was something in my line he
+wanted. For the first time in his life he was uncivil toward me. He
+said, 'No, suh, there is not,' and he turned and walked away. Well,
+there was nothing left for me to do but to scoot as soon as I could.
+
+"I made a sneak and went into another store but soon I saw there was
+nothing there for me and I thought I would run over to the hotel, get
+my traps together and skip town by the next train. I had to pass by
+the old man's door again. The little German band was still there. They
+had quit playing Yankee Doodle but were going it good and hard on
+'Marching Through Georgia.' I happened to look into the old man's
+store and he was pacing up and down behind the counter. A bright idea
+struck me. I went up to the leader of the band and said, 'Look here,
+Fritz, can you play Dixie?'
+
+"'Deekse?' said the big, fat Bavarian. 'Vas iss dass?'
+
+"I didn't know much German but I whistled the air and made him
+understand what I wanted.
+
+"_Ja wohl,_' said he.
+
+"'Then, here,' said I, handing him a cart wheel, 'just you stay right
+here and give me a dollar's worth of Dixie,--a whole dollar's worth,
+mind you!'
+
+"Well, he must have understood me all right, for the band promptly
+began to play Dixie. I didn't know that the old gentleman had seen me
+talking to the band leader, but he had come to the front door to order
+the band to move on shortly after I came up.
+
+"I simply stood there, leaning against the store in the sunshine,
+while the German band blowed away. Well, sir, the fellow that played
+the clarionet--when he got down to the lively part of the tune--
+certainly did make that little instrument sing. They didn't know what
+Dixie meant but they played it to a fare-ye-well, just the same!
+
+"After a while the old man came to the front door. He saw me standing
+there in the sunshine. There was a smile on his face as broad as Lake
+Michigan. Joy spread over his countenance in waves. When he saw me
+leaning up against the store, he came right out where I was and said,
+'Look hyah, suh; I was pow'ful uncivil to you this mo'nin', suh. I
+want to beg yo' pa'don. No gentleman has a right to insult another,
+but I was so infernally mad this mo'nin' when you spoke to me, suh,
+that I couldn't be civil. That confounded Yankee tune just riled me.
+You know, I was an old confed'rate soldier, suh. The wah is all ovah
+now and I'm really glad the niggers are free. The country's lots
+bettah off as it is now. Since I've been up hyah in this country I've
+begun to think that Abe Lincoln was a good man and a fair man, and a
+friend to the nation; but, confound it! ever' time I hyah 'Yankee
+Doodle' or 'Marchin' Through Georgia,' suh, I put on mah unifohm again
+and want to fight. It's pow'ful ha'd fo' a man that has woh the gray,
+suh, to forget the coloh of his old clothes, try as ha'd as he will. I
+want to be broad-minded, but, confound it! it seems that I cyan't,
+suh.'
+
+"'Well, you are ahead of me just one generation,' said I. 'I was born
+in the North and raised up here but my father was a Southern soldier.'
+
+"'What!' said the old man. 'Why didn't yo' tell me this befoh, suh?
+Hyah, I've been treatin' yo' like a dog, suh, all this time. And your
+father was a confed'rate soldier, suh?'
+
+"'Yes, sir,' said I. 'He was under Jackson.'
+
+"'What! Stomal Jackson? Why, suh, a greater man than Stomal Jackson
+nevah lived, suh. He was a gentleman clean to the co'. Come right in,
+suh, and sit down. I want to talk to yo' some mo'.
+
+"'Now, you are goin' to pa'don me, suh, fo' my rudeness this mo'nin'.
+I want you to say that you will.'
+
+"'Why, to be sure, Colonel,' said I. 'I certainly wouldn't blame you
+for the same feeling that I know my father had as long as he lived.'
+
+"The little Bavarian band, according to my instructions, kept on
+playing Dixie so long that the fellow who blew the clarionet began to
+skip notes and puff. I went out and told them that that was enough of
+that tune and switched them onto S'wanee River. To the tune of this
+old air, the Colonel marched me up to his house for dinner.
+
+"We didn't say a word about business, of course, until after we had
+returned to the store. When we came back there, the old Colonel said
+to me, 'Now, look hyah,--let me get yo' first name.'
+
+"'Ed,' said I.
+
+"'Well, yo'll have to let me call yo' "Ed." Yo're lots younger'n I am.
+I can't do any business with yo' this trip. I have my promise out. I
+told the man that I've been buyin' dry goods from that I'd give him my
+o'der fo' this fall but I don't think as much of him as I do of you,
+and hyeahaftah I am going to give you my business. I know that yo'll
+see that yo' house treats me right and I would ratheh deal with a man
+anyway that I have confidence in, suh. Now, you needn't hurry, Ed,
+about gettin' around hyah next season, suh, because, sho's yo' bawn,
+upon the wo'd of a Southern gentleman, suh, yo' shall have my
+business.'"
+
+"You sold him next time?" asked one of the boys.
+
+"You bet your life I did," said Ed. "That man's word was good."
+
+"He was a splendid old gentleman," spoke up another one of the boys.
+
+"Yes," said the clothing man, "I haven't been there for four or five
+years. He used to have a lovely little girl that sometimes came down
+to the store with him."
+
+"Well," broke in Ed, "I'm glad that somebody besides myself has a good
+opinion of her for she is to be my wife next month."
+
+"Well, good luck to you and lots of happiness," chimed in all the
+boys.
+
+"When once you get the good will of one of those southerners,"
+remarked the wallpaper man, "you have it for all time. I don't wish to
+wave the bloody shirt--I am a northerner, myself--but these northern
+houses somehow don't know how to handle the southern trade. I travel
+down in Louisiana and Mississippi, and I really dodge every time that
+one of my customers tells me he is going into the house. Once I
+started a customer down in the Bayou country. I was getting along well
+with him and he was giving me a share of his business. One season,
+however, he came into the house. I didn't know anything about this
+until I was down there on my next trip. I went to see him, as usual,
+expecting at least to get a fair order, but when I asked him to come
+over to my sample room he said, 'Now, Jack, I'd really like to go oveh
+and do some business but I've already bought my goods. I was in to see
+yo' house and when I asked the young man at the do'h to see the
+membahs of yo' firm, he went away fo' a minute or two and when he came
+back, he said, without bein' at all polite about it, "They're busy." I
+didn't say anything mo'h to the young man but I turned on my heel and
+went out the do'h. It made me so mad that I do believe the spahks flew
+right out of me. I made up my mind I wouldn't have anythin' mo'h to do
+with such people and that I would buy mah wall papah in New Yo'k when
+I got down theah. Now, I'm mighty sorry about this, Jack, but I really
+cyan't pat'onize a conce'n that treated me wuss'n a niggeh.'
+
+"I tried to explain that the members of my firm were very busy, and
+that they would have been only too glad to see him had they known who
+he was, but I couldn't do anything with the old gentleman because, he
+said, that he didn't wish to deal with people that would treat anybody
+that way. He said he thought every man should at least receive
+gentlemanly treatment."
+
+"And you bet he's right about that," spoke up one of the boys.
+
+"Yes, he was," said Jack. "Still it was hard for me to let go. I of
+course didn't say anything more about business to him but there wasn't
+much going on that day, although it was Saturday, and we visited quite
+a while. You know they always have chairs in the back end of stores
+down south and a customer who comes in to buy something is always
+asked to have a seat before anything is said about business. It's a
+good, old sociable way and although it's a little slow, I like it.
+Traveling is pleasant in the south, whether a man does business or
+not, because he always receives courteous treatment.
+
+"As we were talking along I asked the old gentleman where his little
+girl was that I had seen around the store on previous trips.
+
+"'Well, Jack,' said he, 'I'm pow'ful sorry to tell you but I'm afraid
+she's a cripple for life. A hoss threw her and stepped on her leg an'
+broke it ve'y badly neah the knee. She has her knee now in a plaster
+Paris cast but I'm afraid she'll be lame as long as she lives.'
+
+"Well, sir, she was a pretty, sweet little girl, and when her father
+told me about her misfortune I was very sorry for him. He couldn't
+keep from crying when he told me about it. I couldn't say much but I
+felt mighty sorry. It isn't so bad for a boy to be crippled but if
+there's anything that goes through me it is to see a beautiful little
+girl walking along on crutches.
+
+"I told the old gentleman goodbye and started down to the hotel. A
+block or two away I saw a flower store. I said to myself, 'Well, my
+firm has treated my friend wrong but that's no reason why I should
+have anything against him. I don't blame him a bit. I'm just going to
+send a bouquet up to the little girl anyhow.'
+
+"So over at the flower store I passed out a five dollar bill and wrote
+on the card that I sent with the Marechal Niel roses, 'From a friend
+of your father's.' "Now, I didn't have business in my eye, boys, when
+I did this. It was right from the heart. I was going to Sunday in that
+town anyway and get out on a train early Monday morning. There was a
+tough hotel in the next town I was to strike.
+
+"That night, while I was at supper, the clerk came into the dining
+room and told me that somebody wanted to talk to me over the
+telephone. It was the little girl's father. He said to me, 'Jack, I
+want to thank you very much for those flowers that you sent up to
+Mary. She's proud of them and sends you a kiss; and I want to tell you
+that I'm proud of this, Jack,--but just to thank you oveh the wyah
+isn't enough. I wanted to find out if you were at the hotel. I want to
+come down and shake yo' hand. Are yo' going' to be hyah tomorrow?' I
+told him I was going to Sunday there. 'Well,' said the old gentleman,
+'I will see you tomorrow mo'nin'. I'll come down befo' I go to
+chu'ch.'
+
+"When he came down the next morning I was up in my room where my
+samples were. If I could have sold him a hundred thousand dollars I
+wouldn't have asked him to look at anything, but I did ask him to have
+a chair and smoke a cigar with me. My samples were in the room where
+he couldn't keep from seeing them and after he had thanked me again
+and again and told me how much he appreciated my kindness, he fingered
+over a line of goods of his own accord, asking me the prices on them.
+
+"I said to him, 'Now, look here, you probably don't wish to price any
+goods today, as you are going to church. These are worth so much and
+so much, but if you wish to forgive and forget the discourtesy my
+house has shown you,--their line of goods is first-class; there's none
+better in the country; nothing can be said on that score against
+them,--I'll stay over tomorrow and show you.'
+
+"'No, I won't have you do that,' said my friend--he was my friend
+then--'Time is money to a man on the road. If I was going to do any
+business with yo' I ought to have done it yesterday. I have spoiled a
+day fo' you an' I don't believe the Lord will hold anything against me
+if I do business with you today. You know he makes allo'ances when the
+ox gets in the mire, so get out yo' book, if you will, suh,--an' I
+will give you an ohdeh.'
+
+"Before I was through with him my bill amounted to over six thousand
+dollars, the biggest order I ever took in my life,--and do you know,
+we finished it in time for both of us to get up to church just as the
+preacher was reading his text, and, singularly enough, the text of the
+sermon that day was, 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto
+you.' I half believe my friend had arranged this sermon with the
+minister."
+
+"Even if I have lost the twang in my voice," spoke up the southerner,
+a furnishing goods man.
+
+"Oh, come off!"
+
+"Lost it?" said the clothing man.
+
+"Yes, I reckon I have. I've been up no'th long enough. Well, people
+down in my country are warm hearted and courteous, but all the
+goodness in the world doesn't dwell with them. I've found some pow'ful
+good people up no'th. Raisin' has something to do with a man, but that
+isn't all. We find good men whereveh we go, if we look fo' them right.
+Your tellin' about sendin' flowe's to that little girl reminds me of
+the time when I once sent some flowe's, but instead of sending them to
+a girl, I sent them to a big crusty old man. This man was, to a great
+extent, an exception to the rule that I have just laid down. That is,
+he was cranky and ha'd to get next to for nearly ever'body, and
+sometimes he was pretty rough with me. But I handled him fairly well
+and always got business out of him, although sometimes I had to use a
+little jiu jitsu to do it.
+
+"Several seasons ago--haven't you heard this story, boys?--I was on my
+way up to his town, Deadwood. While I was down at Broken Bow, I got a
+telegram from the house which read, "Sam Shoup dead"--that was one
+line--and on the next line the message read: "Wood wants goods."
+
+"I thought this was rather funny when I got hold of the message for I
+hadn't sold this man Wood for several seasons. He had been a little
+slow and the house had drawn on him, and I lost him. But I thought
+maybe things were all patched up again and so I hur'ied on up into the
+Hills and over to Hot Springs to see Wood. He handled lots of goods
+and I wanted to get there before somebody else nipped him. Besides, I
+could double back and catch Chadron and those towns along there on my
+return.
+
+"I was ve'y sor'y to heah that my friend Sam had croaked. You know,
+after a man has turned up his toes you can see a whole lot of good
+points about him that always escaped yo' notice befo'; so at Broken
+Bow I wiahed the flo'ist up in Deadwood to send ten dollars worth of
+roses with my card on over to Mrs. Shoup, that I would see him in a
+few days and pay him fo' them. I also sent a telegram to the widow,
+extending my heartfelt sympathy.
+
+"Well, sir, when I got into the Springs I had my trunk brought right
+up, opened my samples, befo' I went over to see my friend Wood. When I
+went into his sto' he said to me, 'Well, Mark, what are you doing
+here?' 'What am I doing heah,' said I, 'Why, the house telegraphed me
+you wanted some goods.' 'Why, I wouldn't buy any goods from yo' house
+if I were a millionaire and could get them for ten cents on the
+dollar. They turned me down once good and ha'd and that's enough fo'
+me. Where's the telegram? I think you're stringin' me.'
+
+"'No; nothing of the kind,' said I, and I handed him the telegram.
+Laugh? I never heard a fellow laugh like he did in my life.
+
+"'Why, can't you read?'
+
+"'Sure! This telegram reads: "Sam Shoup dead. Wood wants goods."'
+
+"'No,' said Wood. 'That telegram says that Sam Shoup, Deadwood, wants
+goods. That hasn't anything to do with me.' And do you know, boys,
+that's the first time that I could understan' that telegram?
+
+"It was such a good joke, howeveh, that I did jolly Wood into giving
+me an o'deh. From the Springs I went right up to Deadwood. When I met
+Sam in his sto' he said to me, 'Vell, Mark, vat are you senting my
+vife vlowers for, and vat are you extenting your heartfelt sympat'y
+aboud?'
+
+"I showed Sam the telegram.
+
+"'Vell, vell, vell. I nefer had a ting to happen like dot in my life,'
+said he. 'Now, I know you are my frient. If you had send dose vlowers
+while you knew I vas alife, I would have t'ought you done it to sell
+me a bill but you send 'em ven you t'ought I vas deat. Ged op your
+stuff, Mark, you bet your life I haf a bill for you. I will make it
+dobble vat I t'ought I vould. You are de only man dat has proved he
+vas my frient.'"
+
+"Did I ever tell you how I got on the south side of Ed Marks?" said
+Sam Wood. We had nearly all heard this story before, but still it was
+a pleasure to get Wood started, so we all urged him to proceed.
+
+"Well, it came about this way," said Sam, squaring himself in his
+chair, as we lit our cigars. "It was in the old flush days, you know,
+Goodness! How I wish we had some more mining camps now like Ed's old
+town. Business was business in those days--to sell a man ten thousand
+in clothing was nothing! Why, I've sold Ed as much as twenty-five
+thousand dollars in one season. His account alone, one year, would
+have supported me. I know one time he came into our store and I took
+him upstairs and sold him the whole side of the house--overcoats that
+stacked up clear to the ceiling, and he bought them quick as a flash.
+He just looked at them. He said, 'How much for the lot?' I gave him a
+price, and before I could snap my finger he said, 'All right, ship
+them out. Send about a fourth by express and the others right away by
+freight.'"
+
+"Yes, but how did you start him, Sam?"
+
+"Oh, I'm just going to get to that now. I was something of a kid when
+I started out west. I've always been a plunger, you know. Of course
+I've cut out fingering chips for a long time now, but there was no
+stake too high for me in those days. It cost a whole lot of money to
+travel out west when I first struck that country. It was before the
+time when clothing houses sent out swatches in one trunk. They weren't
+such close propositions then as now. They're trying to put this
+clothing business now on a dry goods basis.
+
+"Well, I carried fourteen trunks and five hundred wouldn't last me
+more than two weeks. I just cashed a draft before I struck Ed's town.
+I had heard that he was a hard man to handle and I didn't know just
+exactly how to get at him, but luck was with me.
+
+"The night I got into town, I went into the den out from the office.
+You know that in those days the hotels would board suckers for nothing
+if they would only play their money. I knew Ed by sight and I saw him
+standing by the faro table. 'Ah, here's my chance,' said I. I pulled
+out my roll and asked the dealer to give me two hundred in chips. I
+played him twenty on a turn and then said to the dealer, 'What's your
+limit?' The roof's off,' said he. 'All right, 250 on the bullet,' said
+I, sliding over. '250 goes,' said he. I lost. I repeated the bet. I
+lost again. By this time they began to crowd around the table. I
+didn't see Ed then at all, you know, except out of the corner of my
+eye. I could see that he was getting interested and I saw him put his
+hand down in his pocket. I lost another 250. Three straight bets of
+250 to the bad, but I thought I might just as well be game as not and
+lose it all at one turn as well as any other way, if I had to lose.
+All I was playing for was to get an acquaintance with Ed anyhow and
+that was easily worth 500 to me if I could ever get him into my sample
+room, and I knew it. Gee! Those were great old times then.
+
+"Well, I planked up the fourth 250, and won. Then I let the whole 500
+lay and--"
+
+"You are pipe dreaming, Wood," spoke up one of the boys.
+
+"Jim, I can prove this by you. You've seen worse things than this,
+haven't you?"
+
+"Bet your life, Wood," and Jim whispered to one of the boys, 'Wood can
+prove anything by me.'
+
+"I let the 500 lay on a copper and I won. From that time on I made no
+bet for less than half a thousand. At one time I had the dealer pretty
+close to the bank but I didn't quite put him ashore.
+
+"Well, to make a long story short, when I quit I was just a thousand
+to the good. Next day was Sunday. There was a picnic out a mile from
+town. I said:
+
+"'Well, gentlemen, I've done my best to relieve my friend here of all
+he has, but I can't do it. I am a little to the good and I want you
+all to go as my guests tomorrow to the picnic. In on this?' said I,
+and Ed, among others, nodded.
+
+"I didn't tell him who I was and I didn't ask him who he was. I took
+it for granted if he said he would go along, he would. Next day a
+whole van load of us went out to the picnic. We had a bully good time.
+When we got into the wagon I introduced myself to all the gentlemen,
+not telling them what my business was. When Ed told me his name, he
+said, 'I'm a resident of this town in the clothing business. Where are
+you from?' I said, 'I'm from Chicago and I'm in the clothing business,
+too, but don't let's talk business. We're out for pleasure today.'
+'Well, that suits me,' said Ed, but when we got back to town that
+night I dropped the rest of the bunch and asked him in to supper with
+me. Nothing too good for him, you know. And while he was under the
+spell I took him into my sample room that night. You ought to have
+seen the order that fellow gave me. It struck the house so hard when I
+sent it in to them that they wired me congratulations."
+
+"Are you still selling your friend Rubovitz, Johnnie?" asked our
+friend, who had just told us his story, of one of his competitors.
+
+"Sure," said Johnnie, "and the boy, too. Yes, why shouldn't I?"
+
+"Well, I guess you should," said Wood.
+
+"Yes! when I was in the old man's store on this last trip, I felt
+really sorry for a first-tripper who struck him to look at his
+clothing. That fellow hung on and hung on. I was sitting back at the
+desk and he must have thought I was one of the partners because I was
+the first man he braced and I referred him to the old gentleman."
+
+"Well, wasn't that sort of a dangerous thing for you to do?" asked one
+of the boys.
+
+"Not on your life. You don't know why it is I have the old man so
+solid. I've got the hooks on him good and hard, you know."
+
+"Well, how's that?"
+
+"Oh, it came about this way," said he. "When I was down in Kansas City
+a few years ago, when I had finished selling Ruby,--as I always called
+him, you know--(he came in from out in the country to meet me this
+time) I asked him how my little sweetheart was getting on. She, you
+know, was his little daughter Leah. She was just as sweet as she could
+be,--great big brown eyes and rich russet cheeks, black curls, bright
+as a new dollar and sharp as a needle.
+
+"'O, she iss a big goil now,' said my friend Ruby. 'Say,' said he,
+'who vass dot yong feller in the room here a few minutes ago?' He
+referred to a young friend of mine who had chanced to drop in. 'De
+reeson I ask iss I am huntin' for a goot, reliable, hart-workin'
+Yehuda (Jewish) boy for her. I vant her to get married pretty soon
+now. She iss a nice goil, too.'
+
+"'How about a goy (Gentile), Ruby?' said I.
+
+"'No, that vont vork. _Kein yiddishes Madchen fur einen Goy und keine
+Shickse fur einen yiddishen Jungen.'_ (No Hebrew girl for a Gentile
+boy; no Gentile girl for a Hebrew boy.)
+
+"'All right, Ruby,' said I. He was such a good, jolly old fellow, and
+while he was a man in years he was a boy in actions,--and Ruby was the
+only name by which I ever called him. Nothing else would fit. 'All
+right, Ruby,' said I, 'I believe I just know the boy for Leah.'
+
+"'Veil, you know vat I will do. I don'd care eef he iss a poor boy;
+dot is all ride. I haf money and eef I ged the ride boy for my goil, I
+vill set him op in peezness. Dot's somet'ing for you to vork for--
+annodder cost'mer,' said he--the instinct would crop out.
+
+"Well, sir, I've got to make this story short," said Johnny, pulling
+out his watch. "I found the boy. He was a good, clean-cut young
+fellow, too, and you know the rest."
+
+"You bet your life I do," said Sam. "Two solid customers that buy
+every dollar from you."
+
+"And," continued Johnny, "Leah and Abie are as happy as two birds in a
+nest. I don't know but these marriages arranged by the old folks turn
+out as well as the others anyhow."
+
+"It's not alone by doing a good turn to your customer that you gain
+his good will," said the hat man. "Not always through some personal
+favor, but with all merchants you win by being straight with them.
+This is the one thing that will always get good will. Now, in my line,
+for example, new styles are constantly cropping out and a merchant
+must depend upon his hat man to start him right on new blocks. A man
+in my business can load a customer with a lot of worthless plunder so
+that his stock will not be worth twenty-five cents on the dollar in a
+season or two. On the other hand, he can, if he will, select the new
+styles and keep him from buying too many of them, thereby keeping his
+stock clean.
+
+"Yes, and this same thing can be done in all lines," spoke up two or
+three of the boys.
+
+"Yes, you bet," continued the hat man, "and when you get a man's good
+will through the square deal you have him firmer than if you get his
+confidence in any other way."
+
+"Sure! Sure!" said the boys, as we dropped our napkins and made for
+our hats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SALESMEN'S DON'TS.
+
+
+Salesmen are told many things they should do; perhaps they ought to
+hear a few things they should not do. If there is one thing above all
+others that a salesman should observe, it is this:
+
+_Don't grouch!_
+
+The surly salesman who goes around carrying with him a big chunk of
+London fog does himself harm. If the sun does not wish to shine upon
+him--if he is having a little run of hard luck--he should turn on
+himself, even with the greatest effort, a little limelight. He should
+carry a small sunshine generator in his pocket always. The salesman
+who approaches his customer with a frown or a blank look upon his
+face, is doomed right at the start to do no business. His countenance
+should be as bright as a new tin pan.
+
+The feeling of good cheer that the salesman has will make his customer
+cheerful; and unless a customer is feeling good, he will do little, if
+any, business with you.
+
+I do not mean by this that the salesman should have on hand a full
+stock of cheap jokes--and pray, my good friend, never a single smutty
+one; nothing cheapens a man so much as to tell one of these--but he
+should carry a line of good cheerful wholesome talk. "How are you
+feeling?" a customer may ask. "Had a bad cold last night, but feel
+chipper as a robin this morning." "How's business?" a customer may
+inquire. "The, world is kind to me," should be the reply. The merchant
+who makes a big success is the cheerful man; the salesman who--whether
+on the road or behind the counter--succeeds, carries with him a long
+stock of sunshine.
+
+An old-time clothing man who traveled in Colorado once told me this
+incident:
+
+"I used to have a customer, several years ago, over in Leadville,"
+said he, "that I had to warm up every time I called around. His family
+cost him a great deal of money. The old man gave it to them
+cheerfully, but he himself would take only a roll and a cup of coffee
+for breakfast, and, when he got down to the store he felt so poor that
+he would take a chew of tobacco and make it last him for the rest of
+the day. Actually, that man didn't eat enough. And his clothes--well,
+he would dress his daughters in silks but he would wear a hand-me-down
+until the warp on the under side of his sleeves would wear clear down
+to the woof. He would wear the bottoms off his trousers until the
+tailor tucked them under clear to his shoe tops. Smile? I never saw
+the old man smile in my life when I first met him on my trips. It
+would always take me nearly a whole day to get him thawed out, and the
+least thing would make him freeze up again.
+
+"I remember one time I went to see him--you recall him, old man
+Samuels--and, after a great deal of coaxing, got him to come into my
+sample room in the afternoon. This was a hard thing to do because if
+he was busy in the store he would not leave and if he wasn't busy, he
+would say to me, 'Vat's de use of buying, Maircus? You see, I doan
+sell nodding.'
+
+"But this time I got the old man over to luncheon with me--we were old
+friends, you know--and I jollied him up until he was in a good humor.
+Then I took him into the sample room, and little by little, he laid
+out a line of goods. Just about the time he had finished it, it grew a
+little cloudy.
+
+"Now, you know how the sun shines in Colorado? From one side of the
+state to the other it seldom gets behind a cloud. In short, it shines
+there 360 days in the year. It had been bright and clear all morning
+and all the time, in fact, until the old man had laid out his line of
+goods. Then he happened to look out of the window, and what do you
+suppose he said to me?
+
+"'Vell, Maircus, I like you and I like your goots, but, ach Himmel!
+der clooty vetter!' And, do you know, I couldn't get the old man to do
+any business with me because he thought the sun was never going to
+shine again? I cannot understand just how he argued it with himself,
+but he was deaf to all of my coaxing. Finally I said to him:
+
+"'Sam, you are kicking about the cloudy weather but I will make you a
+present of a box of cigars if the sun does not shine before we write
+down this order.'
+
+"The old man was something of a gambler,--in fact the one pleasure of
+his life was to play penochle for two bits a corner after he closed
+up. So he said to me, 'Vell, Maircus, you can wride down der orter,
+and eef dot sun shines before we get t'rough, you can sheep der
+goots.'
+
+"This was the first time that I ever played a game against the Powers
+That Be. I started in and the sky grew darker and darker. I monkeyed
+along for an hour and a half, and, just to kill time, tried to switch
+the old man from patterns he had selected to others that I 'thought
+would be a little better.' But the Powers were against me, and when I
+finished writing down the order it was cloudier than ever--and nearly
+night, too.
+
+"Then an idea struck me. 'Now, Sam,' said I, 'I've had a cinch on you
+all the time. You told me you were going to take this bill if the sun
+was shining when we got through writing down this order. Don't you
+know, Sam,' said I, laughing at him, 'the sun does shine and must
+shine every day. Sometimes a little cloud comes between it and the
+earth but that, you know, will soon pass away, and, cloud or no cloud,
+the sun shines just the same.'
+
+"'Vell, Maircus,' said the old man, 'I cannod see any sunshine out der
+vindow, but dere's so much off id in your face dot you can sheep dot
+bill.' 'Well, Sam,' said I, 'if that's the case, I guess I will buy
+you that box of cigars.'"
+
+Another thing: _Don't beef!_
+
+There is a slight difference between the "grouch" and the "beef." The
+man may be grouchy without assuming to give a reason therefor, but
+when he "beefs" he usually thinks there is cause for it. I knew a man
+who once lost a good customer just because he beefed when a man to
+whom he had sold a bill of goods countermanded the order. The merchant
+was stretching his capital in his business to the limit. Things grew a
+little dull with him and he figured it out, after he had placed all of
+his orders, that he had bought too many goods. He used the hatchet a
+little all the way around. I had some of my own order cut off, but
+instead of kicking about it, I wrote him that he could even cut off
+more if he felt it was to his advantage; that I did not wish to load
+him up with more than he could use; that when the time came that I
+knew his business better than he did it would then be time for me to
+buy him out. But a friend of mine did not take this same turn.
+Instead, he wrote to the man--and the merchant thought a good deal of
+him, personally, too--that he had bought the goods in good faith, that
+expense had been made in selling the bill and that he ought to keep
+them.
+
+"Well, now, that was the very worst thing he could have done because
+it went against the customer's grain. He let his countermand stand and
+since that time he has never bought any more goods from his old
+friend. He simply marked him off his list because it was very plain to
+him that the friendship of the past had been for what there was in
+it."
+
+_Don't fail to make a friend of your fellow salesman!_
+
+This can never do you any harm and you will find that it will often do
+you good. The heart of the man on the road should be as broad as the
+prairie and as free from narrowness as the Egyptian sky is free of
+clouds. One of my friends once told a group of us, as we traveled
+together, how an acquaintance he made helped him.
+
+"I got into Dayton, Washington, one summer morning about 4:30," said
+he. "Another one of the boys--a big, strong, good-natured comrade--
+until then a stranger to me--and myself were the only ones left at the
+little depot when the jerk-water train pulled away. It was the first
+trip to this town for both of us. There was no 'bus at the depot and
+we did not know just how to get up to the hotel. The morning was fine
+--such a one as makes a fellow feel good clear down to the ground. The
+air was sweet with the smell of the dewy grass. The clouds in the
+east--kind of smeared across the sky--began to redden; they were the
+color of coral as we picked our way along the narrow plank walk. As we
+left behind us the bridge, which crossed a beautiful little stream
+lined with cotton woods and willows, they had turned a bright
+vermillion. There was not a mortal to be seen besides ourselves. The
+only sound that interrupted our conversation was the crowing of the
+roosters. The leaves were still. It was just the right time for the
+beginning of a friendship between two strangers.
+
+"'Isn't this glorious!' exclaimed my friend.
+
+"'Enchanting!' I answered. I believe I would have made friends with a
+crippled grizzly bear that morning. But this fellow was a whole-souled
+prince. We forgot all about business, and the heavy grips that we
+lugged up to the hotel seemed light. All I remember further was that
+my friend--for he had now become that to me--and myself went out to
+hunt up a cup of coffee after we had set down our grips in the hotel
+office.
+
+"The next time I met that man was at the Pennsylvania Station at
+Philadelphia, ten years afterward, at midnight. We knew each other on
+sight.
+
+"'God bless you, old man,' said he. 'Do you know me?'
+
+"'You bet your life I do,' said I. 'We walked together one morning,
+ten years ago, from the depot at Dayton, Washington, to the hotel.'
+'Do you remember that sunrise?' 'Well, _do_ I?' 'What are you doing
+down here?' 'Oh, just down on business. The truth is, I am going
+down to New York. My house failed recently and I'm on the look-out for
+a job.'
+
+"And do you know, boys, that very fellow fixed me up before ten
+o'clock next morning, with the people that I am with today, and you
+know whether or not I am getting on."
+
+_Don't fall to be friendly with any one who comes in your way._
+
+Another of the boys in the little group that had just listened to this
+story, after hearing it, said: 'You bet your life it never hurts a
+fellow to be friendly with anybody. Once, when I was going down from a
+little Texas town to Galveston, the coach was rather crowded. The only
+vacant seats in the whole car were where two Assyrian peddler women
+sat in a double seat with their packs of wares opposite them. But as I
+came in they very kindly put some of their bundles into the space
+underneath where the backs of two seats were turned together, thus
+making room for me. I sat down with them. A gentleman behind me
+remarked, 'Those people aren't so bad after all.' 'Yes,' I said, 'you
+will find good in every one if you only know how to get it out.'
+
+"I had a long and interesting talk with that gentleman. He gave me his
+card and when I saw his name I recognized that he was a noted
+lecturer."
+
+"Well, what good did that do you?" said one of the boys who was not
+far-seeing.
+
+"Good? Why that man asked me to come to his home. There I met one of
+his sons who was an advertising man for a very large firm in
+Galveston. He, in turn, introduced me to the buyer in his store and
+put in a good word with him for me. I had never been able to really
+get the buyer's attention before this time but this led me into a good
+account. You know, I don't care anything for introductions where I can
+get at a man without them. I'd rather approach a man myself straight
+out than to have any one introduce me to him, but there are cases
+where you really cannot get at a man without some outside influence.
+This was a case where it did me good."
+
+But, with all this, _don't depend upon your old friends!_
+
+A salesman's friends feel that when he approaches them he does so
+because they are his friends, and not because he has goods to sell
+that have value. They will not take the same interest in his
+merchandise that they will in that of a stranger. They will give him,
+it is true, complimentary orders, charity-bird bills, but these are
+not the kind that count. Every old man on the road will tell you that
+he has lost many customers by making personal friends of them. No man,
+no matter how warm a friend his customer may be, should fail, when he
+does business with him, to give him to understand that the goods he is
+getting are worth the money that he pays for them. This will make a
+business friendship built upon confidence, and the business friend may
+afterward become the personal friend. A personal friendship will often
+follow a business friendship but business friendship will not always
+follow personal regard. Every man on the road has on his order book
+the names of a few who are exceptions to this rule. He values these
+friends, because the general rule of the road is: "Make a personal
+friend--lose a customer!" _Don't switch lines!_
+
+The man who has a good house should never leave it unless he goes with
+one that he knows to be much better and with one that will assure him
+of a good salary for a long time.
+
+Even then, a man often makes a mistake to his sorrow. He will find
+that many whom he has thought his personal friends are merely his
+business friends; that they have bought goods from him because they
+have liked the goods he sold. It is better for a man to try to improve
+the line he carries--even though it may not suit him perfectly--than
+to try his luck with another one. Merchants are conservative. They
+never put in a line of goods unless it strikes them as being better
+than the one that they are carrying, and when they have once
+established a line of goods that suits them, and when they have built
+a credit with a certain wholesale house, they do not like to fly
+around because the minute that they switch from one brand of goods
+that they are carrying to another, the old goods have become to them
+mere job lots, while if they continued to fill in upon a certain
+brand, the old stock would remain just as valuable as the new.
+
+One of my old friends had a strong personality but was a noted
+changer. He is one of the best salesmen on the road but he has always
+changed himself out. He was a shoe man. I met him one day as he was
+leaving Lincoln, Nebraska. "Well, Andy," said I, "I guess you got a
+good bill from your old friend here."
+
+"Ah, friend?" said he. "I thought that fellow was my friend, but he
+quit me cold this time. Didn't give me a sou. And do you know that
+this time I have a line just as good as any I ever carried in my life.
+I got him to go over to look, but what did he say? That he'd bought.
+And the worst of it is that he bought from the house I have just left
+and from the man that I hate from the ground up. Now, he's not any
+friend of mine any more. The man's your friend who buys goods from
+you." I didn't have very much to say, for this man had been loyal to
+me, but when I went to Lincoln again I chanced to be talking to the
+merchant, and he said to me:
+
+"Do you know, I like Andy mighty well. I tried to be a friend to him.
+When I first started with him I bought from him the "Solid Comfort."
+He talked to me and said that Solid Comforts were the thing, that they
+had a big reputation and that I would profit by the advertising that
+they had. Well, I took him at his word. I used to know him when I was
+a clerk, you know, and bought from him on his say-so, the Solid
+Comfort. I handled these a couple of years and got a good trade built
+up on them, and then he came around and said, 'Well, I've had to drop
+the old line. I think I'm going to do lots better with the house I'm
+with now. The "Easy Fitter" is their brand. Now, you see there isn't
+very much difference between the Easy Fitters and the Solid Comforts,
+and you won't have any trouble in changing your people over.'
+
+"Well, I changed, and do you know I was in trouble just as soon as I
+began to run out of sizes of Solid Comforts. People had worn them and
+they had given satisfaction and they wanted more of them. Still, I
+didn't buy any at all and talked my lungs out selling the Easy
+Fitters.
+
+"Well, it wasn't but a couple of years later when Andy came around
+with another line. This time he had about the same old story to tell.
+I said to him, 'Now, look here, Andy, I've had a good deal of trouble
+selling this second line you sold me instead of the first. People
+still come in and ask for them. I have got them, however, changed over
+fairly well to the Easy Fitters, and I don't want to go through with
+this old trouble again.'
+
+"'Aw, come on,' said he, 'a shoe's a shoe. What's the difference?'
+And, out of pure friendship, I went with him again and bought the
+"Correct Shape." I had the same old trouble over again, only it was
+worse. The shoes were all right but I had lots of difficulty making
+people think so. So when Andy made this trip and had another line, I
+had to come right out and say, 'Andy, I can't do business with you. I
+have followed you three times from the Solid Comfort to the Easy
+Fitter, and from the Easy Fitter to the Correct Shape, but now I have
+already bought those and I can't give you a thing. I am going to be
+frank with you and say that I would rather buy goods from you, Andy,
+than from any other man I know of, but still Number One must come
+first. If you were with your old people, I would be only too glad to
+buy from you, but you've mixed me up so on my shoe stock that it
+wouldn't be worth fifty cents on the dollar if I were to change lines
+again. I will give you money out of my pocket, Andy,' said I, 'but I'm
+not going to put another new line on my shelves."
+
+_Don't fall on prices!_
+
+The man who does this will not gain the confidence of the man to whom
+he shows his goods. Without this he cannot sell a merchant
+successfully. A hat man once told me of an experience.
+
+"When I first started on the road," said he, "I learned one thing--not
+to break on prices when a merchant asked me to come down. I was in
+Dubuque. It was about my fourth trip to the town. I had been selling
+one man there but his business hadn't been as much as it should, and I
+kept on the lookout for another customer. Besides, the town was big
+enough to stand two, anyway. I had been working hard on one of the
+largest clothing merchants, who carried my line, in the town. Finally
+I got him over to my sample room. I showed him my line but he said
+tome, 'Your styles are all right but your prices are too high. Vy,
+here is a hat you ask me twelf tollars for. Vy, I buy 'em from my olt
+house for eleven feefty. You cannot expect me to buy goods from you
+ven you ask me more than odders.'
+
+"I had just received a letter from the house about cutting, and they
+had given it to me so hard that I thought I would ask the prices they
+wanted for their goods, and if I couldn't sell them that way, I
+wouldn't sell them at all. I hadn't learned to be honest then for its
+own sake; honesty is a matter of education, anyway. So I told my
+customer, 'No; the first price I made you was the bottom price. I'll
+not vary it for you. I'd be a nice fellow to ask you one price and
+then come down to another. If I did anything like that I couldn't walk
+into your store with a clear conscience and shake you by the hand.
+I've simply made you my lowest price in the beginning and I hope you
+can use the goods at these figures, but if you can't, I cannot take an
+order from you.' Well, he bought the goods at my prices, paying me $12
+for what he said he could get for $11.50.
+
+"A few days after that I met a fellow salesman who was selling
+clothing. He said to me, 'By Jove, my boy, you're going to get a good
+account over there in Dubuque, do you know that? The man you sold
+there told me he liked the way you did business. He said he tried his
+hardest to beat you down on prices but that you wouldn't stand for it,
+and that he had confidence in you.'
+
+"And, sure enough, I sold that man lots of goods for many years, and I
+thus learned early in my career not to fall on prices. If a man is
+going to do any cutting, the time to do it is at the beginning of his
+trip when he marks his samples. He should do this in plain figures and
+he should in no way vary from his original price. If he does, he
+should be man enough to send a rebate to those from whom he has
+obtained higher prices. If a man will follow out this method he will
+surely succeed."
+
+_Don't give away things!_
+
+This same hat man told me another experience he met with on that same
+trip. Said he, "I went in to see a man in eastern Nebraska. He was the
+one man on that trip who told me when I first mentioned business that
+he wanted some hats and that he would buy mine if they suited him.
+This looked to me like a push-over. Purely out of ignorance and good-
+heartedness, when he came to my sample room (I was a new man on the
+road), because he had been the first man who said he wanted some
+goods, I offered him a fine hat and do you know, he not only would not
+take the hat from me but he did not buy a bill. I learned from another
+one of the boys that he turned me down because I offered to make him a
+present. This is a rule which is not strictly adhered to, but if I
+were running a wholesale house I should let nothing be given to a
+customer. He will think a great deal more of the salesman if that
+salesman makes him pay for what he gets."
+
+A salesman may be liberal and free in other ways, but when he gets to
+doing business he should not let it appear that he is trying to buy
+it. Of course it is all right and the proper thing to be a good fellow
+when the opportunity comes about in a natural kind of way. If you are
+in your customer's store, say, at late closing time on Saturday night,
+it is but natural for you to say to him: "Morris, I had a poor supper.
+I wonder if we can't go around here somewhere and dig up something to
+eat." You can also say to the clerks, "Come along, boys, you are all
+in on this. My house is rich. You've worked hard to-day and need a
+little recreation." But such courtesies as these, unless they fit in
+gracefully and naturally, would better never be offered.
+
+_Don't think any one too big or too hard for you to tackle._
+
+If the salesman cannot depend upon his friends, then he must find his
+customers among strangers. I remember a man selling children's shoes,
+out in Oregon, who had not been able to get a looker even in the town.
+He was talking to a little bunch of us, enumerating those on whom he
+had called. The last one he spoke of was the big shoeman of the town.
+He said, "But I can't do anything with that fellow; why, his brother,
+who is his partner, sells shoes on the road."
+
+"I'm all through with my business," spoke up a drygoods man, "but I'll
+bet the cigars that I can make Hoover (the shoeman) come and look at
+your stuff. That is, I'll make out to him that I'm selling shoes and I
+bet you that I'll bring him to my sample room."
+
+"Well, I'll just take that bet," said the shoeman.
+
+About this time I left for the depot. The next time I saw the drygoods
+man I asked him how he came out on that bet.
+
+"Oh, I'd forgotten all about that," said he. "Well, I'll tell you.
+Just after you left I went right down to the shoeman's store. I found
+him back in his office writing some letters. I walked right up to him
+--you know I didn't have anything to lose except the cigars and their
+having the laugh on me--and I said, 'You are Mr. Hoover, I am sure.
+Now, sir, you are busy and what little I have to say I shall make very
+short to you, sir. My house gives its entire energy to the manufacture
+of foot covers for little folks. My line is complete and my prices
+are right. If you have money and are able to buy for cash on delivery,
+I should be glad to show you my line.'
+
+"'I have bought everything for this season,' said Hoover.
+
+"'Perhaps you think you have, Mr. Hoover, but do you wish to hold a
+blind bridle over your eyes and not see what's going on in your
+business? Do I not talk as if my firm were first class? I have come
+straight to you without any beating around the bush. I don't intend to
+offer any suggestions as to how you should run your business, but ask
+yourself if you can afford to pass up looking at a representative
+line. You've heard of my firm, have you not? And I made up some firm
+name for him.
+
+"'No, I have not. I'm not interested in any new houses.'
+
+"'Not interested in any new houses!' said I. 'The very fact that you
+don't even know the name of my firm is all the greater reason why you
+should come and see what sort of stuff they turn out.'
+
+"'Yes, but I've bought; what's the use?' said he.
+
+"'At least to post yourself,' I replied.
+
+"'Well, I might as well come out and tell you,' said the shoeman,
+'that my brother owns an interest in this business and that we handle
+his line exclusively.'
+
+"'Then you mean to tell me that for your store here you are picking
+from one line of goods and are trying to compete with other merchants
+in this town who have the chance of buying from scores of lines. Now,
+your brother is certainly a very poor salesman if he can't sell enough
+shoes to make a living on aside from those that he sells to his own
+store. Should he not let his wholesale business and his retail
+business be separate from one another? You yourself are interested in
+this concern and ought you not to have something to say? To be sure,
+when it comes to an even break you should by all means give your
+brother and his firm the preference; but do you believe that either
+you or he should have goods come into this house from his firm when
+you are able to get them better from some other place?'
+
+"'No, I don't believe that is exactly business and we don't aim to.'
+
+"'Well, if such is the case,' said I, 'come up and see what I have.'
+
+"'Well, I'll just go you one,' said the shoeman.
+
+"Do you know, I had him walk with me up to the hotel--he was a good
+jolly fellow--and when I marched into the office with him, I called
+the children's shoe man over and introduced him.
+
+"He said, 'Well, this is one on me,' and then explained the bet to
+Hoover and bought the cigars for three instead of two."
+
+_Don't put prices on another man's goods!_
+
+I once had a merchant pass me out an article he had bought from
+another man. "How much is that worth?" he asked. "That I shall not
+tell you," I answered. "Suppose it is worth $24 a dozen. If I say it
+is worth $30, then you will say to me: 'There's no use doing business
+with you, this other man's goods are cheaper, you've confessed it.' If
+I say that it is worth $24 a dozen, then you will say to me that I'm
+not offering you any advantage. If I say it is worth $18 a dozen, you
+will believe that I am telling you a lie. Therefore, I shall say
+nothing."
+
+_Don't run down your competitor._
+
+In talking of this point a furnishing goods man once said to me: "When
+I first went to travel in Missouri and Illinois I was green. I had a
+whole lot to learn, but still I had been posted by one of my friends
+who told me that I should always treat my competitor with especial
+courtesy. When I was on my first trip I met one of my competitors one
+day at a hotel in Springfield. I was introduced to him by one of the
+boys. I chatted with him as pleasantly as I could for a few minutes
+and then went up street to look for a customer.
+
+"After dinner I was standing by the cigar case talking to the hotel
+clerk. Up came my competitor very pompously and bought a half dollar's
+worth of cigars. As he lighted one and stuck all the others into his
+pocket case he said to me in a 'What-are-you?' fashion, 'Oh, how are
+you?' and away he walked. Heavens, how he froze me! But from that day
+to this, while I have outwardly always treated him civilly, his
+customers have been the ones that I have gone after the hardest--and
+you bet your life that I've put many of his fish on my string."
+
+_Don't run down the other fellow's goods!_
+
+When a salesman tells merchants that he can sell them goods that are
+better, for the same price or cheaper than he is buying them, he at
+once offers an insult to the merchant's judgment. One of my merchant
+friends once told me of a breezy young chap who came into his store
+and asked him how much he paid for a certain suit of clothes that was
+on the table. "This young fellow was pretty smart," said my merchant
+friend. "He asked me how much I paid for a cheviot. I told him $9. He
+said, 'Nine dollars! Well, I can sell you one just like that for $7.'
+'All right, I'll take fifty suits,' said I.
+
+"About that time I turned away to wait on a customer and in an hour or
+so the young fellow came in again and said, 'Well, my line is all
+opened up now, and if you like we can run over to my sample room.'
+'Why, there's no use of doing that,' said I. 'You tell me that you can
+sell me goods just exactly like what I have for $2 a suit cheaper. No
+use of my going over to look at them. Just send them along. Here, I
+can buy lots of goods from you.'
+
+"'Oh, they're not exactly like these, but pretty near it,' said he.
+
+"'Well, if they're not exactly like these I don't care for them at all
+because these suit me exactly.'
+
+"With this the young fellow took a tumble to himself and let me
+alone."
+
+_Don't carry side lines!_
+
+You might just as well mix powder with sawdust. If you scatter
+yourself from one force to another you weaken the force which you
+should put into your one line. If this does not pay you, quit it
+altogether.
+
+_Don't take a conditional order!_
+
+If your customer cannot make up his mind while you can bring your
+arguments to bear upon him in his presence, you may depend upon it he
+will never talk himself into ordering your goods. If you can lead a
+merchant to the point of saying, "Well, I'll take a memorandum of your
+stock numbers and maybe I'll send in for some of these things later,"
+and not get him to budge any further, and if you lend him your pencil
+to write down that conditional order, you will be simply wasting a
+little black lead and a whole lot of good time.
+
+There are many more "Don'ts" for the salesman but I shall leave you to
+figure out the rest of them for yourself--but just one more:
+
+DON'T _be ashamed that you are a salesman!_
+
+Salesmanship is just as much a profession as law, medicine, or
+anything else, and salesmanship also has its reward.
+
+Salesmanship requires special study, and the fact that the schools of
+salesmanship which are now starting are patronized not only by those
+who wish to become salesmen but also by those who wish to be more
+successful in their work, shows that there is an interest awakening in
+this profession.
+
+There is a science of salesmanship, whether the salesman knows it or
+not. If he will only get the idea that he can study his profession and
+profit thereby, this idea in his head will turn out to be worth a
+great deal to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+MERCHANTS THE SALESMAN MEETS.
+
+
+A bunch of us sat in the Silver Grill of the Hotel Spokane where we
+could see the gold fish and the baby turtles swimming in the pool of
+the ferned grotto in the center of the room. This is one place toward
+which the heart of every traveling man who wanders in the far
+Northwest turns when he has a few days of rest between trips. Perhaps
+more good tales of the road are told in this room than in any other in
+the West. There is an air about the place that puts one at ease--the
+brick floor, the hewn logs that support the ceiling and frame in the
+pictures of English country life around the walls, the big,
+comfortable, black-oak chairs, and the open fireplace, before which
+spins a roasting goose or turkey.
+
+"Yes, you bet we strike some queer merchants on the road, boys," said
+the children's clothing man. "I ran into one man out west of here and
+it did me a whole lot of good to get even with him. He was one of
+those suspicious fellows that trusted to his own judgment about buying
+goods rather than place faith in getting square treatment from the
+traveling man. You all know how much pleasure it gives us to trump the
+sure trick of one of this kind. I don't believe that merchants,
+anyway, know quite how independent the traveling man feels who
+represents a first class house and has a well established trade. Not
+many of the boys, though, wear the stiff neck even though their lines
+are strong and they have a good cinch on their business. There isn't
+much chance, as a general thing, for any of us to grow a big bump of
+conceit. A man who is stuck on himself doesn't last long, it matters
+not how good the stuff is that he sells. Yet, once in a while he lifts
+up his bristles.
+
+"Well, sir, a few seasons ago I sold a man--you all know who I mean--
+about half of his spring bill, amounting to $600. He gave the other
+half to one of the rottenest lines that comes out of this country.
+When I learned where my good friend had bought the other half of his
+bill, I felt sure that the following season I would land him for his
+whole order; but when I struck him that next season, he said, 'No,
+I've bought. You can't expect to do business with me on the sort of
+stuff that you are selling,' and he said it in such a mean way that it
+made me mad as blazes. Yet I threw a blanket around myself and cooled
+off. It always harms a man, anyway, to fly off the handle. I wasn't
+sure of another bill in the town as it was getting a little late in
+the season.
+
+"After he had told me what he did, he started to wait on a customer
+and I went to the hotel to open up. Just as I was coming through the
+office I met another merchant in the town who handled as many goods as
+my old customer, and I boned him right there to give me a look. 'All
+right,' said he, 'I will, after luncheon.' Come down about half past
+one when all the boys are back to the store and I'll run over with
+you.' You know it sometimes comes easy like this.
+
+"I sold him his entire line, and he was pleased with what he bought
+because the old line he had been handling, he told me frankly, had not
+been giving satisfaction.
+
+"Just for curiosity's sake I dropped in on my old man. I wanted to
+find out exactly what he was kicking about, anyway.
+
+"'Now, what's the matter with this stuff I've sold you?' said I to
+him.
+
+"'Well, come and see for yourself,' said he. 'Here, look at this
+stuff,' and he threw out three or four numbers of boys' goods. 'That's
+the punkest plunder,' said he, 'that I ever had in my house.'
+
+"I at once saw that the goods he showed me were the other fellow's,
+but I kept quiet for a while. 'Look at your bill,' said I. 'There must
+be some mistake about this.' He turned to the bill from my house and
+he couldn't find the stock numbers. 'Well, that's funny,' said he.
+'Not at all,' I replied. 'Look at the other man's bill and see if you
+don't find them.' "Well, sir, when he saw that the goods he was
+kicking about had come from my competitor's house, he swore like a
+trooper and said to me, 'Well, I will simply countermand this order I
+have given and I'll go right up with you and buy yours.'
+
+"'No, I guess not,' said I. 'When I came in this morning you condemned
+me without giving me a full hearing and you weren't very nice about
+it, either, so I've just placed my line with your neighbor. I will
+show you the order I have just taken from him,' said I, handing over
+my order book."
+
+"Well, that must have made you feel good," spoke up the shoeman. "I
+had pretty much the same sort of an experience this very season down
+south here. I had been calling on a fair-sized merchant in the town
+for a couple of years. The first time I went to his town I sold him a
+handful. The next time I sold him another handful. The third time I
+called on him he didn't give me any more business. I had just about
+marked him down for a piker. You know how we all love those pikers,
+anyway. These fellows who buy a little from you and a little from the
+other fellow--in fact, a little from every good line that comes
+around--just to keep the other merchants in the town from getting the
+line and not giving enough to any one man to justify him in taking
+care of the account or caring anything about it. He was one of those
+fellows who would cut off his nose and his ears and burn his eyes out
+just to spite his face.
+
+"This trip, as usual, I sold him his little jag. I didn't say anything
+to him, but thought it was high time I was going out and looking up
+another customer. I finally found another man who gave me a decent
+bill--between seven and eight hundred dollars--and he promised me that
+he would handle my line right along if the stuff turned out all O.K.
+He said he wasn't the biggest man in the town at that time but that
+his business was growing steadily and that he had just sold a farm and
+was going to put more money into the business and enlarge the store.
+He struck me as being the man in the town for me.
+
+"My piker friend had seen me walking over to the sample room with this
+other man. When I dropped around, after packing up, to say good-bye,
+he said to me, 'I saw you going over to your sample room with this man
+down street here. I suppose, of course, you didn't sell him anything?'
+
+"'To be sure I did,' said I. 'Why, why shouldn't I? You haven't been
+giving me enough to pay my expenses in coming to the town, much less
+to leave any profit for me.' "'Well, if you can't sell me exclusively,
+you can't sell me at all,' said he, rearing back.
+
+"'All right,' said I. 'I won't sell you at all if that's the case.
+Here's your order. Do with it what you please. In fact, I won't even
+grant you that privilege. I myself shall call it off. Here goes.' And
+with this I tore up his order."
+
+"Served him right," said the men's clothing man. "Did you ever know
+Grain out on the Great Northern?"
+
+"Sure," said the shoe man. "Who doesn't know that pompous know-it-
+all?"
+
+"Well, sir, do you know that fellow isn't satisfied with any one he
+deals with, and he thinks that this whole country belongs to him. He
+wrote me several seasons ago to come out to see him. He had heard one
+of the boys speak well of my line of goods. I went to his town and
+first thing I did was to open up. Then I went into his store and told
+him I was all ready.
+
+"'Well, I've decided,' said he, 'that I won't buy anything in your
+line this season.'
+
+"'You will at least come over and give me a look, in that I have come
+over at your special request, will you not?"
+
+"'NO, no! No is no with me, sir.'
+
+"I couldn't get him over there. He went into his office and closed the
+door behind him. I had hard lines in the town that season. I went up
+to see another man and told him the circumstances but he said, 'No, I
+don't play any second fiddle,' and do you know, I didn't blame him a
+bit.
+
+"I had made up my mind to mark this town off my list, but you know,
+business often comes to us from places where we least expect it. This
+is one of the things which make road life interesting. How often it
+happens that you fully believe before you start out that you are going
+to do business in certain places and how often your best laid plans
+'gang aglee!'
+
+"Another man in this town wrote in to the house (this was last season)
+for me to come to see him. In his letter he said that he was then
+clerking for Grain and he was going to quit there and start up on his
+own hook. Somehow or other the old man got on to the fact that his
+clerk was going to start up and that he had written in for my line. He
+was just that mean that he wanted to put as many stones in the path of
+his old clerk as he possibly could, and I don't know whether it was by
+accident or design that Grain came in here to Spokane the same day
+that his old clerk did, or not. At any rate, they were here together.
+
+"Just about the time I had finished selling my bill to Grain's clerk,
+the old man 'phoned up to my room that he would like to see me. This
+time he was sweet as sugar. I asked him over the 'phone what he
+wished. He said, 'I'd like to buy some goods from you. 'Don't care to
+sell you,' I answered over the wire. His old clerk was right there in
+the room then and he was good, too. He had got together two or three
+well-to-do farmers in the neighborhood and had organized a big stock
+company with the capital stock fully paid up. The whole country had
+become tired of Grain and his methods, and a new man stood a mighty
+good chance for success--and you know, boys, what a bully good
+business he has built up.
+
+"'Why, what's the mater?' 'phoned back the old man.
+
+"'Just simply this: that I have sold another man in your town, and I
+don't care to place my line with more than one,' I answered. 'Who Is
+it?' said he. I told him.
+
+"'Well, now, look here,' he came back at me. 'That fellow's just a
+tidbit. He thinks he's going to cut some ice out there, but he won't
+last long, and, do you know, if you'll just simply chop his bill off,
+I'll promise to buy right now twice as much as he has bought from
+you.'
+
+"If there's a man on the road who is contemptible in the eyes of his
+fellow traveling men, it is the one who will solicit a countermand;
+and the merchant who will do this sort of a trick is even worse, you
+know, boys, in our eyes.
+
+"'What do you take me for?' I 'phoned back.
+
+"I'm very glad to have a chance, sir, to give you a dose of your own
+medicine. You can't run any such a sandy as this on me,' and I hung up
+the 'phone on him without giving him the satisfaction of talking it
+out any further. To be sure, I would not go down stairs to look him
+up.
+
+"Well, that must have pleased the old man's clerk," said one of the
+boys.
+
+"Sure it did. He touched the button and made me have a two-bit
+straight cigar on him."
+
+"You got even with him all right," said one of my hat friends who was
+in the party; but let me tell you how a merchant down in Arkansas once
+fixed me and my house."
+
+"Old Benzine?" said the shoeman.
+
+"Sure; that's the fellow. How did you hear about it?"
+
+"Well, my house got it the same way yours did."
+
+"Ah, that fellow was a smooth one," continued the hat man. "He had
+burned out so often that he had been nicknamed Benzine, but still he
+had plenty of money and though my house knew he was tricky, they let
+him work them. I didn't know anything about the old man's reputation
+when I called on him. He had recently come down into Arkansas--this
+was when I traveled down there--and opened up a new store in one of my
+old towns. I didn't have a good customer in the town and in shopping
+about fell in on Benzine.
+
+"He kicked hard about looking at my goods when I asked him to do so.
+He knew how to play his game all right. He knew that I would bring all
+sorts of persuasions to bear upon him to get him started over to my
+sample room, and just about the time he thought I was going to quit he
+said, 'Vell, I look but I vont gif you an orter.' Of course that was
+all I wished for. When a man on the road can get a merchant to say he
+will look at his goods, he knows that the merchant wishes to buy from
+somebody in his line and he feels that he has ninety-nine chances in a
+hundred of selling him.
+
+"That afternoon Old Benzine came over and he was mean. He tore up the
+stuff and said it was too high priced, and everything of that kind. He
+haggled over terms and started to walk out several times. He made his
+bluff good with me and I thought he was 'giltedge.' Finally, though, I
+sold him about a thousand dollars. The old man had worked me all
+right. Now he began to put the hooks into the house.
+
+"The same day that my order reached the house came a letter from
+Benzine stating that he had looked over his copy and he wished they
+would cut off half of several items on the bill. Ah, he was shrewd,
+that old guy. He was working for credit. He knew that if he wrote to
+have part of his order cut off, the credit man would think he was
+good. My house couldn't ship the bill to him quickly enough, and they
+wrote asking him to let the whole bill stand. He was shrewd enough to
+tell them no, that he didn't wish to get any more goods than he could
+pay for. That sent his stock with the house a sailing. But the old
+chap wasn't done with them yet.
+
+"About six weeks before the time for discounting he wrote in and said
+that as his trade had been very good indeed they could ship additional
+dozens on all the items that he had cut down to half-dozens, and in
+this way he ran his bill to over $1,300."
+
+"Well, you got a good one out of him that season, all right."
+
+"Yes--where the chicken got the ax. As soon as Old Benzine had run in
+all the goods he could, he did the shipping act. He left a lot of
+empty boxes on his shelves but shipped nearly all of his stock to some
+of his relatives, and then in came the coal-oil can once more."
+
+"Didn't you get any money out of him at all?" one of the boys asked.
+
+"Money?" said the shoeman. "Did you ever hear of anybody getting money
+out of Old Benzine unless they got it before the goods were shipped?
+If ever there was a steal-omaniac, he was it, sure!"
+
+With this, one of the boys tossed a few crumbs to the gold fish. The
+turtles, thinking he had made a threatening motion toward them,
+quietly ducked to the bottom of the pool. The white-capped cook took
+the turkey from before the fire. The water kept on trickling over the
+ferns but its sound I soon forgot, as another hat man took up the
+conversation.
+
+"Most merchants," said he, "are easy to get along with. They have so
+many troubles thrown upon them that, as a rule, they make as few for
+us as they can. Once in awhile we strike a merchant who gets smart--"
+
+"But he doesn't win anything by that," observed the clothing man.
+
+"No; you bet not! I used to sell a man down in the valley who tried a
+trick on me. I had sold him for two seasons and his account was
+satisfactory. Another man I knew started up in the town and he was
+willing to buy my goods from me without the brands in them. I remained
+loyal to my first customer in not selling the new man my branded
+goods. In fact, about the only difference between a great many lines
+of goods is the name, as you know, and a different name in a hat makes
+it a different hat. In all lines of business, just as soon as one firm
+gets out a popular style, every other one in the country hops right on
+to it, so it is all nonsense for a salesman not to sell more than one
+man in a town when the names in the goods are different, and the
+merchant, when such is the case, has no kick coming on the man who
+sells one of his competitors.
+
+"Well, everything was all right until Fergus, customer No. 2, sent in
+a mail order to the house. They, by mistake (and an inexcusable one--
+but what can you expect of underpaid stock boys?) shipped out to him
+some goods branded the same as those my first customer, Stack, had in
+his house. Fergus wrote in to me and told me about the mistake. He
+didn't wish to carry the branded goods any more than the other man
+wished for him to do so, and asked that some labels be sent him to
+paste over his boxes.
+
+"I was in the house at the time and sent out several labels to Fergus.
+At the same time I wrote to Stack, very frankly telling him of the
+mistake and saying that I regretted it and all I could say about it
+was that it was a mistake and that it would not occur again. Instead
+of taking this in good faith, he immediately came out with a flaming
+ad:
+
+       EVERY MAN
+      IN THE COUNTY
+    Should appreciate the following:
+      _Leopard Hats,_ $2.00.
+  Sold everywhere for $3.00 and $3.50.
+
+"His goods had really cost him $24 a dozen and he was merely aiming to
+cut under the other man's throat, but he didn't know how he was sewing
+himself up. I wrote him:
+
+"'My good friend: I have always believed that you felt kindly toward
+me, and now I am doubly certain of it. All that I have a right to
+expect of my best friends is that they will advertise my goods only so
+long as they keep on carrying them--but you have done me even a
+greater favor. You are advertising them for the benefit of another
+customer, although you have quit buying from me. Let me thank you for
+this especial favor which you do me and should I ever be able to serve
+you in any way, personally, command me.'
+
+"Well, how did he take that?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, he didn't really see that he was advertising his competitor, and
+he came back at me with this letter:
+
+"'Your valued favor of the 3Oth to hand. I assure you that you owe me
+no debt of gratitude as I am always glad to be of service to my
+friends, and under no circumstances do I wish them to feel under
+obligations to me. I would be only too glad to sell the Leopards at
+one dollar each, provided they could be bought at a price lower than
+that from you. But at present any one can purchase them from me at $2
+each, which 'should be appreciated by every man in the county.' With
+kindest regards, very truly yours.'
+
+"Well, how did you fix him?" said the shoe man.
+
+"Fix him? How did you know I did?"
+
+"Oh, that was too good a chance to overlook."
+
+"You bet it was. When I went into the house a few days afterwards, I
+picked out some nice clean jobs in Leopards and I socked the knife
+into the price so that Fergus could sell them at $1.50 apiece and make
+a good profit. I then sicked him on to Stack and there was merry war.
+In the beginning, as I fancied he would, Stack got a man in another
+town to send in to my house and pay regular price for my goods and he
+continued to sell them at $2 each. After he had loaded up on them
+pretty well, my other man began to put them down to $1.75, $1.60,
+$1.50, and forced my good friend to sell all he had on hand at a loss.
+That deal cost him a little bunch."
+
+"There's altogether too much of this throat-cutting business between
+merchants. The storekeeper who can hold his own temper can generally
+hold his own trade.
+
+"Well, sir, do you know a fellow strikes a queer combination on the
+road once in awhile. I think about the oddest deal I ever got into in
+my life was in Kearney, Nebraska," said an old-timer.
+
+"When I was a young fellow I went on the road. I had a clerical
+appearance but it was enforced more or less by necessity. I hustled
+pretty hard catching night trains and did any sort of a thing in order
+to save time. I wore a black string necktie because it saved me a
+whole lot of trouble. Once I sat down and calculated how much my
+working time would be lengthened by wearing string ties and gaiter
+shoes, and I'll tell you it amounts to a whole lot, to say nothing of
+the strain on one's temper and conscience saved by not having to lace
+up shoes in a berth.
+
+"Well, I struck Kearney late one Saturday night--looking more or less
+like a young preacher. Going direct to my friend, Ward, he greeted me
+in a cordial, drawling sort of fashion and with very little trouble
+(although that was my first time in the town) I made an engagement to
+show him some straw hats.
+
+"It is rather the custom when one gets west of Omaha to do business on
+Sunday, and so habituated had I become to this practice that I was
+rather surprised when my friend, Ward, said to me: 'Now, I'll see you
+on Monday morning. Yes, on Monday morning. To-morrow, you know, is the
+Sabbath, and you will find here at the hotel a nice, comfortable place
+to stay. The cooking is excellent and the rooms are nice and tidy, and
+I am sure that you will enjoy it. If I can do anything further to add
+to your pleasure I shall be only too glad to have the opportunity.
+Perhaps you will come up to our Sunday School to-morrow morning. I am
+Superintendent and I shall see that good care is taken of you. May we
+not expect you up?'
+
+"Of course I wanted to get a stand in--I confess it--and, furthermore,
+I had not forgotten my early training, and you know that boys on the
+road are not such a bad tribe as we are ofttimes made out to be. So I
+promised Brother Ward that I would go up the next morning.
+
+"That part of it was all very good but how do you suppose I felt when,
+after the lessons had been read, I was called upon to address the
+Sabbath school? I was up against it, but being in I had to make good;
+and it often happens that, when a fellow is in the midst of people who
+assume that he is wise, wisdom comes to him.
+
+"The night before I had come in on a freight. I was mighty tired, fell
+asleep, and was carried past the station about a mile and a half. All
+at once I woke up in the caboose--I had been stretched out on the
+cushions--and asked the conductor how far it was to Kearney.
+'Kearney?' said the conductor. 'Kearney? We are a mile and a half
+past.' At the same time he sent out a brakeman who signaled down the
+train. I was fully two miles from the depot when I got off, lugging a
+heavy grip. I didn't know it was so far. I had just one thing to do,
+that was to hoof it down the track. Scared? Bet your life! I thought
+every telegraph pole was a hobo laying for me, clean down to the
+station. Luckily there was an electric light tower in the center of
+the town and this was a sort of guide-post for me and it helped to
+keep up my courage.
+
+"In the little talk that I had to make to the Sunday School, having
+this experience of the night before so strong in my mind, I told them
+of the wandering life I had to live, of how on every hand, as thick as
+telegraph poles along the railway, stood dangers and temptations; but
+that I now looked back and that my light tower had always been the
+little Sunday School of my boyhood days. "When you get right down to
+it, we all have a little streak of sentiment in us, say what you will,
+when in boyhood we have had the old-time religion instilled into us.
+It sticks in spite of everything. It doesn't at any time altogether
+evaporate.
+
+"Well, sir, I thought that I was all solid with Brother Ward. So the
+next morning I figured out that, as I could not go west, where I
+wished to, I could run up on a branch road and sandwich in another
+town without losing any time. I went to him early Monday morning and
+asked if it would be just as convenient for him to see me at three
+o'clock that afternoon.
+
+"'Oh, yes, indeed; that will suit me all the better,' said Brother
+Ward. 'That will give me an opportunity to look over my stock of goods
+and see just what I ought to order.'
+
+"I made the town on the branch road and was back at 2:30. When I went
+into my sample room, a friend of mine, a competitor, had just packed
+up. 'Hello,' said I, 'how are things going, Billy?'
+
+"'Oh, fairly good,' said he. 'I have just got a nice bill of straw
+goods out of Ward, here. Whom do you sell?'
+
+"'Well, that's one on me!' I exclaimed. Then I told my friend of my
+engagement with Ward, and bought the cigars.
+
+"But anyhow I opened up and went over to see Brother Ward. I got right
+down to business and said: 'Brother Ward, my samples are open and I am
+at your service.' 'Well, Brother,' said he, 'I have been looking over
+my stock' (he had about a dozen and a half of fly-specked straw hats
+on his show case, left over from the year before and not worth 40
+cents), 'and I have about come to the conclusion that I'll work off the
+old goods I have in preference to putting in any new ones. You see if I
+buy the new ones they will move first and the old goods will keep
+getting older.'--An old gag, you know!
+
+"I saw that he was squirming, but I thought I would pin him down hard
+and fast, so I asked him the pat question: 'Then you have not bought
+any straw hats for this season's business, Brother Ward?' 'Nope,
+nope,' said he--telling what I knew to be a point-blank lie.
+
+"'Well, Brother Ward,' said I, 'we are both confronted by a Christian
+duty. A fellow competitor and traveling man told me just a little
+while ago that he had sold you an out-and-out order of straw hats. Now
+I know that he is not telling the truth because you, a most reputable
+citizen of this town and a most worthy Superintendent of the Sunday
+School, have told me out-and-out that you have not bought any goods.
+Now, to-night, when you go home, do you not think that it is your
+duty, as well as mine, to ask the Lord to have mercy on and to forgive
+the erring brother who has told such a falsehood? I am sure that had
+he been trained to walk in the straight and narrow path he would not
+have done so. Your prayers, I am sure, will avail much.'
+
+"When Brother Ward saw that I had him he colored from the collar up,
+and when I left him and said 'Peace be with thee!' his face was as red
+as the setting sun."
+
+"I have a customer," said the furnishing goods man, "who beats the
+world on complaints. Every time I go to see him he must always tell me
+his troubles before I can get around to doing business with him. If
+you put business at him point-blank, it isn't very long before he
+twists the talk. So now I usually let him tell his troubles before I
+say anything to him about business. The last time I went in to see
+him--he is Sam Moritsky, in the clothing business down in Los Angeles
+--I said, 'Hello, Sam, how are you?' He answered:
+
+"'Der Talmud id say "Happy ees de man who ees contentet," but it says
+in anodder place, "Few are contentet." I'm a seek man. De trobble in
+dis world ees, a man vants bread to leeve on ven he hasn't got dot.
+And ven he gets der bread he es sotisfite only a leetle vile. He soon
+vants butter on id. Ven he gets der butter in a leetle vile he vants
+meat, and den he vants vine and a goot cigar, and ven he gets all dese
+t'ings, he gets seek. I am a seek man.
+
+"'Vonce I vanted a house on Cap'tol 'ell (Capitol Hill)--seex t'ousand
+tollars it costet. Eef I got id feeften 'undret--could haf borrowed
+dot much--I vould haf bought id, but I couldn't get dot feeften
+'undret, and now I am glat. It vould have costet seexty fife tollars a
+mont to leeve and den I haf to geeve a party and a sopper and
+somet'ings and I make a beeg show,--a piano for my dotter, a fine
+dress for my vife, t'eater and all dot, and first t'ing I know,
+_muhulla_ (I go broke)!
+
+"'Vell, it's all ride eef I wasn't a seek man. Dey say dese ees a goot
+country. I say no. My fadder's family vants to come to dese country. I
+say no. In Russia a man he half a goot time. Vriday night he close de
+store at seex o'glock. He puts on his Sonday clothes, beeg feast all
+day Sonday, dance, vine, lots of goot t'ings. Veek days he geds down
+to beesness at eight o'clock--at ten o'glock he has coffee and den in
+a leetle vile he goes home and eats lonch. Den he takes a nap. De
+cheeldon, dey valk on der toes t'rough de room. "Papa's asleep," dey
+say. Seex o'glock he come home, beeg deener, he smokes hees pipe, goes
+to bet,--and de same t'ing over again.
+
+"'I vork so hard in dese contry. I am a seek man. Here I vork sefen
+days in de veek from sefen in de morning to elefen at night, and
+sometimes twelf. Only vonce last year I go to t'eater in de afternoon.
+Ven I com home I catch 'ell from my vife. She say, "You safe money,
+Sam, and we get oud of dese bondage," and I say I must haf a leetle
+recreations. Sunday all day I keep open. Von Sunday night I say I go
+home and take my vife and my cheeldon and I go to t'eater. Ven I go to
+put de key into de door here comes a customer een, and I sell 'eem
+tventy-fife tollars--feeften tollars brofit. I vould haf lostet dot
+feeften tollars and vat I vould haf paid to go to t'eater eef I had
+closed op.
+
+"'Besides, here at dis place all de family helps. Even my leetle goil,
+she goes oud to buy me a cigar von day, and she ask de man dot sells
+de cigar to buy somet'ing from papa. He vants some boys' shoes. I haf
+none. She goes across de streedt and buys a pair und sells dem for a
+tollar--feefty-five cents brofit. I gif my leetle goil a neeckle and I
+keep de feefty cents. Dots de vay it goes. I could not do dot eef I
+leefed on Cap'tol 'ell.
+
+"'But den I am a seek man, but I am better off as de man who leefs on
+Cap'tol 'ell. He is so beesy. He eats his deener in de store. He has
+so many trobbles because he vants to make hees fortune beeger. Vat's
+de use? Here I am contentet. I go op stairs and notting botters me
+vile I eat deener. Now, I say vat de Talmud say ees right. Happy ees
+de man who ees contentet. Eet vould be all righdt eef I vas not a seek
+man.'
+
+"When he got through with this speech I chewed the rag with him about
+business for half an hour, as I always had to do, finally telling him,
+as a last inducement which I always threw out, that I had some lots
+'to close.' This was the only thing that would make him forget that he
+was 'a seek man.' And when I get right down to it, I believe I get
+more actual enjoyment out of selling Sam than from any customer I
+have."
+
+"Speaking of your man Sam," said one of the hat men, "reminds me of a
+customer I once had with the same name. But my Sam was a bluffer. He
+was one of the kind that was always making kicks that he might get a
+few dollars rebate. I stood this sort of work for a few seasons but I
+finally got tired of it and, besides, I learned that the more I gave
+in to him the more I had to yield. A few years ago when I was
+traveling in Wisconsin, I went into his store and before he let go of
+my hand he began: 'Ah, that last bill was a holy terror. Why doesn't
+your house send out good goods? Why, I'll have to sell all those goods
+at a loss, and I need them, bad, too. They aint no use of my tryin' to
+do no more business with you. I like to give you the business, you
+know, but I can't stand the treatment that the house is giving me.
+They used to send out part of their goods all right, but here lately
+it is getting so that every item is just rotten.'
+
+"I let Sam finish his kick and, as I started out the door I merely
+said, 'All right, Sam, I'll see you after awhile and fix this up all
+right. I want to go down and work on my samples a little.'
+
+"As I saw him pass on the other side of the street going home to
+dinner, I slid up to his store and took all his last shipment from his
+shelves and stacked them in the middle of the floor. About the time I
+had finished doing this he came back.
+
+"'Why, what are you doing?' said he.
+
+"'Well, I'll tell you, Sam. I don't want you to have anything in the
+house that doesn't suit you, and I would a great deal rather than you
+would fire all this stuff back to the house. Look up and see the
+amount of freight charges you paid on them. Meantime I'll run down to
+the hotel and get my book and make you out a check for whatever it
+comes to. Come on down to the corner with me anyway, Sam. Let's have a
+cigar and take the world easy. I'm not going out tonight.'
+
+"Sam went down to the corner with me. In a few minutes I returned to
+the store with my check book in hand. As I went into his store Sam was
+putting my goods back on the shelves.
+
+"'Got your samples open?' he said.
+
+"'Sure, Sam,' said I. 'Did you suppose I was going to let you bluff me
+this way?' And that was the last time he ever tried to work the rebate
+racket on me."
+
+"So long as a bluffer is warm about it," said the shoe man, "it's all
+right; but I do hate to go up against one of those cold bloods, even
+if he isn't a bluffer."
+
+"That depends," said the clothing man. "There's one man I used to call
+on and every time I went to see him I felt like feeling of his pulse
+to see if it were beating. If I had taken hold of his wrist I would
+not have been surprised to find that the artery was filled with fine
+ice. Gee! but how he froze me. Somehow I could always get him to
+listen to me, but I could never get him to buy.
+
+"One day, to my surprise, the minute I struck him he said, 'Samples
+open?' And when I told him 'Yes' he had his man in my department turn
+over a customer that he was waiting on, to another one of the boys,
+and took him right down to the sample room. I never sold an easier
+bill in my life, so you see a cold blood is all right if he freezes
+out the other fellow."
+
+The goose that had twirled so long before the pine log blaze was now
+put before us. The Spanish Senor with his violin started the program,
+and our tales for the evening were at an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+HIRING AND HANDLING SALESMEN.
+
+
+To hire and handle salesmen is the most important work of the head of
+the house. When a man goes out on the road to represent a firm, his
+traveling expenses alone are from five to twenty-five dollars a day,
+and sometimes even fifty. His salary is usually as much as his
+expenses, if not more. If a salesman does not succeed, a great portion
+of his salary and expenses is a dead loss, and, further, the firm is
+making a still greater loss if he does not do the business. In fact,
+if a poor man, succeeding a good one, falls down, his house can very
+easily lose many thousands of dollars by not holding the old trade of
+the man whose place he took. If all the wholesale houses in Chicago,
+say, which have a good line of salesmen were, at the beginning of the
+year, to lose all of those salesmen and replace them with dummies,
+three-fourths of these firms would go broke in from six months to
+three years. This is how important the salesman is to his firm.
+
+I put hiring and handling of salesmen before having a strong line of
+goods, because if the proper salesmen are hired and are handled right,
+they will soon compel the house to put out the right line of goods.
+Just as a retail merchant should consult with his clerks about what he
+should buy, so, likewise, should the head of the wholesale house find
+out from his men on the road what they think will sell best. The
+salesman rubs up against the consumer and knows at first hand what the
+customer actually wants.
+
+When the head of a house has a man to hire, the first man he looks for
+is one who has an established trade in the territory to be covered--a
+trade in his line of business. A house I have in mind which, ten years
+ago, was one of the top notchers in this country, has gone almost to
+the foot of the class because the "old man" who hired and handled the
+salesmen in that house died and was succeeded by younger heads not
+nearly so wise.
+
+The _still hunt_ was the old man's method. When he needed a salesman
+for a territory he would go out somewhere in that territory himself
+and feel about for a man. He would usually make friends with the
+merchants and find out from them the names of the best men on the
+road and his chances for getting one of them. The merchants, you know,
+can always spot the bright salesmen. When they rub up against them a
+few times they know the sort of mettle they are made of. The merchant
+appreciates the bright salesman whether he does business with him or
+not and the salesman who is a man will always find welcome under the
+merchant's roof. Salesmen are the teachers of the merchant, and the
+merchant knows this. Whenever he is planning to change locations,
+build a new store, move to some other town, put in a new department,
+or make any business change whatsoever, it is with traveling men that
+he consults. They can tell him whether or not the new location will be
+a good one and they can tell him if the new department which he is
+figuring on starting is proving profitable over the country in
+general. And, on the other hand, when the traveling man is expecting
+to make a change of houses, he often asks the advice of the merchant.
+
+One of the biggest clothing salesmen in the United States once told me
+how this very old man hired him. Said Simon, "When I started out on
+the road my hair was moss. I almost had to use a horse comb to currie
+it down so I could wear my hat. Heavens, but I was green! I had been a
+stock boy for a kyke house and they put me out in Colorado. Don't know
+whether I have made much progress or not. My forefathers carried stuff
+on their backs; I carry it in trunks. Although changing is often bad
+business, the best step I ever made was to leave the little house and
+go with a bigger one. I had been piking along and while I was giving
+my little firm entire satisfaction, I was not pleasing myself with
+what I was doing. I could go out in the brush with my line, riding on
+a wagon behind bronchos, where a first-class man wouldn't, and dig up
+a little business with the _yocles,_ but I couldn't walk into a
+_mocher_ (big merchant) and do business with him. Yet, when I first
+started out I was fool enough to try it and I made several friends
+among the bigger merchants of Denver. But this did me no harm.
+
+"One day, when I went in to see one of these big men in Denver, he
+said to me, 'Look here, Simon, you're a mighty good fellow and I'd
+like to do business with you, but you know I can't handle any goods
+from the concern you represent. Why don't you make a change?' I said
+to him, 'Well, I'm really thinking about it, but I don't know just
+where I can get in.' He said, 'I think I can give you a good tip. Old
+man Strauss from Chicago is out here looking for a man for this
+territory. He was in to see me only yesterday and told me he was on
+the lookout for a bright fellow. He's stopping up at the Windsor and
+I'd advise you to go over and get next if you can.'
+
+"'Thank you very much,' said I; and I went over to the Windsor--I was
+putting up there--and asked the head clerk, who was a good friend of
+mine, where Strauss was.
+
+"'Why, Simon,' said he, 'he's just gone down to the depot to take the
+D. & R. G. for Colorado Springs, but you will have no trouble finding
+him if you want to see him. They're not running any sleepers on the
+train. It's just a local between here and Pueblo. He wears gold-rimmed
+spectacles, is bald, and smokes all the time.'
+
+"I called a cab, rushed down to the depot, checked my trunks to
+Colorado Springs, and jumped on the train just as she was pulling out.
+I spotted the old man as I went into the coach. He was sitting in a
+double seat with his feet up on the cushions. I got a whiff of his
+'Lottie Lee' ten feet away. Luckily for me, all the seats in the car
+except the one the old man had his feet on, were occupied, so I
+marched up and said, 'Excuse me, sir, I dislike tol make you
+uncomfortable,' and sat down in front of him.
+
+"The old man saw that I was one of the boys and, as he wanted to pump
+me, he warmed up and offered me one of his Lotties. I shall never
+forget that cigar. Smoke 'em in Colorado,--smell 'em in Europe! I
+managed to drop it on the floor in a few minutes so that I could
+switch onto one of mine. I pulled out a pair of two-bit-straights and
+passed one over, lighting the other for myself.
+
+"'Dot vas a goot seecar,' said the old man. 'You are on der roat?'
+
+"'Yes,' said I.
+
+"'Vat's your bees'ness?'
+
+"'I'm selling clothing.'
+
+"'Vat? Veil, I am in dot bees'ness myself.'
+
+"'Who do you travel for?' said I, playing the innocent.
+
+"'I'm not on de roat,' said the old man. 'I am just out on a leetle
+trip for my healt. I am a monufacturer. Who do you trafel for?'
+
+"I told him and then tried to switch the conversation to something
+else. I knew the old man wouldn't let me do it.
+
+"'V'ere do you trafel?' said he.
+
+"'Oh, Colorado, Utah, and up into Montana and Wyoming,' I answered.
+
+"The old man took his feet off the cushions and his arms from the back
+of his seat. I thought I had him right then.
+
+"'Dot's a goot contry,' said he. 'How long haf you been in deese
+beezness?' 'Five years,' said I. 'Always mit de same house?' 'Yes,'
+said I, 'I don't believe in changing.' The old man had let his cigar
+go out and he lit a match and let it burn his finger. I was sure that
+he was after me then.
+
+"I didn't tell him that I had been a stock boy for nearly four years
+and on the road a little over one. It is a good sign, you know, if a
+man has been with a house a long time.
+
+"'How's beezness this season?' said he.
+
+"'Oh, it's holding up to the usual mark,' I said like an old timer.
+
+"'Who do you sell in Denver?' said he.
+
+"That was a knocker. 'Denver is a hard town to do business in,' said
+I. 'In cities, you know, the big people are hard to handle and the
+little ones you must look out for.' That was another strong point; I
+wanted him to see that I didn't care to do business with shaky
+concerns.
+
+"'Vell,' said he after a while, 'you shouldt haf a stronger line and
+den you could sell de beeg vons.'
+
+"'Yes, but it is a bad thing for a man to change,' said I. I knew that
+I was already hired and I was striking him for as big a guaranty as I
+could get, and my game worked all right because he asked me to take
+supper with him that night in the Springs and before we left the table
+he hired me for the next year.
+
+"I came very near not fulfilling my contract, though, because after I
+had promised the old man I would come to him he said, 'Shake and haf a
+seecar,' and I had to smoke another Lottie Lee."
+
+It is on the still hunt that the best men are trapped. Experienced
+salesmen--good ones--always have positions and are not often looking
+for jobs. To get them the wholesaler must go after them and the one
+who does this gets the best men. Hundreds of applications come in
+yearly to every wholesale house in America. These come so often that
+little attention is paid to them. When a wise house wishes salesmen,
+they either put out their scouts or go themselves directly after the
+men they want. And the shrewd head of a house is not looking for cheap
+men; he knows that a poor man is a great deal more expensive than a
+good one. Successful wholesalers do not bat their eyes at paying a
+first-class man a good price.
+
+Recently I knew of one firm that had had a big salesman taken from
+them. What did they do to get another to take his place? The manager
+did not put out some cheap fellow, but he went to another man who,
+although he was unfamiliar with the territory, was a good shoe man,
+and guaranteed him that he would make four thousand dollars a year
+net, and gave him a good chance on a percentage basis of making six
+thousand. The experienced man in a line, although he has never
+traveled over the territory for which the wholesaler wishes a man,
+stands next in line for an open position. Houses know that a man who
+has done well on one territory in a very little while will establish a
+trade in another. One house that I know of has, in recent years,
+climbed right to the front because it would not let a thousand dollars
+or more stand in the way of hiring a first-class man. The head of this
+house went after a good salesman when he wanted one.
+
+This is the way in which the head of a marvelously successful
+manufacturing firm hired many of their salesmen: They have this man
+talk to four different members of the firm single-handed; these men
+put all sorts of blocks in the way of the man whom they may possibly
+hire. They wish to test the fellow's grit. One successful salesman
+told me that when they hired him he talked to only one man, and only a
+few minutes; this man took him to the head of the house and said,
+
+"Look here; there's no use of your putting this man through the
+turkish bath any longer; he is a man that I would buy goods from if I
+were a merchant."
+
+"Well, I'll take him, then," said the president.
+
+If I may offer a word of advice to him who hires the salesmen I would
+say this: Try to be sure when you hire a man to hire one that has been
+a success at whatever he has done. While it is best to get a man who
+is acquainted with your line and with the territory over which he is
+to travel, do not be afraid to put on a man who knows nothing of your
+merchandise and is a stranger to every one in the territory you wish
+to cover. If he has already been a successful salesman he will quickly
+learn about the goods he is to sell, and after one trip he will be
+acquainted with the territory.
+
+The main thing for a salesman to know when you hire him is not how the
+trains run, not what your stuff is--he will soon learn this--_but
+how to approach men! and gain their confidence!_ And it is needless
+for me to say that the one way to do this is to BE SQUARE!
+
+A house does not wish a man like a young fellow I once knew of. He had
+been clerking in a store and had made application to a Louisville
+house for a position on the road. When he talked the matter over with
+the head of the house--it was a small one and always will be--they
+would not offer him any salary except on a commission basis, but they
+agreed to allow him five dollars a day for traveling expenses. He was
+to travel down in Kentucky. Five dollars a day looked mighty big to
+the young man who had been working for thirty dollars a month. He
+figured that he could hire a team and travel with that, and by
+stopping with his kin folks or farmers and feeding his own horses,
+that he could save from his expense money at least three dollars a
+day.
+
+His territory was down in the Coon Range country where he was kin to
+nearly everybody. He lasted just one short trip.
+
+A young fellow who once went to St. Louis is the sort of a man that
+the head of a house is looking for. When this young fellow went to
+call he put up a strong talk, but the 'old man' said to him:
+
+"Come in and see us again. We haven't anything for you now."
+
+That same afternoon this fellow walked straight into the old man's
+office again, with a bundle under him arm.
+
+"Well, I am here," said he, "and I've brought my old clothes along.
+While I wish to be a salesman for you, put me to piling nail kegs or
+anything you please, and don't pay me a cent until you see whether or
+not I can work."
+
+The old man touched a button calling a department manager and said to
+him:
+
+"Here, put this young man to work. He says he can pile nail kegs."
+
+In a couple of days the department manager went into the office again
+and said to the head of the house, "That boy is piling nail kegs so
+well that he can do something else."
+
+That same young fellow went from floor to floor. In less than two
+years he was on the road and made a brilliant record for the house.
+To-day he is general salesman for the state of Texas for a very large
+wholesale hardware house and is making several thousand dollars each
+year.
+
+If a wholesaler cannot find a man who is experienced in his line in
+the territory that he wishes to cover, and cannot get a good
+experienced road man at all, the next best ones he turns to are his
+own stock boys. In fact, the stock is the training school for men on
+the road.
+
+A bright young man, wherever he may be, if he wishes to get on the
+road, should form the acquaintance of traveling men, because lightning
+may sometime strike him and he will have a place before he knows it. A
+gentleman who is now manager of a large New York engraving house once
+told me how he hired one of his best salesmen.
+
+"When I was on the road my business used to carry me into the
+colleges. Our house gets up class invitations and things of that kind.
+Now I got this man in this way," said he: "I especially disliked going
+to the Phillips-Exeter Academy at Exeter, New Hampshire, owing to the
+poor train service and worse hotel accommodation.
+
+"The graduating class at this academy had a nice order to place, and I
+called with original designs and prices. The committee refused to
+decide until they had received designs and prices from our
+competitors, so there was nothing else to do but bide-a-wee. When I
+called I made it a point to make friends with the chairman, who hailed
+from South Dakota and was all to the good. He was bright and
+distinctly wise to his job. By a little scouting I found out when the
+last competing representative was to call and speak his little piece.
+
+"The next day I took a 'flyer,' that is, called without making an
+appointment. I arranged to arrive at my man's room in the afternoon
+when his recitations were over. His greeting was characteristic of the
+westerner,--as if we had known one another all our lives. He was a
+runner and did the one hundred yards dash in ten seconds flat and was
+the school's champion. I talked athletics to beat the band and got him
+interested. He was unable to get the committee together until seven
+o'clock that evening, which meant that I would have to stay in the
+town over night, as the last train went to Boston around 6:30 o'clock.
+There was nothing else to do but stay, as you naturally know what bad
+business it would be to leave a committee about to decide.
+
+"I saw a platinum photograph of myself sleeping in that third-class
+hotel. I kept on talking athletics, however, and the chairman was good
+enough to ask me to dine with him. After dinner we played billiards
+and he beat me. At 6:45 we adjourned to his room. He and his committee
+excused themselves to hold their meeting in a room on the floor below.
+I was smoking one of the chairman's cigars, and was congratulating
+myself that things looked encouraging. The cigar was a good one, too.
+In half an hour the committee returned. The fellows lined up on the
+sofa, side by side, while the chairman straddled his chair and
+addressed me as follows:
+
+"'Well, Mr. Rogers, we have discussed the matter thoroughly and as
+impartially I think as any committee of fellows could do, who had the
+interest of their class seriously at heart. In a way we regret that
+you took the trouble to call, because, to speak frankly, we would
+rather write what we have to say, than to be placed in the somewhat
+embarrassing position of telling you orally.'
+
+"My cigar, somehow or other, no longer tasted good, and I was holding
+it in an apathetic sort of a way, not caring whether it went out or
+not. The bum hotel loomed up in front of me also. Continuing, the
+chairman said:
+
+"'We have received something like six other estimates from different
+firms, and I must say some of their designs are "peaches." There are
+two firms whose prices are lower than yours, too. We like your designs
+very much, but I think if you place yourself in our position you will
+see we have no other alternative but to place the order with another
+house.
+
+"He shifted his position uneasily and added with that final air we
+know so well, 'I want to thank you for your interest and trouble and
+we certainly appreciate the opportunity of seeing what you had to
+offer.'
+
+"This was a nice sugar coat on a bitter pill, but I didn't want to
+take my medicine. I stood up, prepared to make a strong and expiring
+effort and to explain what an easy thing it was for a firm to quote a
+low price, etc., when the chairman came over quickly with extended
+hand and said, 'Now, we understand how you feel, old man, but there is
+no use prolonging this matter, which I assure you we regret more than
+we express. However,' turning to the other fellows, 'I think we are
+all agreed on one thing, and that is we are willing to make an
+exception in this case, and,'--here the corners of his mouth twitched
+and his eyes brightened up, 'we will give you the order on one
+condition.' I quickly asked what the condition was. 'And that is,' all
+the other fellows were standing up, smiling, 'we will give you the
+order if you'll take us to the show to-night!'
+
+"It was well done and a clever piece of acting.
+
+"The show, by the way, held in the town opera house, was a thrilling
+melodrama, and positively, it was so rotten it was good. The heroine
+was a girl who sold peanuts in one of the Exeter stores, and the
+villain was the village barber; I have forgotten who the hero was, but
+he was a 'bird.' The best part of the play was near the end. The
+villain was supposed to have murdered the hero by smashing him on the
+head with an iron bar and then pushing him into the river. At a
+critical stage, the hero walked serenely on the scene and confronted
+the villain. The villain assumed the good old stereotyped posture and
+shouted out with a horrified expression, 'Stand back, stand back, your
+hands _is_ cold and slimy!' That busted up the show, as the audience,
+composed largely of the Academy boys, stood up as one and yelled. They
+finally started a cheer, 'Stand back, stand back, your hands _is_ cold
+and slimy!' They repeated this cheer vigorously three times, and then
+crowded out of the house. That cheer can be heard at the Academy to-
+day.
+
+"My chairman friend insisted upon putting me up for the night in a
+spare room in the dormitory; this saved my life.
+
+"The next morning I joined the boys in chapel, and was very much
+surprised to find the entire student body and faculty clapping their
+hands when I became seated. This was certainly a new one on me. I
+turned to my chairman friend; he was grinning broadly as if he enjoyed
+the situation. What was I expected to do, for Heaven's sake--get up
+and make a speech? My mind was relieved by the President addressing
+the boys about alien topics. I learned afterwards that it was an old
+custom with Phillips-Exeter to applaud when a stranger entered the
+chapel. This is especially appropriate in the case of an old 'grad'
+returning, but certainly disturbing to an outsider.
+
+"I did further business with my friend, also, when he was at Harvard.
+He did such a smooth job on me that when I became manager of my house
+I sent for him when we had the first opening on the road. I asked him
+how he would like to come with us. He came. He has been with our
+company now for two years and is getting on fine."
+
+College boys as a rule are not looking for positions on the road, but
+if more of them would do so there would be more college graduates
+scoring a business success and more traveling men with the right sort
+of educational equipment. But they should begin young. While traveling
+on the road they would find many opportunities for self-advancement.
+The traveling man who will try can make almost anything he wishes of
+himself.
+
+The head of the house must be on the lookout for the floater. In every
+city there are many professional job finders. About the only time they
+ever put up a good, strong line of conversation is when they talk for
+a job. After they get a good guaranteed salary they go to sleep until
+their contract is at an end, and then they hunt for another job. These
+are the chaps that the "old man" must look out for with a sharp eye.
+
+When it is known that a good position in a house is open, scores of
+applications, by mail and in person, come in for the place from all
+kinds of men. I knew of one instance where a most capable head of a
+house thought well of one salesman who applied by letter. Before fully
+making up his mind about him, however, he sent a trusted man to look
+him up. He found that the man who made the application, while a
+capable salesman and a gentleman, was unfortunately a drunkard and a
+gambler.
+
+Of this kind of man there are not so many. A man on the road who
+"lushes" and fingers chips does not last long. To be sure, most men on
+the road are cosmopolitan in their habits and they nearly all know,
+perhaps better than any other class of men, when to say, "no."
+
+No less important than hiring salesmen is the _handling_ of them.
+The house spoils for itself many a good man after it gets him. The
+easiest way is by writing kicking letters. The man on the road is a
+human being. Generally he has a home and a family and friends. He is
+working for them, straining every nerve that he may do something for
+the ones he cherishes. He takes a deep and constant interest in his
+business. He feels that he is a part of the firm he works for and
+knows full well that their interest is his interest and that he can
+only succeed for himself by making a success for the firm. When,
+feeling all of this within himself, he gets a kicking letter because
+he has been bold enough to break some little business rule when he
+knows it should have been done, he grows discouraged.
+
+And, alas, for the comfort of the traveling man! there are too few
+houses that have due respect for his feelings. The traveling man is on
+the spot. He knows at first hand what should be done. His orders
+should be supreme. His work for a year should be considered as a
+whole. If, at the end of his contract, what he has done is not
+satisfactory, let him be told so in a lump. Continual petty hammering
+at him drives him to despair.
+
+For example: I know of one firm in the wholesale hat business, that
+raised hob in a letter with their best man because he would, in
+selling dozen lots to customers, specify sizes on the goods that his
+customer wished,--a most absurd thing for the house to do. The
+merchant must, of course, keep his own stock clean and not become
+over-stocked on certain sizes. If he has been handling a certain
+"number" and has sold out all of the small sizes, only the large ones
+remaining, it would be foolish for him to buy regular sizes and get in
+his lot the usual proportion of large ones. All he needs and will need
+for several months, perhaps, will be the smaller run of sizes. Now,
+the salesman on the spot and the merchant know just what should be
+ordered, and if the house kicks on the salesman on this point, as did
+this house, they act absurdly.
+
+Not only do too many houses write kicking letters to their men on the
+road, but fail to show the proper appreciation for their salesmen's
+efforts to get good results. When a salesman has done good work and
+knows it, he loves to be told so, craves in the midst of his hard work
+a little word of good cheer. And the man handling salesmen who is wise
+enough to write a few words of encouragement and appreciation to his
+salesmen on the road, knows not how much these few words help them to
+succeed in greater measure. It is a mistake for the "Old Man" to feel
+that if he writes or says too many kind words to his salesmen, he will
+puff them up. This is the reason many refrain from giving words of
+encouragement. The man on the road, least of all men, is liable to get
+the swelled head. No one learns quicker than he that one pebble does
+not make a whole beach.
+
+Another way in which a house can handle its salesmen badly is by not
+treating his trade right. Many firms that carry good strong lines
+persistently dog the customer after the goods have been shipped.
+Whenever a house abuses its customers it also does a wrong to its
+salesmen. I know of one firm, I will not say just where, that has had
+several men quit--and good salesmen, too--in the last two or three
+years, because this firm did not treat its salesmen's customers right.
+For this reason, and this reason only, the salesmen went to other
+firms, that knew how to handle them and their customers as men. With
+their new houses they are succeeding.
+
+Too many heads of wholesale firms get "stuck on themselves" when they
+see orders rolling in to them. They fail to realize the hard work
+their _salesmen_ do in getting these orders. I know of one firm
+that almost drove one of the best salesmen in the United States away
+from it for the reasons that I have given. They dogged him, they
+didn't write him a kind word, they badgered his trade, they thought
+they had him, hard and fast. Finally, however, he wrote to them that,
+contract or no contract, he was positively going to quit. Ah, and then
+you should have seen them bend the knee! This man traveled for a Saint
+Louis firm. His home was in Chicago, and when he came in home from his
+trip his house wrote him to come down immediately. He did not reply,
+but his wife wrote them--and don't you worry about the wives of
+traveling men not being up to snuff--that he had gone to New York.
+Next morning a member of the firm was in Chicago. He went at once to
+call upon their salesman's wife. He tried to jolly her along, but she
+was wise. He asked for her husband's address and she told him that the
+only address he had left was care of another wholesale firm in their
+line in New York,--she supposed he could reach her husband there. Then
+the Saint Louis man was wild. He put the wires to working at once and
+telegraphed: "By no means make any contract anywhere until you see us.
+Won't you promise this? Letter coming care of Imperial."
+
+Then he was sweet as pie to the salesman's wife, took her and her
+daughter to the matinee, a nice luncheon, and all that. In a few days
+the salesman I speak of went down to Saint Louis. The members of his
+firm took off their hats to him and raised his salary a jump of $2,400
+a year.
+
+[Illustration: "He tried to jolly her along, but she was wise."]
+
+How much trouble they would have saved themselves, and how much better
+feeling there would have been if they had only handled this man right
+_in the beginning!_
+
+There are some heads of firms, however, who do know how to handle
+their salesmen. One of the very best men in the United States is head
+of a wholesale hardware firm. He has on the road more than a hundred
+men and they all fairly worship him. I remember many years ago seeing
+a letter that he had written to the boys on the road for him. He had
+been fishing and made a good catch. He sent them all photographs of
+himself and his big fish and told the boys that they mustn't work too
+hard, that they were all doing first rate, and that if they ever got
+where there was a chance to skin him at fishing, to take a day off and
+that he would give prizes to the men who would out-catch him. This is
+just a sample of the way in which he handles his men. Occasionally he
+writes a general letter to his men, cheering them along. He never
+loses a good man and has one of the best forces of salesmen in
+America. They have made his success and he knows it and appreciates
+it.
+
+Another head of a firm who handles his salesmen well is in the
+wholesale shoe business. Twice each year he calls all of his salesmen
+together when he is marking samples. He asks them their opinion about
+this thing or that thing and _listens to what his men have to
+say._ He has built up the largest shoe business in the United
+States. After the marking of samples is all over, he gives a banquet
+to his men and has each one of them make a little speech. He himself
+addresses them, and when they leave the table there is a cordial
+feeling between the head of the house and his traveling men.
+
+He also puts wonderful enthusiasm into his men. Here are some of his
+mottoes: "Enthusiasm is our great staple," "Get results," "No slow
+steppers wanted around this house," "If this business is not your
+business, send in your trunks," "All at it, always at it, brings
+success." He has taught his salesmen a college yell which runs like
+this: "Keep-the-qual-ity-up." Only a few years ago the watchword of
+this house was: "Watch us--Five millions" (a year). Now it is: "A
+million a month," and by their methods they will soon be there.
+
+This same man has the keenest appreciation of the value of a road
+experience. Some time ago he was in need of an advertising manager. If
+he had followed the usual practice he would have gone outside the
+house and hired a professional "ad manager." But he had a notion that
+the man who knew enough about salesmanship and about his special goods
+to sell them on the road could "make sentiment" for those same goods
+by the use of printers' ink. Therefore he put one of his crack
+salesmen into the position and now pays him $6,000 a year. And the man
+has made good in great shape.
+
+Nor does he stop with promoting men from the ranks of his
+organization. If a salesman in his house makes a good showing, he
+fastens him to the firm still tighter by selling to him shares of good
+dividend-paying stock.
+
+He knows one thing that too few men in business do know: That a man
+can best help himself by helping others!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+HEARTS BEHIND THE ORDER BOOK.
+
+
+With all of his power of enduring disappointment and changing a shadow
+to a spot of sunshine, there yet come days of loneliness into the life
+of the commercial traveler--days when he cannot and will not break the
+spell. There is a sweet enchantment, anyway, about melancholy; 'tis
+then that the heart yearns for what it knows awaits it. Perhaps the
+wayfarer has missed his mail; perhaps the wife whom he has not seen
+for many weeks, writes him now that she suffers because of their
+separation and how she longs for his return.
+
+I sat one day in a big red rocking chair in the Knutsford Hotel, in
+Salt Lake. I had been away from home for nearly three months. It was
+drawing near the end of the season. The bell boys sat with folded
+hands upon their bench; the telegraph instrument had ceased clicking;
+the typewriter was still. The only sound heard was the dripping of the
+water at the drinking fount. The season's rush was over. Nothing moved
+across the floor except the shadows chasing away the sunshine which
+streamed at times through the skylight. Half a dozen other wanderers--
+all disconsolate--sat facing the big palm in the center of the room.
+No one spoke a word. Perhaps we were all turning the blue curls of
+smoke that floated up from our cigars into visions of home.
+
+The first to move was one who had sat for half an hour in deep
+meditation. He went softly over to the music box near the drinking
+fount and dropped a nickel into the slot. Then he came back again to
+his chair and fell into reverie. The tones of the old music box were
+sweet, like the swelling of rich bells. They pealed through the white
+corridor "Old Kentucky Home." Every weary wanderer began to hum the
+air. When the chorus came, one, in a low sweet tenor, sang just
+audibly:
+
+      "Weep no more, my lady,
+      "Weep no more to-day;
+      "We will sing one song, for my old Kentucky home,
+      "For my old Kentucky home far away."
+
+When the music ceased he of meditation went again and dropped in
+another coin. Out of the magic box came once more sweet strains--this
+time those of Cayalleria Rusticana, which play so longingly upon the
+noblest passions of the soul.
+
+The magic box played its entire repertoire, which fitted so well the
+mood of the disconsolate listeners. The first air was repeated, and
+the second. This was enough--too much. Quietly the party disbanded,
+leaving behind only the man of meditation to listen to the dripping of
+the fount.
+
+Not only are there moments of melancholy on the road, but those of
+tragedy as well. The field of the traveling man is wide and, while
+there bloom in it fragrant blossoms and in it there wax luscious
+fruits, the way is set with many thorns.
+
+During the holidays of 1903 I was in a western city. On one of these
+days, long to be remembered, I took luncheon with a young man who had
+married only a few months before. This trip marked his first
+separation from his wife since their wedding. Every day there came a
+letter from "Dolly" to "Ned"--some days three. The wife loves her
+drummer husband; and the most loved and petted of all the women in the
+world is the wife of the man on the road. When they are apart they
+long to be together; when they meet they tie again the broken threads
+of their life-long honeymoon.
+
+As we sat at the table over our coffee a bell boy brought into my
+friend letter "97" for that trip. His wife numbered her letters.
+Reading the letter my friend said to me: "Jove, I wish I could be at
+home in Chicago to-day, or else, like you, have Dolly along with me.
+Just about now I would be going to the matinee with her. She writes me
+she is going to get tickets for to-day and take my sister along, as
+that is the nearest thing to having me. Gee, how I'd love to be with
+her!"
+
+After luncheon we went to our sample rooms, which adjoined. Late in
+the afternoon I heard the newsboys calling out: "Extra! Extra! All
+about the * * *" I know not what. My friend came into my room.
+
+"What is that they are calling out?" he said.
+
+We listened. We heard the words: "All about the Great Chicago Theater
+Fire."
+
+Three steps at a time we bounded down stairs and bought papers. When
+my friend saw the head-lines he exclaimed: "Hundreds burned alive in
+the Iroquois Theater. Good God, man, Dolly went to that theater to-
+day!"
+
+"Pray God she didn't," said I.
+
+We rushed to the telegraph office and my friend wired to his father:
+"Is Dolly lost? Wire me all particulars and tell me the truth."
+
+We went to the newspaper office to see the lists of names as they came
+in over the wire, scanning each new list with horrified anxiety. On
+one sheet we saw his own family name. The given name was near to, but
+not exactly, that of his wife.
+
+May a man pray for the death of his near beloved kin--for the death of
+one he loves much--that _she_ may be spared whom he loves more? Not
+that, but he will pray that both be spared.
+
+Back to the hotel we ran. No telegram. Back to the newspaper office
+and back to the hotel again.
+
+A messenger boy put his hand on the hotel door. Three leaps, and my
+friend snatched the message from the boy. He started to open it. He
+faltered. He pressed the little yellow envelope to his heart, then
+handed it to me.
+
+"You open it and pray for me," he said.
+
+The message read: "All our immediate family escaped the horrible
+disaster. Dolly is alive and thankful. She tried but could not get
+tickets. Thank God."
+
+All do not escape the calamity of death, however, as did my friend
+Ned. The business of the man on the road is such that he is ofttimes
+cut off from his mail and even telegrams for several days at a time.
+Again, many must be several days away from their homes utterly unable
+to get back. When death comes then it strikes the hardest blow.
+
+A friend of mine once told me this story:
+
+"I was once opened up in an adjoining room to a clothing man's. When
+he left home his mother was very low and not expected to live for a
+great while; but on his trip go he must. He had a large family, and
+many personal debts. He could not stay at home because no one else
+could fill his place on the road. The position of a traveling man, I
+believe, is seldom fully appreciated. It is with the greatest care
+that, as you know, a wholesale house selects its salesmen for the
+road. When a good man gets into a position it is very hard--in fact
+impossible--for him to drop out and let some one else take his place
+for one trip even. Of course you know there isn't any place that some
+other man cannot fill, but the other man is usually so situated that
+either he will not or does not care to make a change.
+
+"My clothing friend was at Seattle on his trip. His home, where his
+mother lay sick, was in Saint Louis--nearly four days away. The last
+letter he had received from home told him that his mother was sinking.
+The same day on which he received this letter a customer came into his
+room about ten o'clock--and he was a tough customer, too. He found
+fault with everything and tore up the samples. He was a hard man to
+deal with. You know how it is when you strike one of these suspicious
+fellows. He has no confidence in anybody and makes the life of us poor
+wanderers anything but a joyous one.
+
+"Under the circumstances, of which he said nothing, my clothing friend
+was not in the best mood. He could not help thinking of home and
+feeling that he should be there; yet, at the same time, he had a duty
+to do. He simply must continue the trip. He had just taken on his
+position with a new firm and needed to show, on this trip, the sort of
+stuff in him. He had been doing first rate; still, he must keep it up.
+
+"I happened to drop in, as I was not busy for a few minutes, while he
+was showing goods. I never like to go into a man's sample room while
+he is waiting on any one. Often a new man on the road gets in the way
+of doing this and doesn't know any better. Selling a bill of goods,
+even to an old customer, takes a whole lot of energy. No man likes to
+be interrupted while he is at it. When it comes to persuading a new
+man to buy of you, you have, frequently, a hard task. There are many
+reasons why a customer should not leave his old house. Maybe he is
+still owing money to the firm he has been dealing with and needs
+credit. Maybe the salesman for that firm is a personal friend. These
+are two things hard to overcome--financial obligations and friendship.
+
+"At any rate, my clothing friend was having much difficulty. He was
+making the best argument he could, telling the customer it mattered
+not what firm he dealt with, _that_ firm was going to collect a
+hundred cents on the dollar when his bill was due; and that any firm
+he dealt with would be under obligations to him for the business he
+had given to it instead of his being under obligations to the firm. He
+was also arguing against personal friendship and saying he would very
+soon find out whether the man he was dealing with was his friend or
+not if he quit buying goods from him. He was getting down to the hard
+pan argument that the merchant, under all circumstances, should do his
+business where he thought he could do it to best advantage to himself.
+
+"The merchant would not start to picking out a line himself, so my
+friend laid on a table a line of goods and was, as a final struggle,
+trying to persuade the merchant to buy that selection, a good thing to
+do. It is often as easy to sell a merchant a whole line of goods as
+one item. But the merchant said no.
+
+"Just as I started out of the room, in came a bell boy with a
+telegram. My clothing friend, as he read the message, looked as if he
+were hitched to an electric wire. He stood shocked--with the telegram
+in his hand--not saying a word. Then he turned to me, handed me the
+message and, without speaking, went over, laid down on the bed, and
+buried his face in a pillow. Poor fellow. I never felt so sorry for
+anybody in my life! The message told that his mother was dead.
+
+"I asked the stubborn customer to come into the next room, where I
+showed him the message.
+
+"'After all, a "touch of pity makes the whole world akin",' the
+merchant said to me:
+
+"'Just tell your friend, when he is in shape again to talk business,
+that he may send me the line he picked out and that I really like it
+first rate."
+
+Sometimes the tragedies of the road show a brighter side. Once, an old
+time Knight of the Grip, said to me, as we rode together:
+
+"Do you know, a touching, yet a happy thing, happened this morning
+down in Missoula?
+
+"I was standing in my customer's store taking sizes on his stock. I
+heard the notes of a concertina and soon, going to the front door, I
+saw a young girl singing in the street. In the street a good looking
+woman was pulling the bellows of the instrument. Beside her stood two
+girls--one of ten, another of about fourteen. They took turns at
+singing--sometimes in the same song.
+
+"All three wore neat black clothes--not a spark of color about them
+except the sparkling keys of the concertina. They were not common
+looking, poorly clad, dirty street musicians. They were refined, even
+beautiful. The little group looked strangely out of place. I said to
+myself: 'How have these people come to this?'
+
+"How those two girls could sing! Their voices were sweet and full. I
+quit my business, and a little bunch of us--two more of the boys on
+the road having joined me--stood on the sidewalk.
+
+"The little girl sang this song," continued my companion, reading from
+a little printed slip:
+
+   "Dark and drear the world has grown as I wan-der
+        all a-lone,
+      And I hear the breezes sob-bing thro' the pines.
+    I can scarce hold back my tears, when the southern
+        moon ap-pears,
+      For 'tis our humble cottage where it shines;
+    Once again we seem to sit, when the eve-ning lamps
+        are lit,
+      With our faces turned to-ward the golden west,
+    When I prayed that you and I ne'er would have to
+        say 'Good-bye,'
+      But that still to-gether we'd be laid to rest.
+
+"As she sang, a lump kind of crawled up in my throat. None of us
+spoke.
+
+"She finished this verse and went into the crowd to sell printed
+copies of their songs, leaving her older sister to take up the chorus.
+And I'll tell you, it made me feel that my lot was not hard when I saw
+one of those sweet, modest little girls passing around a cup, her
+mother playing in the dusty street, and her sister singing,--to just
+any one that would listen.
+
+"The chorus was too much for me. I bought the songs. Here it is:
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    "Dear old girl, the rob-in sings a-bove you,
+     Dear old girl, it speaks of how I love you,
+     The blind-ing tears are fall-ing,
+     As I think of my lost pearl,
+     And my broken heart is call-ing,
+     Calling you, dear old girl.
+
+"Just as the older sister finished this chorus and started to roll
+down the street a little brother, who until now had remained in his
+baby carriage unnoticed, the younger girl came where we were. I had to
+throw in a dollar. We all chipped in something. One of the boys put
+his fingers deep into the cup and let drop a coin. Tears were in his
+eyes. He went to the hotel without saying a word.
+
+"The little girl went away, but soon she came back and said: 'One of
+you gentlemen has made a mistake. You aimed, mama says, to give me a
+nickel, but here is a five-dollar gold piece.'
+
+"'It must be the gentleman who has gone into the hotel,' said I.
+
+"Then I'll go find him,' said the little girl. 'Where is it?'
+
+"Well, sir, what do you suppose happened? The little girl told the man
+who'd dropped in the five, how her father, who had been well to do,
+was killed in a mine accident in Colorado and that although he was
+considerable to the good, creditors just wiped up all he had left his
+family. The mother--the family was Italian--had taught her children
+music and they boldly struck out to make their living in the streets.
+It was the best they could do.
+
+"The man who had put in the five was a jewelry salesman from New York.
+While out on a trip he had lost his wife and three children in the
+Slocum disaster. He just sent the whole family,--the mother, the two
+sisters, and the baby--to New York and told them to go right into his
+home and live there--that he would see them through.
+
+"I was down at the depot when the family went aboard, and it was
+beautiful to see the mother take that man's hand in both of hers and
+the young girls hug him and kiss him like he was their father."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Tales of the Road, by Charles N. Crewdson
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF THE ROAD ***
+
+This file should be named 6103.txt or 6103.zip
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+https://gutenberg.org or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/6103.zip b/6103.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efbf3d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6103.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4166099
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #6103 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6103)